Getting Schooled in Hospitality

The picturesque city of Lausanne is home to an array of indulgent gourmet and hospitality experiences, including top hospitality management school EHL.

- KAREN TEE

In a carefully choreographed move, four artistic plates of delicate encornets farcis are placed on our table at the same time. The head waiter describes the dish — tender baby squid stuffed with spinach and chorizo, and finished with a dramatic inky squid sauce — with such verve, I can almost taste it even before taking a bite.

Just moments before, a sommelier has ensured that our glasses are generously topped up with wine, offering tasting notes on how the tipple will complement the food.

It is everything one would expect from an elegant French restaurant, except that this is not your typical fine dining establishment. Le Berceau des Sens, helmed by chef Cedric Bourassin, is a training restaurant by EHL Hospitality Business School that’s located on its campus in Lausanne, Switzerland. It also happens to have one Michelin star.

The servers are mostly pre-tertiary students, although they comport themselves with as much poise as any other veteran hospitality professional. More remarkably, they are only at the restaurant for a week before they move on to another attachment at the campus’ various F&B outlets as well as reception and room division departments.

This is part of the management school’s preparatory year programme for students enrolling in its Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality programme to give them hands-on exposure to the ins and outs of hospitality operations as well as business management.

As Ines Blal, executive dean and managing director of EHL emphasises, “We bring together a hotel school and a management school. The goal is that when they graduate, they are professionals ready for different industries besides hospitality, including luxury, financial services, technology and communications.”