Reitano Design Group is a commercial foodservice design and experience firm with over 180 years of collective expertise.
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The Future of Design for the Culinary Arts
Step Into the Back of the House Chef.
Say the word and an image of a white coat and puffy hat come to mind. And, you wouldn’t be wrong. But there’s so much more to it than Gordon Ramsey leaning over your shoulder and hissing, “This lamb is so undercooked, it’s following Mary to school!” The U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics projects that the market for Chefs and Head Cooks will to grow by 5% by 2032. The USDA reports that more than 1/3 of the food dollars were spent on eating-out services in 2022. At the same time, leading traditional culinary arts schools saw a drop in applications and a larger drop in actual student yield .
It’s time to throw the ladle at tired food models and rethink this cutting edge, entrepreneurial industry. The Point?
As food and hospitality have grown in popularity through Food Network style television programming and social media exposure, Reitano Design Group (RDG) has helped lead the discussion of integrating advanced culinary offerings into a curriculum moving toward Career Technical Education (CTE).
Scan here to watch!
VIDEO: Full STEAM Ahead: The Future of Culinary Ed
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE MODERN CHEF? Fine-dining no longer! Within the last few years, there’s been an expansion of where/how you use culinary skills.
Corporate and Workplace dining National Food Management Companies
Catering Hotels Restaurants
Senior-living Housing Schools (working, training, and preparing food for kids)
Personal/Private Chef Work Research and Development/ Food Science/Culinology (Research chefs who work in test kitchens to develop new foods or for multi-unit chain restaurant)
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Culinary Design Landscape
Community. Family. Food. Culinary skills are the core of every gathering, whether it’s a Sunday afternoon brunch or a formal dinner. However, many of today’s culinary employees lack proper training. Robust culinary design provides potential employers with the opportunity to bring in a better educated and higher skilled entry-level workforce. Further, students lack awareness of what’s possible. A well-orchestrated culinary arts program allows students to see possibilities for employment and lifestyle beyond their current stage in life. Culinary Design introduces students to a set of skills that will stay with them for the rest of their life through opportunities to pursue a professional career of feeding others. A true success intentionally weaves a community’s educational objectives and curriculum alongside its physical facility and programming. That’s where RDG steps in. It’s our job to create the educational spaces and culture to implement that program. As Stephen R. Covey famously put, “begin with the end in mind.”
Why Not Business as Usual?
As technology advances and the workforce needs evolve, we have the opportunity to craft a new vision for what’s possible. Looking back allows us to move into the future with confidence. Process Flaws:
Siloed Design
Often, by the time faculty gets the information regarding their space, they haven’t had the opportunity to speak into how the space could be set up to best serve their students and program. The RDG Design Process takes a more collaborative approach to this. You know your program and you know your students. Let’s craft a vision together.
Learning Interrupted
The fly in the soup is the time lost during the change over from class work to lab work. RDG’s focus is to design a space that minimizes the time spent in the in-between, while also maximizing the use of the physical space available. Your space should be based on your programmatic parameters and needs.
Inventory Chaos
Do we have enough space? Is it appropriately distributed? What if we have an unregulated walk-in cooler and storage area? How does that impact our inventory? Do the faculty have the right materials? RDG’s focus is to provide appropriate space to meet your needs and reduces waste at every point in the process.
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Design Mistakes of the Past: Mistake #1: The design doesn’t allow for programmatic growth. We repeatedly see a residential set-up geared toward teaching curriculum and skills that are not as relevant to Gen Z and Gen Alpha as they were to generations before them. Mistake #2: The design doesn’t identify students with a passion for true culinary arts exploration. Life is not linear. How can we create spaces that allow for more freedom and expansion of career opportunities?
FEELING THE PAIN? Biggest Challenges in Culinary Design:
Matching goals to budget and square footage opportunities within a facility Identifying clear program goals
Fundamental Ingredients of the RDG Design Process Our commitment to collaborative design ensures that the layout and functionality of the final project accurately reflect your project goals and vision for a transformed environment. It’s time to discover what role food plays in your organization.
RDG assists in shaping vision, design and impact of the culinary arts program within each community’s educational model and goals. We use active listening, empathetic exploration, and visual discovery to better understand: Context
What works for your facility? What enhances your culture? What fits your community?
Benchmarking asks the question, “what does the data tell us?” Benchmarking
What space are we playing in? What are our budgetary parameters? How many students are we serving?
Trends
Trends seeks to understand how best to position our future culinarians for the evolving foodservice industry. What place does Culinary Arts have in today’s CTE educational model? What opportunities will be available tomorrow for today’s culinary student in the marketplace? How can we provide a simulated professional setting to allow a student hands-on exposure to culinary technology and workplace conditions?
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Save the Fork!
“You can teach S.T.E.A.M. - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math - across the curriculum, and in Culinary, it’s all there. We have Science in heat transfer. Food safety talks about Microbiology. We get into Chemistry in our baking labs. We have Engineering and Technology in our equipment. Math is so critical to scale up recipes and keep your food costs in line and be operationally profitable. And of course, the Art is there all the time because plate presentation matters.” Chef Jeff Bricker Ivy Tech Culinary Hospitality Chair
VIDEO: VIDEO filmed by BHS-TV Scan here to watch!
Interested in seeing more? RDG teamed up with DLR Group to design a culinary space for Barrington High School. Check it out!
Contact Us If you’re interested in exploring where your culinary program could go, we would love to work with you.
info@reitanodesigngroup.com
Call or Text: (317) 637-3204
302 N. East Street Studio One Indianapolis, IN 46202
www.reitanodesigngroup.com
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