Do professional courses prepare hospitality students for efficient surplus food management? A self-evaluation of professional competence in food waste prevention

Purpose This study aims to examine Taiwanese hospitality students’ self-reported professional competence in surplus food management and assess the usefulness of their university training in this area. Using the importance-performance analysis (IPA) method, it is possible to obtain a clearer understanding of the priority order of the items that require improvement and to identify which surplus food management competence items should be strengthened in the school curriculum and which items should be enhanced by the students. Design/methodology/approach This study used the questionnaire survey method. It evaluated seven dimensions covering 29 items related to surplus food management competencies of the kitchen staff. The evaluation was done using IPA to determine the relationship between professional competence (performance level) and courses provided (importance level). The factor coordinates were completed according to the means of personal qualifications and courses provided. Findings According to students’ self-assessment, the dimensions of “Personal moral attitude,” “Food handling attitude,” “Education and training attitude” and “Culinary knowledge” were located in the “Keep up the good work” quadrant, meaning that the students think that their surplus food management competence is relatively high and the courses provided are sufficient. Thus, these items have better performance at the present and they hope to maintain the status. However, “Menu analysis” and “Sanitation knowledge” were found to have low importance and low level of performance. Therefore, these two dimensions require attention in the course design and educational training. Research limitations/implications The questionnaire responses were self-reported; this study assumed that all participants answered honestly. Future studies may include additional factors in the analysis, such as hospitality management, culinary skills, internship experience and work time that may affect the perceptions of students. Moreover, professional chefs could be surveyed to determine their professional competence and training needs. Originality/value The professional training that students receive determines, to a large extent, their performance in their jobs and the resulting stability of their employment. Therefore, improved competence gained through good-quality training can help students meet the demands of the hospitality industry.

Food, Drink and the Other: Producing Satire and Otherness in Portuguese Literature

Portuguese narrative fiction is plentiful of food and drink references, which vary in meaning and function accordingly to the historical context of production. The peripathetic Portuguese brought culinary knowledge from abroad mainly since the 16th century, merging cultural changes of food and drink with practices from their country of origin. This was a turning point in the history of Portuguese narrative fiction, for it made more present the concept of the "other" through consumption habits. An extremely short travel between 16th and 19th narrrative fiction examples intends to highlight some uses of food and drink as topoi in historical and cultural context, asserting the relevance of this resource to articulate identities and alterities.

Context-based understanding of food-related queries using a culinary knowledge model

Dietary practices are governed by a mix of ethnographic aspects, such as social, cultural and environmental factors. These aspects need to be taken into consideration during an analysis of food-related queries. Queries are usually ambiguous. It is essential to understand, analyse and refine the queries for better search and retrieval. The work is focused on identifying the explicit, implicit and hidden facets of a query, taking into consideration the context – culinary domain. This article proposes a technique for query understanding, analysis and refinement based on a domain specific knowledge model. Queries are conceptualised by mapping the query term to concepts defined in the model. This allows an understanding of the semantic point of view of a query and an ability to determine the meaning of its terms and their interrelatedness. The knowledge model acts as a backbone providing the context for query understanding, analysis and refinement and outperforms other models, such as Schema.org , BBC Food Ontology and Recipe Ontology.

Culinary nutrition course equips future physicians to educate patients on a healthy diet: an interventional pilot study

Background Poor-quality diet is associated with one in five deaths globally. In the United States, it is the leading cause of death, representing a bigger risk factor than even smoking. For many, education on a healthy diet comes from their physician. However, as few as 25% of medical schools currently offer a dedicated nutrition course. We hypothesized that an active learning, culinary nutrition experience for medical students would improve the quality of their diets and better equip them to counsel future patients on food and nutrition. Methods This was a prospective, interventional, uncontrolled, non-randomized, pilot study. Ten first-year medical students at the Wayne State University School of Medicine completed a 4-part, 8-h course in culinary-nutritional instruction and hands-on cooking. Online assessment surveys were completed immediately prior to, immediately following, and 2 months after the intervention. There was a 100% retention rate and 98.8% item-completion rate on the questionnaires. The primary outcome was changes in attitudes regarding counselling patients on a healthy diet. Secondary outcomes included changes in dietary habits and acquisition of culinary knowledge. Average within-person change between timepoints was determined using ordinary least squares fixed-effect models. Statistical significance was defined as P ≤ .05. Results Participants felt better prepared to counsel patients on a healthy diet immediately post-intervention (coefficient = 2.8; 95% confidence interval: 1.6 to 4.0 points; P < .001) and 2 months later (2.2 [1.0, 3.4]; P = .002). Scores on the objective test of culinary knowledge increased immediately after (3.6 [2.4, 4.9]; P < .001) and 2 months after (1.6 [0.4, 2.9]; P = .01) the intervention. Two months post-intervention, participants reported that a higher percentage of their meals were homemade compared to pre-intervention (13.7 [2.1, 25.3]; P = .02). Conclusions An experiential culinary nutrition course may improve medical students’ readiness to provide dietary counselling. Further research will be necessary to determine what effects such interventions may have on the quality of participants’ own diets.

