CULINARY ARTS MANAGEMENT

This module is designed to develop your competency in effective kitchen management within a professional culinary environment, through the use of both theoretical and practical application. The comprehensive approach to the module allows you to utilise and practice the many aspects of creative control procedures including menu planning, dish development, due diligence, and financial control, designed to prepare you for the rigour and competencies required within the role of kitchen manager, head chef or menu developer.

In this module, you will design and develop creative food items that can be formulated into profitable menus considering current market development and culinary trends. The key core focus of global cuisines, ethnic foods and diverse world cultures with varying backgrounds will allow a greater understanding and appreciation of the wider gastronomic landscape with its various challenges and opportunities. As part of the module, you will be challenged to conduct in-depth culinary research into a specific ethnic cuisine of your own choice, examining the cultural, social, religious and geographical influences to formulate a selection of westernised recipes suitable for an identified target market. Emphasis will be placed on specific ingredient knowledge, flavour profiles, authentic preparations, and adapted culinary techniques representative of the cuisines from around the world. The additional learning focus will include sustainability e.g., food waste reduction/seasonality, healthier eating, allergens and special diets e.g., vegan/vegetarian, plant based, and free-from.

The problems and questions facing current hospitality, events and tourism managers, are becoming more unique and complex in nature and cannot be answered or solved just by using experience or common sense alone. Therefore, as a hospitality manager, you will be required to engage in a range of research activities within your role. This module will prepare you for this and for future research within academia; providing an opportunity for you to develop, design and propose a piece of research which focuses on an interesting and contemporary topic area or issue within your industry.

You will have the opportunity to apply management principles in a 'live' realistic working environment. You will demonstrate your management skills in order to ensure the execution of a successful operation and demonstrate the need for effective control and revenue-generating procedures.

The hospitality industry faces a huge challenge in terms of adapting and promoting services in an interconnected world. As a result, you will examine the tactics, strategies and ways that marketing managers use media communications to secure business.

Effective people management impacts the extent to which your business succeeds or fails. This module will explore the practical and theoretical people management skills required by 21st Century managers in order to maximise the success of their business, through their most important resource: their people. We will explore the role of the line manager throughout the employment journey and evaluate best practice procedures to attract and retain your staff.

You will gain valuable work experience on a 48 week work placement. This is an exciting opportunity to put what you have learned into practice, broaden your experience and demonstrate your abilities to potential employers.

The area of patisserie is highly specialised, and it can take many years to master the required technical skills. This hands-on module is designed to provide you with an introduction to all the essential elements of professional pastry production. You will design, develop, and produce complex plated desserts using a contemporary approach. The various specialist techniques include tempering chocolate, working with boiled sugar and creativity with fresh, seasonal fruit. Focusing on current dessert trends, strong flavour profiles and modern production methods, you will create a wide variety of desserts components that are progressive in presentation style, taste, and overall appearance. Learning topics include a strong focus on sustainability, healthier eating, special diets such as vegetarian, vegan, diabetic, and gluten/nut-free. You will be challenged to produce contemporary plated desserts utilising standardised recipes, adapted classical techniques, and considering current market developments for a wide range of target markets.

This module is designed to provide you with a detailed understanding of the composition, manufacturing, and sales of a wide range of beverages, as well as in depth look into the drinks market. You will cover tasting, market research, case studies and guest speakers from across the sector, as well as a chance to design your own drinks brand.

Based upon well-established events planning models, you will gain a sound understanding of the implementation and evaluation of festivals and special events. You will look at growth and development trends, related policy issues and the overall role of events in tourism and leisure. Event typologies and the scope of events will be reviewed and the impacts on residents and visitors will be considered.

Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between culture and food. As a module developed for food lovers, it will provide you with an appreciation of past, present and anticipated future gastronomic trends. You will develop a sound knowledge of contemporary food issues such as the development of food tourism, food events and festivals and discuss how restaurants are incorporating current trends.

You will develop your knowledge of the skills that are used within the pub and bar sector - one of the most diverse sectors of the hospitality industry. This will lead to an understanding of the sector structure, trends in legislation, current issues and management operations involved in the efficient running of a pub.

In this module you will develop the skills and business acumen to become a successful entrepreneur. Have you ever imagined what it would be like to start your own culinary business? You will pitch your idea to a 'financer' and create a business plan to support this idea going forward. You will display your creativity and innovation skills in the culinary sector. You will also adopt a critical mindset and constantly aim to develop and improve the business' viability, profits, and quality.

Let your culinary creativity flow to design and develop new innovative food products, - from the initial idea to the market launch. This module offers you the unique opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of all the essential technical stages in commercial new product development. In this module, you will be challenged to utilise your culinary skills and knowledge to develop a wide range of innovative prototypes considering a specific product brief set by a high profile industry partner i.e. food manufacturer as a live learning project. The additional learning focus will include food sustainability, healthier alternatives, considering consumer allergens and special diets e.g. vegan/vegetarian and free-from alternatives.

You will have the opportunity to engage in an independent research project of your choice. You will have support with preparing your proposal and understanding the competent characteristics of good research. An appointed tutor will help guide you through this important and rewarding process.

You will learn the full range of strategic management issues encountered when determining the direction of the organisation. You will use analytical tools in the context of service sector-based case studies and learn procedures and techniques for a range of elements taught on this course. You will be able to identify long-term threats and opportunities for organisations in order for it to develop successfully.

You will explore the ways in which a culturally diverse organisation can make use of a diverse range of perspectives offered by international team members and their varied expertise. You will focus on employees who have a global perspective in achieving success for their organisation by implementing international strategy with an awareness of cross-cultural differences.

An opportunity to consolidate your financial planning knowledge, you will learn how to synthesise and evaluate business performance and strategy. You will develop an in-depth knowledge of financial concepts and how companies portray themselves through their annual reports.

The theme for this module is the 'future environment', which gives you the opportunity to explore and analyse the innovation process in the service sector. You will understand that change is an essential component of the managerial process as you develop new products and services for use in the industry.

Contemporary management thinking recognizes the value of 'soft skills' and how they complement technical skills and knowledge to drive sustainable organizational performance within this ever growing global work arena. Positive workplace behaviours encompass a myriad of complex competencies, from how to effectively communicate vision and influence others, to creating constructive and positive working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. This module will allow students to critically examine their own workplace behaviours, through the analysis of theories relating to workplace psychology, Emotional Intelligence and critical self-reflection. It will enable them to identify their personal strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement, and allow them to consider suitable strategies to help them to develop their own personal effectiveness.