One of my favourite restaurants and a must visit when we take chefs on our Provence Safari is La Chassagnette.
France 5 the televisison channel did a full feature on the restaurant and it fantastic gardens – you can se the film clip here
Archives for September 2007
Informal learning
I am a great beliver in informal learning
Watch th 10 min presentation by Jay Cross:
Informal Learning
Time-Out – we have the right location
We have spent the past 4 days researching the best possible location for our latest idea – and I think we have found it . Tucked away high up in the mountains above Nice in the beautiful Parc du Mercantour.
You can just spot the hotel in right hand part of the picture. The road winds its way up from the village of Belvedere a distance of about 10 k’s and ends here at the entrance to the Parc. Once you reach this spot there is no longer mobile phone cover and the locals smile overbearingly and shake their heads when we ask for a high speed internet connection. No chance in this part of the world.
We all need to see the world from 2800m from time to time – it gives a different perspective and that is the whole idea behind this project
The surroundings are breathtaking and I am convinced that this setting will give our participants the opportunity to participate in a reflective process while at the same time getting to enjoy a series of physically challenging outdoor activities that we have planned – which is why we call it: Time-Out.
We shall be publishing more details on this event in the weeks to come – if you are very impatient drop me a note and I will tell you what I know at this point in time.
The next 4 days we are on a special mission
This week we are taking the first steps to research our latest idea for a new workshop – we have called it Time Out.
It is not a course in the traditional sense but a chance for participants to take, well – a time-out .
To think about their life, where they are and where they might be going. But maybe most importantly just to take a break and recharge their batteries.
To this end we have located a very special place the parc du Mercantour here
The full program and dates will be available in about 10 days.
Space will be limited to 20 people
If you are interested to know more let me know.
To sprog versioner / two language versions
Our blog is now bi-lingual – Click the flag at the top for the language you prefer
Vores blog er nu på to sprog engelsk og dansk. Klik på flaget i toppen for at skifte sprog
(Nyhedsindlæggene er ikke identiske i de to versioner – nogen indlæg skriver vi til den danske – andre til den engelske)
(The news blogs in the two versions are not identical – some entries we do only in one of the languages)
Diplomlederuddannelse i gang
[lang_da]Hvad gør man for at videreuddanne sig, hvis man stoppede tidligt i skolen og gik i gang med en karriere inden for hotel- og restaurationsbranchen? Hvordan kan man få en akademisk anerkendt uddannelse, når man ikke har mulighed for at gå på universitet fuld tid? Og hvordan får man kædet de mange spredte kursustilbud sammen til at blive en kompetencegivende uddannelse?
Det er typisk de spørgsmål, som mange dygtige ledere i hotel- og restaurationsbranchen stiller sig, og indtil nu har der ikke været ret mange positive svar.
Derfor har Danske Konferencecentre indgået et samarbejde med konsulentfirmaet GROW Aps om at udvikle en treårig diplomlederuddannelse, der kan tages i moduler. Uddannelsen er udviklet i samarbejde med Value Projects og akkrediteret af University of Chester.
Initiativet reflekterer det stigende behov for kompetencegivende efteruddannelse især inden for servicefagene. Unikt ved forløbet er, at der tages udgangspunkt i den enkeltes jobsituation – en model som netop University of Chester har gjort til et speciale gennem deres afdeling for
’workbased learning’. De studerende arbejder ikke med cases, men tager udgangspunkt i deres egne konkrete arbejdssituationer gennem hele forløbet med det mål løse reelle problemer på arbejdspladsen fra dag ét.
Første workshop blev afholdt i Odense d. 22-24 august med bragene succes og høje forventninger til det resterende forløb.
Leif Christiansen, direktør for Danske Konferencecentre, udtaler:
”Jeg glæder mig meget over, at vi med dette initiativ for alvor kan sætte strategisk lederudvikling på dagsordnen. Med klart lederfokus og en rød tråd gennem hele forløbet er uddannelsen kompetencegivende på et højere niveau end traditionelle efteruddannelseskurser. Ved at iværksætte en anerkendt uddannelse på bachelorniveau, bliver der langt større muligheder for en langsigtet, gennemtænkt og målrettet indsats, når vi taler om nytænkning og kompetent ledelse inden for hotel- og restaurationsbranchen.”
Deltagerne kan efter tre års deltidsstudier kalde sig diplomledere i Service Management
– akkrediteret af Chester University, UK. [/lang_da]
Hamburg
We had 2 interesting days in Hamburg. The idea was to check out a few innovative ideas and have a general chat about how to cope with the ever increasing problem of scarcity of trained chefs and spiralling labour cost.
We started out with lunch at Va Piano In my opinion one of the most innovative food concept we have seen in a long time.
Followed by tour of the East hotel
And dinner at Elysee
The reason we had dinner the Elysee was that we wanted to test the Block Menu concept live – and that was a real eye opener for all. A 160 seat restaurant handled by 2 chefs in a space no larger than 14 sqm. In the banqueting department 2 chefs handle up to 1000 covers in a night with ease.
So the next day we went to Zarentin outside Hamburg to find out what the sceret begind the low labour cost was: Block Menu
Export manager Rüdiger Brümmer took us through the menus and demonstrated how far sous-vide cooking has come – and we may all have different opinions on taste but we could not fault the quality of the products.
The experience was intense – every one fully concentrated
On the way back to Copenhagen in the bus we had a god chat and reflection on the merits of the various cusines we visited and our hig profile chefs of course stuck to their principles and gave conveniens food a good bashing – but then they got hungry…
Need I say more…
It was good fun and an eye-opener for us all – and like it or not, what IKEA has done to furniture production, Block Menu is determined to do to food production.