“Eat Crickets”

Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism - The Residential, held in Sydney, Le Cordon Bleu Australia recently provided fellow online students the opportunity to learn and visit successful food tourism businesses and the chance to meet fellow distance education students.

Jana Clifford’s talks of her experience, with an added excitement as she prepares to travel to Paris in October to attending the Hautes Études du Goût program to further extend her gastronomic journey.

I started my studies with Southern Cross University and Le Cordon Bleu in January 2015 following a lifelong passion for food and learning.  If someone told me 18 months ago I would be going back to University to eat crickets I would have laughed, but following the 4-day Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism residential, not only can I say I’ve eaten them, I have ants in my pantry (by choice). The Residential allowed me the opportunity to experience some of the best food Sydney has to offer, much to the delight of my taste buds, while lectures from academic staff, former students and industry experts stimulated my mind. The group visited Vaucluse House and experienced a taste of 19th century life by preparing butter and lemon sherbet along with Master of Gastronomy graduate, Jacqui Newling sharing her experiences of food writing. We had our concepts of what is edible challenged by the Edible Bug Shop and blended our own gin at Archie Rose.

A tour of regional New South Wales, Penrith allowed us to really appreciate the gastronomic tourism experience with exclusive tours of Zokoko Chocolates, Muru Mittigar (an Aboriginal culture organisation), Montecatini Smallgoods and Go-Shu Blue Sake Brewery.

We braved an early morning start to tour the Sydney fish markets and learnt how the Wayside Chapel is changing the lives of homeless and disadvantaged people in the Kings Cross area through their rooftop garden.

The various activities and talks we were exposed to during the Residential really supported the online learning and it was wonderful to be able to meet and socialise with fellow students. I particularly enjoyed learning about their journeys and feel that through sharing their life experiences, they will also shape my learning.

The Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomic Tourism Residential is an annual 4-day program designed to enhance understanding of gastronomic tourism (values, themes, principles) through workshops/tastings/classes, attend relevant gastronomic tourism excursions, meet and get to know fellow students and staff from the program, explore modern food trends and showcase a region’s gastronomic tourism industry.

The 2017 Residential will be held in the Gold Coast/ Northern Rivers NSW region in June 2017.