“Bocuse & Co” committee kickoff at Institut Paul Bocuse “The Entrepreneurial Spirit” under the presidency of Yannick Alléno

A Center of reflection open to the world and international cultures, the Bocuse & Co Committee at Institut Paul Bocuse carries the contemporary French values of entrepreneurship high.

Under the presidency of Yannick Alléno, this Committee is made up by permanent members and international guests, coming from the hotel and restaurant universe. Several events are created each year based on a pre-defined theme allowing students at Institut Paul Bocuse to also be “actors”. In a logic of sharing, students and members of the Committee thus have the opportunity to carry out pertinent reflection with well-known professionals on a modern and topical issues.

The annual theme serves as a guideline for various actions led for or by the students at Institut Paul Bocuse. The goal is to nurture the reflections of the Bocuse & Co Committee in the form of:

• meetings with the profession during conferences, visits…
• contributions to the resolution of international issues.
  The Bocuse & Co Committee enriches its discussions through the information gathered by students – for example during internships – with different companies from the hotel-restaurant sector throughout the world.
• an entrepreneurial challenge in the framework of the “Avant-scène” program, the creation of restaurant concepts. Students are invited to react in an empirical way to the annual theme, and then form it into the creation of their own enterprise.

In order to promote this entrepreneurial spirit, the “Bocuse & Co” Committee gives out an honorary award each year to three young graduates from Institut Paul Bocuse who have promising entrepreneurial futures.

The three recipients from 2010 are Philippe Lagraula (Class of 2001 - Bistrot ‘Une Cuisine en ville’ in Dax / Les Landes), Dan Bessoudo (Class of 1994 – ‘La Table de Ventabren’ in Ventabren / Bouches-du-Rhône) and Clément Petitjean (Class of 2001 – ‘La Grappe d’Or’ in Torgny / Belgium). These Trophies were awarded yesterday evening, by Gérard Pélisson, President of the Board at Institut Paul Bocuse, Thierry Marx (who joined the Scientific Committee at the Food & Hospitality Research Center of the Institut Paul Bocuse) and Yannick Alléno, President of the Bocuse & Co Committee.

The theme of the first “Bocuse & Co” Committee is articulated around “Cuisine and terroirs: le passé can our origins become our future?”
 

Photo © Jeff Nalin