Displaying items by tag: Le Cordon Bleu

 

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA August 5, 2013--Le Cordon Bleu's innovative program of hospitality adventures continues with the release of the Industry scholarship for the 2014 Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism program (MGT).

In an effort to support professional development opportunities available for food, wine and travel writers, Le Cordon Bleu will award an annual tuition scholarship (valued at AUD$5000) to an outstanding industry professional to undertake two units from the Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism program.

Run in collaboration with Southern Cross University, this program is an exciting online postgraduate degree for "foodies" and industry professionals looking to expand their academic understanding of food and wine and culinary tourism.

Scholarship recipients are able to study this program from anywhere in the world, and can network with like-minded individuals while studying topics ranging from sustainability and food security to contemporary trends in cuisine and culinary arts; from food writing for media to the history of gastronomy and the restaurant; and from small business management and the application of ethical business practices in tourism operations. Current students in the program all work in hospitality, writing, media and tourism and have highlighted the multidisciplinary advantages of undertaking the program to increase industry knowledge and understanding.

 

“The MGT has consistently attracted growing numbers of students. Typically having contrasting professional and educational backgrounds they nonetheless share a desire to apply their gastronomic knowledge to innovation in business or to kick-start a career change or redirection. Their enthusiasm for the program is shared by the masters teaching staff of Southern Cross University. Their expertise in tourism management, combined with program partner Le Cordon Bleu's pedigree in gastronomy, has created an eclectic mix of 12 subjects including tourism management, food and wine aesthetics, gastronomic tourism and food writing. With a unique curriculum and such engaged, interested students, teaching in the program has been a real pleasure.”

 --- Dr Roger Haden, Manager, Educational Leadership, Le Cordon Bleu

 

Jarrod Scott of Oxenberry Farm This scholarship is open to all industry professionals who are currently working or have worked in the food, wine or hospitality industries for the past six months including Chefs, sales/ marketing/event managers, cellar door operators, hotel management, consultants, journalists and  food writers. Modules of the course are ideal for industry professionals as they are designed to encourage students to express ideas, opinions and evaluations relating to food and drink, with particular emphasis on writing in a professional context. Plus both food and drink as a means of communication will be explored through literature, art, film and television.

Other units being offered in the programs include event management and organisation, and look at the fundamentals of events and examines and evaluates the nature of organised special events, their impacts on tourism and host communities, event resources management and operational considerations, together with the strategies necessary to ensure viable event management. These are just two of the fantastic modules on offer through this scholarship opportunity.

Jarrod Scott of Oxenberry Farm Wine, the 2013 Industry Scholarship recipient, commented, "I thoroughly enjoyed my first semester of the Master's program and it's been great to begin a formal education in something I have a strong passion for, all whilst working full-time. I can highly recommend the Masters of Gastronomic Tourism program to anyone who is considering it."

             For more information http://www.lecordonbleu.com.au/gastronomictourism

 

(from TASTE News Service sources)

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry

by Kathleen Flinn

 

2008 Penguin Books

ISBN 978-0-14-311413-0

290 page $15.00

 

What person who enjoys cooking hasn't thought of attending a cooking school? An accomplished writer, Flinn was an American living in London when a job came to an end sooner than she had planned. Encouraged by her American boyfriend to take stock and consider following her dreams, she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2004. The Sharper Your Knife is her memoir of that experience.

Readers will get a peek into the life of a student at the world's most famous cooking school. Attentive readers will learn—at least from afar—some technique without the anxieties of actually facing chef instructors who may not have much patience for dilletantes and enjoy some recipes to apply them. Glimpses of an American expatriate's life in Paris and even some romance (the boyfriend, Mike) is thrown in. Fun. Easy to read, but not lightweight.

 

--reviewed by Dan Clarke

 

 

 

 

Julia Child A Life

by Laura Shapiro

 

2007 Penguin Lives

ISBN 978-=14-311644-8

185 pages $14

 

Many remember Julia Child from her PBS television shows. Others may know her as an older woman given great deference when appearing as a guest on more recent television programs. Still, the woman has been dead since August of 2004, so many food buffs and home cooks may not have heard about her at all, but for the recent Julia and Julie movie.

For readers in all these categories, Laura Shapiro's fond, but not fawning, biography, Julia Child A Life, is a treat. It traces the food maven's early life of privilege (reared in a prosperous family in Pasadena, California, Julia McWilliams attended the Katherine Branson School in Marin County, then went east to Smith College), her wartime travels and marriage to Paul Child and subsequent evolution to the French Chef persona recognized by American foodies.

Times were very different in the mid-1930's, even for educated young women. She found employment—at first in New York City and later in Southern California—but her pay was modest and the work apparently unsatisfying. With a world war pending, she applied for military services only to be turned down as her six feet two inch stature was deemed too tall by all branches. She was accepted by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to today's CIA. Apparently her duties were essentially clerical, but the assignments in exotic locales were a good deal more interesting than life as a department store advertising copywriter. In 1944 she was posted to Ceylon where she met a specialist in the office's visual presentation unit. Paul Child was sophisticated, experienced and soon smitten with Julia. Shapiro gives an intimate and sensitive recounting of the unfolding of their budding romance and subsequent married life.

After living for a time in post-war Washington, Paul and Julia Child moved to France in 1948 when he was transferred to Paris. Her interest in cooking blossomed and she learned—at first just by living in France and later with a somewhat contentious culinary education begun at the Cordon Bleu school. On her return to the United States, she realized how different was the life of the typical American homemaker in the 1950s. Her early attempts to write for these housewives were awkward and not immediately accepted by editors and publishers. She pushed on in an unusual combination of dedication to perfection and somewhat casual good nature. Eventually her perseverance led to a show on WGBH, Boston's public television station. Perhaps because her early shows were unpolished, her appearances were an immediate hit with viewers. She was real and her attitude seemed to say to them, “Come on. If I can do this, so can you.”

Did she ever drop a chicken on the television studio floor, retrieve it and continue prepping it for her audience? Apparently not, though some will swear they saw the show on which it happened. It's like that with larger-than-life personalities. I was fortunate to meet Julia after she had given a cooking demonstration at a winery. Even late in the afternoon of a long day it was obvious this older woman had a great zest for life. I wished I had known her years earlier. Laura Shapiro's biography fills in some of the blanks for such a fan.

 

--Reviewed by Dan Clarke Name Your Link