‘Avant-Scène’
student project:
creativity and entrepreneurship

The latest ‘Avant-Scène’ season is now in full swing. As part of their programme, 2nd year students have been asked to design and then manage a pop-up restaurant concept from start to finish.

At Institut Paul Bocuse, our educational approach is built around creativity and entrepreneurship. 50% of our students’ courses involve practical professional training in a unique real-world learning environment.

‘Avant-Scène’ is the flagship project for our 2nd year students on the Culinary Arts Management and Hotel and Restaurant Management programmes. It offers a perfect illustration of how our signature experiential learning approach successfully combines the development of both managerial and operational skills. The project involves students creating and running a theme restaurant for 20 to 25 covers per service in a real-world situation.

Our students collaborate together with the objective of designing and running their restaurant from the kitchen through to the dining room based on a theme they have chosen themselves.

Split into groups and supervised by members of faculty as well as the Maîtres d’hôtel and Head Chefs who train and teach them throughout the year at the Institute, students are left totally in charge of running their concept during one whole week.

Learning objectives

• Students develop their creative skills by inventing recipes and imagining an original and attractive way of staging their concept.
• Students are given the opportunity to put directly into practice what they have learnt in class and to demonstrate their entrepreneurial qualities by managing from A to Z the various aspects of the project: writing the menu, communications, management of reservations, compliance with allocated budget, sponsorship, decorations, choice of tableware and table decorations, cooking, dining room service, health and safety standards…

‘Avant-Scène’ also calls upon the artistic flair of our students as well as their organisational and management skills. But above all, the project is a fantastic human adventure, which allows them to put to the test their team spirit and customer service skills.  

Below are some examples of the concepts on show for the 2019 season: