Gone are the times when the only way to train as a chef was in professional hospitality schools. The development of gastronomy as a key sector in the global economy has led to the demand for more qualified profiles and professionals capable of taking on new challenges.
The answer has come from the hands of institutions like Gasma – CEU Cardenal Herrera University and a pioneering Bachelor’s Degree that this year is graduating its 3rd class.
What sets Gasma apart from other gastronomic training institutions? Why is it worth going through university to train as a chef? We give you 5 compelling reasons.
The health crisis generated by COVID-19 has accelerated transformation in many areas and gastronomy is no exception. Digitization is essential in any restaurant business and the industry is looking for alternative or parallel formulas (delivery, take away, grab and go, dark kitchens …) to boost the profitability of restaurants. In this context, it is essential to nurture the professional sector with a global vision, capable of designing a gastronomic offer and making it profitable through management. Nowadays, this is something that only the university can give you. In the Bachelor’s Degree in Gastronomy at Gasma, it is so important to learn the latest techniques as to master managing tools. Knowing the science behind cooking is just as important as learning to create from scratch and develop innovative ideas.
In the previous point we talked about the hospitality industry but the gastronomic sector is expanding every day. The rise of innovation in the food industry or the appearance of gastronomic startups that seek to meet the needs of consumers are just some examples. Even the traditional restaurant concept is mutating. Temples of gastronomy such as Mugaritz (2 Michelin stars) or Aponiente (3 Michelin stars) have ceased to be places where you simply go to eat to become agents of change through innovation. The Gasma Bachelor’s Degree in Gastronomy offers you a tailor-made study plan and methodology. It prepares you to take the leap and to be a protagonist in this transition moment that the industry is experiencing.
«Gasma students will be able to work in future positions that do not exist right now and we can only imagine».
Ramón Perisé, Mugaritz R&D
What you learn is as important as who are you learning it with. And we mean not only the teachers or the Culinary Team. With students from more than 72 countries on our campus, the Bachelor’s Degree in Gastronomy at Gasma – CEU Cardenal Herrera University immerses you in a 100% international environment. An experience that will make you grow as a professional and as a person. On the one hand, you can get to know other cultures and cuisines first-hand in an always enriching exchange. But in addition, this international environment – together with the learning of Spanish in specific subjects – also promotes the knowledge of other languages and helps you prepare for a professional career anywhere in the world. Did you know that living with students of so many nationalities is like spending five hours a day in another country? A future without borders.
If there is one aspect that represents a full stop in gastronomic training, it is the methodology. Faced with the new needs of the industry, traditional training is unable to offer answers. Instead, the learning by doing methodology puts the student at the center of their own learning. Students not only acquire knowledge, but prepare to take the job leap through active learning. All the subjects of the Bachelor’s Degree in Gastronomy at Gasma have projects in which the students face real situations. To overcome this, students must not only put their knowledge into practice, but also demonstrate their leadership skills, teamwork, their empathy … rising values in the sector. This innovative commitment has placed the Bachelor’s Degree in Gastronomy at number 1 position in Spain in terms of teaching quality, according to the prestigious U-Ranking of the BBVA Foundation.
In addition, to achieve this contact between the university and the labor market, students have the complicity of the Culinary Team, made up of active and leading professionals: Michelin star chefs, successful pastry chefs, gastronomic managers, scientists, entrepreneurs … The profession in the classroom.
«The next gastronomic revolution will be knowledge»
Ferrán Adrià
Perhaps the most important point, the one that shows that the effort has its reward and the one that gives meaning to all the previous points. If we are proud of anything, it is the performance in the labor market of the students who have made it through our classrooms. The positions they fill show the importance and variety of the industry. Among the alumni of the Bachelor’s Degree in Gastronomy we find entrepreneurs who have launched their own restaurant with great success, dining room professionals in one of the best restaurants in Spain or R&D managers of one of the main companies in the food sector in Spain. But there is more, we also have students becoming logistics managers of large hospitality groups, chefs who have returned to their country of origin to contribute, from R&D, to revalue Lithuanian cuisine or researchers who work hand in hand with Ferran Adrià in his Sapiens project.
As you can see, studying gastronomy at university is an option for the future that combines passion and vocation with job opportunities. Do you dare to take the leap?
