The kitchen is too small for the cooks of tomorrow. The four walls of a restaurant, the apron, the knives and the stove are no longer enough to draw the profile of a trade that in the last two decades has mutated from a more or less virtuous craftsman to an opinion leader, a cultural reference and tip of spearhead of the agri-food sector. To this day, when a boy dreams of being a chef, he imagines putting his creative concerns on a plate, establishing alliances with the producers around him and starting up businesses of different profiles. To achieve that dream there are no shortcuts, the most effective path is training that meets the expectations placed on the word chef.
A few days ago, a university center promoted by the Comillas Pontifical University and the Vocento group was presented in Madrid, which aims to respond to the needs of this new generation of gastronomic professionals. Madrid Culinary Campus, which will open its doors next year with a degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Innovation and a double degree combined with Business Management and Administration, is called to be an international reference for several reasons. “It is not about teaching young people to execute recipes, for that you do not need a university degree, but about training diverse professionals, who can work in the food industry, manage catering businesses on different scales and cook the gastronomic trends of the future” , points out Benjamin Lana, general director of Vocento Gastronomía.
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The center is sponsored by the two most influential figures in recent cuisine, Ferran Adrià and Andoni Luis Aduriz, who, beyond lending their image for an inaugural toast, have been deeply involved in the design of content. Adrià qualifies MACC as “the academic leg” of El Bulli Foundation, since the Sapiens method will be applied there and the contents compiled in the Bullipedia will be taught, while Aduriz will be a specialized mentor in innovation and creativity for new students, while preparing a Mugaritz Master to forge profiles as disruptive as yours.
On the other hand, the MACC curriculum aims to reconnect the trade with its origin: the field. “Gastronomy needs to put its feet back on the ground,” says Pablo Márquez, the center’s gastronomic director. In a world that is losing contact with the rural world and where generations of kids don’t really know where an onion comes from, MACC completes gastronomic training with agronomy content and field work in their own orchard. Likewise, the 50 students of the new degree will receive specialized training in business management and administration. The objective is “to train 360 professionals, with broader and more diverse skills that prepare them for an increasingly uncertain future,” says the academic director, Antonio Obregón.
The alliance between Universidad Pontificia Comillas -first in the country in the employability ranking- and Vocento Gastronomía, organizer of internationally renowned culinary congresses such as Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España or San Sebastián Gastronomika Euskadi Basque Country, will also generate very interesting synergies. The idea is that the figures who come to present their papers at a forum such as Madrid Fusión can extend their stay to teach specialized courses, which will also be open to both undergraduate students and active professionals. In practice, this will make MACC the great recycling plant in the sector and a multigenerational space full of job opportunities.
The first promotion will begin the studies of the Degree in Gastronomy and Culinary Innovation next September, an official European qualification, recognized by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) and by the university council. In its early years, MACC will be housed at the MOM Culinary Institute headquarters, in a historic building on Calle Serrano and in the former Convent of the Franciscan Conceptionist Mothers of El Pardo. For training in business and company matters, the Comillas ICADE classrooms, in Alberto Aguilera, will be used, but the construction of two modern buildings in Chamartín is already underway to house the various areas of a center called to forge the gastronomic leaders of the tomorrow.
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