Students create their own pop-up restaurant in Japan
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Faire défiler la pageOur students in the Bachelor in International Culinary Arts Management who have chosen to specialise in Japanese Cuisine and Culture for their sixth semester opened their own pop-up restaurant for 10 days. A restaurant that they created from start to finish as part of their final project, providing the opportunity to put all the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired during their three years at the Paul Bocuse Institute into practice.
DISCOVER THE PAIN DE MICHE RESTAURANT
DEVELOPING THE BUSINESS PLAN AND THE NECESSARY SOFT SKILLS
Before opening Pain de miche, and before even deciding that this would be the name of their future pop-up restaurant, our students spent time on careful consideration, going from the very idea of the concept, to drawing up a complete business plan. Supported by the teachers from our partner school Hokuto Bunka, and supervised by Marielle Salvador, Associate Professor in Marketing at the Paul Bocuse Institute, the students actively constructed all the phases of the creation of their restaurant.
The drafting of the business plan allowed them to anticipate all the functional and operational needs of their temporary restaurant concept: marketing and communication, finance and human resources, not to mention the menu and the decor of the premises. Diving deeper into these main areas, the students then had to define together the graphic identity of the restaurant, its communication policy, the menu, pricing strategy, salary costs and management of schedules.
PAIN DE MICHE, A GOURMET RESTAURANT BRINGING TOGETHER FRENCH AND JAPANESE CUISINE
Pain de Miche is a restaurant concept whose signature is blending the traditions of Japanese fine dining with a fundamental element of French gastronomy: bread. So the rhythm of each course is dictated by a specific way of cooking the bread, following the traditional order of the Japanese meal: raw, steamed, grilled and fried.
In this restaurant, bread becomes both a culinary product in itself, and a medium for expressing the produce and techniques of Japanese cuisine. The offering is also adapted to the culture and the needs of the local population: with bento-oriented food on the go at lunch, and a more refined kaiseki menu in the evening. A take-away menu has also been developed for Pain de Miche, extending the concept to a street food format celebrating plain and simple bread.
A complete and successful restaurant concept, where the students on our Bachelor’s degree flourish in the kitchen and are assisted in the dining room by Japanese students on work placement. This collaboration ensures the success of the restaurant while also highlighting the managerial capabilities of our students in an international context.
A SEMESTER OF IMMERSION WITH THE SPECIALISATION IN JAPANESE CULTURE
Students taking the Bachelor in Culinary Arts Management can choose a specialisation during their sixth semester including Japanese Culture. This specialisation allows students to study at the Hokuto Bunka Academy in Japan for several months.
A unique opportunity for our young students, future professionals in our industries, to explore the Land of the Rising Sun through practical and theoretical courses as well as workshops focusing both on cooking and Japanese traditions. Our students shared their experience in an interview also available on our website by clicking here.
Whether the students are on the Ecully campus or in Japan, the final project task of opening their own pop-up restaurant embodies the concept and implementation of our experiential pedagogical approach. A unique approach that aims to combine the business, operational and managerial skills of our students, while stimulating their creativity and boosting their entrepreneurial spirit.
Continue reading and discover more about our training projects, including a video highlighting some of the culinary experiences created by our students: