The pandemic has changed culinary education. Chef Arvind Rai shares the necessary skills that must be included in the new curriculum
The entire world has been shook by the massive impact of the unprecedented events taking place this year due to the pandemic. With the initial lockdown across the world, industries, corporates or even small businesses and lives attached to them have felt the tremor, which has brought upon a big change to how the world functions. Likewise, the operations and executions in businesses post lockdown have also gone through a great deal of transformation, keeping in mind the new normal.
During the pandemic, as schools and colleges were shut, it had pushed educators to redesign the mechanism of imparting lessons. ‘Digital learning’ emerged as a saviour to many, and it is no longer limited to just online classes but also the entire content has been curated to make it suitable for remote learning with the help of technology.
Hospitality is a service business and irrespective of the digital endeavours, the human touch cannot be replaced. The pandemic has left an impact on hospitality education as well, hence, it is of paramount importance that the curriculum be updated with the changing times. The overall industry is heading towards a change, which the educators also eventually need to adopt. They are the pillars who shall be training the workforce of the future, and hence, need to keep students abreast with the latest changes in the industry, and evolution of industry requirements. The one size fits all solutions are things of the past. For sustained growth in the hospitality industry, there are three pillars that one need to follow — adherence to health and safety protocol, all-round training and mental training.
The key focus, currently, has been directed to health and safety protocols, which should be followed to ensure all the operations are compliant with the protocols. It is vital that students are well-versed with the changing times and the importance of following hygiene protocols. It should form a key aspect of restaurant training including vocabulary and measures used by the industry such as “clinically clean” and “sanitised cleaning”. There is also a need for developing newer technologies, which can help the students in being safe in their training procedure.
Providing guests with contact-less services, especially during food servicing and preparation is very important. To ensure protocols and social distancing are being followed, the whole kitchen area can be divided into smaller segments — critical operation area, non-critical area and pre-preparation area. We also need to educate students on usage of 100 ppm chlorine for sanitising non-vegetarian items and 50 ppm chlorine for vegetarian items, cost management during crises period and shift towards self-service features via latest technologies.
COVID-19 has highlighted how quickly the demand for online ordering accelerated, and kitchens are getting smaller in order to follow social distancing norms. With practically every restaurant adopting some form of online food delivery, it is important for culinary students to emerge as all-rounders with training in front and back management of restaurants, operations, guest relations and kitchen operations.
With changing times, high touch points such as no contact services, the preparations using hygienic cookery utensils, new SOPs while guest room making, front desk operations while maintaining social distancing guidelines need to be included in the curriculum. It is crucial for educators to make sure a holistic understanding of not only core revenue operations but the understanding of allied departments such as revenue management, audits should be given to the students. They should be able to connect the dots and make the best out of each situation. It is also advisable for culinary schools to adopt short term courses which gives the students the required know-how of all segments which is needed in today’s times.
There needs to be an increased focus on digital courses as well, which can help the students venture into a space beyond hospitality. The services industry is large, and with the right kind of training, the students can opt for courses in sales and marketing, customer relationships and reputation management as well.
Last, but not the least, the third aspect is mental training. As the country continues to battle against the novel Coronavirus, there is a growing crisis among young adults struggling with mental health problems, including anxiety and depression. We all know that hospitality is one of the most challenging industries, and to work in these stiff times, it is crucial for one to be mentally fit. Hence, it would be a wise idea to include mental health training and exercises in the curriculum.
It has indeed become crucial for the curriculum to go through complete rework to operate in the new normal. There should be a special emphasis on how to work under crisis, since the pandemic is far from over. The workforce of tomorrow shall be trained to work under situations that warrant to act out of their comfort zone. The pandemic has propelled us to move towards adopting a format of new learning, which focusses on the concept of applicability of new learnings which are relatable, driven by results and are extremely interactive. This step is much needed in hospitality education. The time has come for the educators to stand against all odds, keep the momentum going and always keep the smile alive no matter what the situation is.
To sum up, if you are a student who aspires to walk on this road, my advice would be to toughen yourself up, both physically and mentally. The focus should be on developing your skills as this can be a challenging profession.
(The writer is the senior executive chef at The Ashok Hotel, New Delhi.