What the gastronomic industry is looking for

As a work proposal and as a challenge for gastronomic schools, Mauricio Bermudez, director of
food and drinks at the Cosmos 100 hotel in Bogota, Colombia, has explained the special needs of
the
hospitality sector in relation to the academic sector.

"We are at the XXI century where everything is taken lightly, for example: we write little, cause we
read little. Everything must be light including food, he explained.

What is needed? Here starts the story of this food expert. Who has taken the advantage of his
appearance at the first international gastronomic congress to urge gastronomic schools to teach
chefs, managers, caterers, metres, waitress, but most importantly, individuals, who are committed,
with their own cultural gastronomic inheritance.

"First, we need specialised chefs, because the industry of food is everyday more and more
specialised. If a restaurant is not specialised in some kind of food, then it doesn't exist. Therefore,
the chef needs to be specialised to be able to respond to this marked need".

He continues saying, "today we have a massive research and innovation, and the chef needs to be
able to apply all that technology and to use all these new cooking techniques in his food. Chefs
need to know how to apply food manipulation techniques that cannot be taken lightly".

Unforgettable places

According to Bermudez," people don't go to restaurants just because they want to eat. They go to
feed themselves, and to feed their spirit. Restaurants obey a cultural pattern of restoration not only
of the body, but also of spirit. Its a place where a person seats in front of another to talk, to share, to
flirt, to establish friendships. We don't like to eat alone, food creates relationships.

About responsibility," the chef is accounted for managing the food, to serve them, to decide how to
present them; he must know how to shop for it and to portion it. He also needs to know how to
manage his staff, because he can't do it all".

Yes waitress, "usually when a chef is good, he becomes a celebrity. Culinary Schools forms chefs,
but everyday is more evident the lack of formation on service. There is a huge difficulty on finding
people committed to service. It is very difficult to find good waitress, professional waitress. They
sell illusions, they must convince someone to eat something and to be willing to pay for it. Its not
just about bringing and taking plates.

We need experts on catering and on big scale production. Fortunately, technology has made it
possible to handle food in advance. Today it is possible, if you know the technology to produce a lot
of food in advance for a lot of people".

"The hotel is a transitional place, it is not permanent, therefore things must happen. It must describe
the hosts identity. People come to have unknown experiences, but if there is no one who knows
their own culture, how is he going to offer something new to the guest. A typical meal, well done, is
never forgotten".
Back to roots

"We need to come back to the roots of cooking, it is our culture and our history. If we didn't have
small food industries, there would have been a gastronomic catastrophe. We were about to loose
the arepa, something we grew up eating. That happened because the women who cooked them
were studying or working. We have 80 different kinds of arepas and we cannot afford to loose them.

There are millions of recipes that were lost because people stopped cooking them because of lack
of time. When I used to come back home from school, I was received with mazamorra and
almojabana, today there's is no one willing to prepared them. We should come with new ideas to
solve this problem, make people visit us and offer them what no one else can. We need to look
back at our regional and national food. It is the only way that tourist and and competitors will
respect and recognise us. Today competitiveness is not between countries, it is defined by regions.

The offer of each region must be different and recognisable. The one who visits us must be able to
eat a well done typical dish to have a unique experience that he will never forget. The names, the
streets, the sites can be forgotten, but food will never be".