first international phd conference – rationale and background
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First international PhD conference – rationale and background
Inga-Britt Gustafsson
Örebro University, Department of Restaurant and Culinary Art, Sörälgsvägen 2, 712 60 GRYTHYTTAN,Sweden
Correspondence:Inga-Britt Gustafsson,Örebro University,Department ofRestaurant and CulinaryArt, Sörälgsvägen 2,712 60 Grythyttan,Sweden. Tel:+46 19 302009; Fax:+46 591 14443; E-mail:[email protected]
In 1992, the Swedish Parliament decided thatÖrebro University (at that time Örebro College)should provide an academic education for chefsand waiters emphasising ‘the aesthetic configura-tion of the meal’ in commercial settings. Thisacademic education should aim to increase theknowledge and status of professionals working inthe restaurant industry, thereby enhancing restau-rant business performance and laying a founda-tion for research. The educational approach wasto be distinguished by its combination of aca-demic disciplines, to stimulate scientific thinkingand reflection, in addition to training in craftskills and the ability and creativity to prepareaesthetic meals.
The educational model developed for this ini-tiative was based on the way the Michelin Guideassesses restaurants. The visit begins when oneenters the room, meets the headwaiter, gets a tableand thereafter receives food and beverages (herecalled the product). There is a surrounding atmo-sphere, which stands for the perception of thetotal situation, and a management control system,which represents the overall planning process
including control of the budget and accounts,logistics in the kitchen and dining room, manage-ment of personnel resources and laws and regu-lations regarding the handling of food andbeverages. The educational model simplifies theconception and planning of creative and aestheticmeals, and is supported and confirmed by lectur-ers and students, the former having more than 15years education experience at the Department ofRestaurant and Culinary Art. This model, calledthe Five Aspects Meal Model (FAMM), isexpanded upon and discussed in the subsequentpapers.
Since 2002, the Department of Restaurant andCulinary Art at Örebro University has providedthe opportunity for a doctorate (PhD) educationin culinary arts and meal science, and to date,five students have graduated from the university.In view of this experience, we considered itopportune to run a short international coursewithin our field of expertise where we couldbring together doctoral students at variousstages in their studies, along with their supervi-sors and lecturers, in order to exchange views
Original article
© 2008, The Author
Journal compilation © 2008, Blackwell Publishing Journal of Foodservice, 19, pp. 2–3
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and share ideas. Postgraduate courses of thiskind are relatively common in the Nordic coun-tries, but this is the first one in this particulardiscipline.
The course took place at the GrythyttanCampus of Örebro University, from 02 to 06 June2007, and was attended by 14 PhD students and15 supervisors, lecturers and researchers.
During the course, the FAMM model wasused to explore, in greater depth, differentaspects of the meal, and the programme com-prised keynote lectures from invited speakersand presentations from other researchers andPhD students. In addition, a number of student-led activities were undertaken in small groups toexplore and expand on various aspects of themeal, each of which focused on the meal pro-vided at midday.
The theme on the first day was ‘The Room
and the Atmosphere’; the second day, ‘TheMeeting’; the third day, ‘The Product’; and thefourth day, ‘The Management Control System’.Preparation and service of the meals, whichformed part of the activities, was undertaken bystudents at the department supervised by chef-lecturer, Jesper Johansson, and professor of artand design, Birgitta Watz, who mastermindeddifferent meal situations on each day to reflectthe respective themes. All course participantshad their meals in these different situations, andthese provided the focus for the group work.The following day, this work was presentedback to the entire course, both orally and inwriting, and provided the basis for further dis-cussion.
The keynote and research papers from thiscourse are presented in this special issue of theJournal of Foodservice.
3First international PhD course I.-B. Gustafsson
© 2008, The Author
Journal compilation © 2008, Blackwell Publishing Journal of Foodservice, 19, pp. 2–3