Thailand-based Dusit International is set to expand its hospitality education business in the kingdom with a unique joint venture offering experiential training in Italian, Japanese, and Thai cuisines – plus exclusive incubation services for F&B startups – in a facility in Bangkok.
Called The Food School, the project occupies 3,200m² of space set over three floors at the new Creative & Startup Village in the city’s Sam Yan district, just a five-minute walk from Sam Yan MRT underground station.
Equity partners in the 336 million baht (US$10 million) development slated to launch in 1Q2022 include Dusit International; Glowfish Co-Working Space (under privately owned real estate investment company, Heritage Estates Co.); Allied Metals, a supplier of professional kitchens and kitchen infrastructure; and La Scuola Internazionale di Cucina Italiana (ALMA), an education and training centre for Italian cuisine.
Designed to provide an experiential learning environment, and targeted at young professionals, keen amateurs, career-switchers, and entrepreneurs seeking to get the best possible start for their F&B businesses, The Food School will bring together three institutions – including Dusit’s own Dusit Thani College; Japan’s Tsuji Culinary Institute; and ALMA. Each will offer long-course modules in Thai cuisine, Japanese cuisine, and Italian cuisine and bakery, respectively.
Students will also have access to The Food School’s entrepreneurial incubator platform, The Test Kitchen, which will offer facilities for product testing and experimentation, business planning services, professional coaching and mentorship from local chefs, and exclusive opportunities to get financial support from investors during pitching sessions.
Regular events will showcase innovations and new F&B business trends. A community dining room, meanwhile, will serve as a venue for students, instructors, locals, visitors, mentors and mentees to exchange ideas and evaluate new concepts.
“The Food School aims to create a vibrant, dynamic and collaborative ecosystem that brings together Thailand’s food community to drive positive social, environmental, and economic developments in the food and beverage industry at large,” said Suphajee Suthumpun, group CEO, Dusit International.
Suthumpun added that no other facility offers such comprehensive services for culinary startups and young professionals in Bangkok.
She said: “By responding to the professional needs of the market in the new normal, fully leveraging Dusit’s rich experience in providing hospitality education for more than 20 years… we look forward to helping The Food School’s students, entrepreneurial associates, and community supporters to fulfil their potential with services, facilities and hands-on learning specially created to equip them for success in the brighter post Covid-19 days ahead.”
