Recipe for success

the University of Brighton’s one-year MA in culinary arts aims to fill “a major gap” in the market for Masters-level gastronomy study. Maltese-born Edward Demarco, a graduate in hospitality with industry experience in banqueting and hotel room service both in the UK and Malta, is completing his MA in hospitality in Brighton. Virginia Matthews reports:

..My dissertation is going to focus on the different cultural attitudes towards food and the different expectations of service in the food industry. In Malta, for example, the service is very friendly and food is usually made from scratch, but you might wait an hour to get your meal, while here in the UK, service is professional and more reliant on technology. Although it appears that serving at tables does not come naturally to British people, most people in the hospitality industry do make an effort to be friendly and courteous. In Asian cultures, people are very sensitive about how they are dealt with; again, this must be taken into account by any food industry or hotel management.

My ultimate ambition is to be the general manager of a really smart hotel, possibly back home in Malta. I love food and I want to make it part of my management career, but I also like the other aspects of hospitality that make up the everyday life of a hotelier.