Why culinary schools must nurture entrepreneurship, not just chefs?

An expert view on equipping students with not just kitchen skills but also business acumen...

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As India's culinary landscape expands beyond traditional kitchens into cloud kitchens, food trucks and digital content, the need for entrepreneurship in culinary education has never been greater.

In this article, Parixit Pai Fondekar, Founder of the Kamaxi Group, argues that India's culinary schools must evolve into launchpads for foodpreneurs, equipping students with not just kitchen skills but the business acumen to thrive in a rapidly changing industry.

A Shift in Culinary Aspirations

In recent years, there's been a quiet shift in the way young Indians are approaching careers in food. The focus is no longer solely on perfecting classical recipes or mastering knife skills.

Increasingly, students and professionals alike are looking beyond the plate: towards the mechanics of running a food business, understanding brand positioning and navigating the practicalities of the hospitality industry. And that's exactly the direction towards which modern culinary education needs to evolve.

Entrepreneurship as a Core Ingredient

As someone who has been closely involved in culinary skilling over the past decade, I've come to believe that teaching culinary techniques without entrepreneurship is like handing a chef a knife without showing them where to source ingredients or how to assess the cost implications of curating a menu.

In India, where self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship are rapidly emerging as viable career paths, especially in the food sector, we need to start thinking of culinary schools as entrepreneurship launchpads; not just grounds for basic training.

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