Secretless pastry chefs on Instagram: the disclosure of culinary secrets on social media

Purpose Informed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systems view of creativity and Chad Borkenhagen’s conceptualization of open source cooking, this study explored how a group of extraordinary pastry chef used Instagram to openly express creativity, disseminate knowledge and reveal culinary secrets. The subsequent impacts of such actions were also assessed. Design/methodology/approach A qualitatively driven mixed-method approach was conducted using a nested mixed-method design. A total of 2,456 Instagram posts were visually analyzed alongside a series of interviews with elite pastry chefs over a two-year period. Findings Analysis distilled three themes that delineated how elite pastry chefs express creativity and share knowledge mindfully, ethically and altruistically on Instagram. The findings also converged to form a new theoretical model, “systems view of culinary creative sharing,” which accounts for the multifaceted considerations of culinary knowledge sharing on social media. Research limitations/implications Findings converged to form a systems view of culinary knowledge sharing. This is peculiarly useful for scholars who are interested in developing a greater understanding about “where and how” creative ideas and knowledge originate, disseminate and receive corroborations in the contemporary digital era. Originality/value This study highlighted that a new praxis of open sharing looms large in the culinary profession. This praxis symbolizes a movement away from the traditional mindset of safeguarding culinary secrets and toward a more transparent and open philosophy toward knowledge sharing in the culinary community.

A community feasibility study of a cooking behavior intervention in African-American adults at risk for cardiovascular disease: DC COOKS (DC Community Organizing for Optimal culinary Knowledge Study) with Heart

Background Cooking interventions have increased in popularity in recent years. Evaluation by meta-analyses and systematic reviews show consistent changes in dietary quality reports and cooking confidence, but not of cardiovascular (CVD) biomarkers. Interventions evaluating or reporting behavioral mechanisms as an explanatory factor for these outcomes has been sparse. Moreover, evaluations of cooking interventions among communities with health disparities or food access limitations have received little attention in the literature. Methods This study will occur over two phases. Phase 1 will assess acceptability among the target population of African-American adults living within an urban food desert. Phase 2 will consist of a 6-week cooking intervention delivered at a community kitchen setting. Pre and post intervention visits for clinical examinations and biomarker collection will be conducted, as well as dietary and cooking skill assessments. Primary outcomes include cooking behavior and feasibility measures. Secondary outcomes are related to dietary quality, psychosocial factors, CVD biomarkers, and food environment measures. Discussion This study seeks to demonstrate feasibility of a community-based cooking intervention and to provide necessary information to plan future interventions that identify cooking behavior as an outcome of participation in cooking interventions among African-American adults, especially in relation to dietary and biomarker outcomes. Trial registration This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04305431) on March 12, 2020.

Culinary nutrition course equips future physicians to educate patients on healthy diet

BACKGROUND Poor-quality diet is associated with one in five deaths globally. In the United States, it is the leading cause of death, representing a bigger risk factor than even smoking. For many, education on a healthy diet comes from their physician. However, as few as 25% of medical schools currently offer a dedicated nutrition course. We hypothesized that an active learning, culinary nutrition experience for medical students would improve the quality of their diets and better equip them to counsel future patients on food and nutrition. METHODS This was a prospective, interventional, uncontrolled, non-randomized study. Ten first-year medical students at the Wayne State University School of Medicine completed a 4-part, 8-hour course in culinary-nutritional instruction and hands-on cooking. Online assessment surveys were completed immediately prior to, immediately following, and 2 months after intervention. There was a 100% retention rate and 98.8% item-completion rate on the questionnaires. The primary outcome was changes in attitudes regarding counseling patients on a healthy diet. Secondary outcomes included changes in dietary habits and acquisition of culinary knowledge. Average within-person change between timepoints was determined using ordinary least squares fixed-effect models. Statistical significance was defined as P ≤ .05. RESULTS Participants felt better prepared to counsel patients on a healthy diet immediately post-intervention (coefficient = 2.8; 95% confidence interval: 1.6 to 4.0 points; P < .001) and 2 months later (2.2 [1.0, 3.4]; P = .002). Scores on the objective test of culinary knowledge increased immediately after (3.6 [2.4, 4.9]; P < .001) and 2 months after (1.6 [0.4, 2.9]; P = .01) the intervention. Two months post-intervention, participants reported that a higher percentage of their meals were homemade compared to pre-intervention (13.7 [2.1, 25.3]; P = .02). CONCLUSIONS An experiential culinary nutrition course may improve medical students’ readiness to provide dietary counseling. Further research will be necessary to determine what effects such interventions may have on the quality of participants’ own diets.

Traditional Mexican Cuisine: Heritage Implications for Food Tourism Promotion

This article analyzes how UNESCO's intangible human heritage designation has led to traditional Mexican cuisine being turned into a resource for gastronomic tourism, showing how the State has commodified traditional culinary knowledge for the promotion of tourism. This promotion includes an official discourse that has been appropriated by traditional women cooks, who use these promotional events to build new culinary canons. This article enables a discussion of how traditional Mexican cuisine has become part of a global logic, and how its designation as intangible heritage articulates tension, discussion, and negotiation among food tourism industry stakeholders. Findings show a multilateral perspective of the consequences of a cultural event becoming a tourist resource, as well as its conceptualization and transformation in the framework of today's global context, which requires a more flexible approach to provide definitions.