Foodpreneurship

Revolution Foods makes healthy kids meals for both schools and stores. Co-founder Kristin Richmond says mentoring and support have been key to the success of her business. Shelly Puri/Courtesy of Revolution Foods

Revolution Foods makes healthy kids meals for both schools and stores. Co-founder Kristin Richmond says mentoring and support have been key to the success of her business. Shelly Puri/Courtesy of Revolution Foods

In the past year, with conceptualization and then food trials that led to the opening of 51, this story catches our attention and interest. Thanks to the salt, over at National Public Radio (USA) for the new vocabulary:

Culinary Institute’s School For ‘Foodpreneurs’ To Cook Up Innovation

The Culinary Institute of America may be best known for churning out chefs. And some of its graduates — from Grant Achatz to Roy Choi to Anthony Bourdain — have succeeded in entertaining and inspiring a new generation of foodies.

But not all CIA graduates don chef toques.

Increasingly, culinary school graduates are charting new career paths that require more business chops. Take, for example, CIA grad Steve Ells, who founded the mega fast-casual chain Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Recognizing the potential to help chefs pursue entrepreneurial goals, the CIA is launching its own business school. CIA President Tim Ryan describes it as “the first business school of its kind in the world focused specifically on [entrepreneurship] in the food world.”

The Food Business School will not offer degrees. When it launches, it will offer a certificate program (envisioned as a one-year program). And the plan is to offer online courses — starting in the spring of 2015 — that are “team-based and highly interactive,” according to William Rosenzweig, a San Francisco venture capitalist who has been tapped to be dean and executive director.

“People learn by doing,” Rosenzweig tells The Salt. He thinks the program will appeal to aspiring food-entrepreneurs who don’t want to spend two years in a traditional MBA program.

“One of the reasons I’m excited about this is that traditional business school is ready to be disrupted,” Rosenzweig says “People learn in a new way now, they have different expectations,” and many can’t afford the $100,000 pricetag on a fancy degree from a university.

What he envisions is more nimble. For instance, he’s fine-tuning the concept of “innovation escapes” aimed at entrepreneurs or food professionals already working in the industry. “They would come to [CIA’s Greystone Campus in Napa Valley] for three or four days. There would be networking, brainstorming and hands-on problem solving sessions.”…

Read the whole story here.

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