Fundaziun Uccelin, a charitable foundation set up in 2015 by Swiss chef Andreas Caminada in order to promote the quality of cooking and hospitality has opened its application platform till the end of March.
Young chefs and people in the service industry are offered the possibility to carry out various training programmes in their respective fields for six months.
Andreas Caminada, the chef behind the foundation said “It is very important to me to individually foster ambitious talent in the gastronomic industry by providing financial and mentoring support. By offering this kind of backing, we aim to pave the way for talents so that they have the opportunity to gain insights into the global culinary diversity so that they can safeguard the quality of their wonderful craft in the long run.”
While similar opportunities exist in various industries, very few opportunities exist in the hospitality industry. Caminada wants to help future talents to get experience in different parts of the world depending on the choice of the candidates.
The ability to guarantee a high level of fine dining quality in the long-term hinges on the fostering of culinary talent with a clear focus on the training of individual talents. The current industry practice around the world is to offer various training options based on academic curriculums. The personalized development of individual artisan talents falls by the wayside.
The Fundaziun Uccelin uses a different approach and aims to close this gap. Its specific goal is to provide Swiss and international service and chef talents with an opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills by offering training in their respective crafts so that they can assume the role of ambassadors for the quality of Swiss fine dining cuisine and either take it to the global markets or represent it in Switzerland.
The Fundaziun Uccelin offers three training programmes as well as scholarship contributions towards an advanced academic education programme.
These are for Swiss culinary talent, international culinary talent and service talent.
All three training programmes share the same modular structure, encompassing fundamental skill sets taught over a period of 20 weeks. The 20-weeks scholarship programme comprises several individual on-site assignments, hosted by a network of selected producers and restaurants. The scholarship participants have the option to choose the location of those on-site assignments. For this the foundation provides a list of selected restaurants and food producers from which the applicants can choose.
The age limit for applications is 35 years. More details can be found on the website of Foundation Uccelin.
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