Culinary business a trend in Jakarta

More people are interested in eating outside the home and are more aware of healthy food, a fact seized upon by the droves of young people entering the restaurant business.

Ari Fadiati, a senior lecturer at Jakarta State University’s School of Culinary Management, said people wanting to take part in the business started to learn cooking.

“The number of students majoring in culinary management at the university is growing,” she said, adding that people realized that they could earn a lot from cooking.

“In the last two years, the number of students has doubled,” she said.

Ari attributed the increase in student enrollment to the wide range of job opportunities available and the chance to pick up entrepreneurial skills.

She said the demand for culinary management experts in the city was growing.

“Jakarta residents are vulnerable to illnesses because of their work habits, the lack of regular exercise and massive exposure to polluted air. So, turning to healthy food is one solution to stay healthy,” she said. “And to produce healthy food, culinary management connoisseurs are needed.”

Ari, who started teaching at the university in 1981, noted it was not only women who had an interest in cuisine. “There has been an increase in the men enrolling in the program as well,” she said.

Ari said her former students worked in various jobs, from chefs in restaurants, hotels and cruise ships to starting up their own food businesses.

She added that culinary management students were taught about cooking as a whole. “They are taught about the substance and the characteristics of food. They are also taught entrepreneurship and the principles of diet.”

Ari said that what made food delicious was not the seasoning but the cooking technique.

Mega Hadinata is a recent culinary management graduate from a state university in the city. She said that in the program, she learned how to cook professionally.

“I even learned about the chemical substance of ingredients, how to present the food beautifully and how to set up a restaurant,” she said.

“People need to eat. So, there is always room for a food business,” she said.

Mega now works as a chef at a small café and plans to teach cooking at a vocational school at Kebagusan, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

Culinary entrepreneurship is fast becoming a trend in Jakarta. More than 500 cafés with various themes, which need Rp 10,000,000 (US$ 1,166) to Rp 200,000,000 to start up, pepper the city.

Patricia Dwi Wulandari recently opened a restaurant specializing in desserts in Kemang, South Jakarta. She said that she established the restaurant because she saw many cafes selling tasty desserts.

“But most of them were very expensive, so I set up my own café to sell delicious desserts but at affordable prices,” she said.

Siloam Hospitals dietician Samuel Oetoro said the food people consumed determined their level
of health.

“So, eating healthy food is a vital way to keep us healthy,” he said during a health supplement product launch in Pancoran, South Jakarta, on Tuesday. (aaa)