Focus Session

The Future of Culinary Training

 How can and must training for chefs in Germany be transformed and improved to provide better perspectives?

What`s it about?

The worry right now is not that too many cooks will spoil the broth, but rather too few. The training market for chefs in Germany has long faced significant recruitment issues. The number of those entering training programs is falling, while the number of those dropping out is rising.

The reasons for this are various and reflect a mix of concerns about the structure and nature of the working conditions and the direction of the teaching offerings. This will be a starting point for our workshop discussion, as we work together to formulate a vision for a future-ready cook training system. What can and must the cooks of the future learn? How product based, interdisciplinary and open to external influences should the training be? To explore which potential system conditions could improve the attractiveness of the training and the level of professionalism in the graduates, we’ll regard the complex topic from a variety of perspectives. In doing so, we’ll look not just at existing alternative culinary training paths, but also try to open up to the question of how exchanges between training firms can be improved and what role the Dehoga (the German Hotel and Restaurant Association) should play.

The goal of the workshop is to use discourse to achieve a concrete, implementable agenda for an alternative training concept.

Moderator

Trained chef Annette Voigt currently teaches at the Brillat – Savarin – Schule and is an IHK examiner for cooking training graduates. For years her practical work has focused on an expansion and potential re-conception of the training curriculum.