Culinary Business Opportunities in Indonesia: Be Unique

Culinary business opportunities in Indonesia are plentiful and dependent on current trends as led by public opinion and popularity. Good fortune will surely follow if you find a niche and a good marketing strategy for your business concept. OTTIMMO Culinary Academy in Surabaya can provide you with all of your knowledge and professional guidance. The chefs at OTTIMMO will refine your culinary skills and your education to help you with this big business decision.

The evolution and innovation of new styles and techniques are what make the culinary industry so exciting.  Indonesians love their spicy foods without a doubt and have no limit to the types of snacks that they eat at any time of day. The wonderful culture and diversity of people here allow for some of the best flavours and an abundance of choices for food. Let’s review some popular types of food to consider for opening a business.

Banana Nugget

banana nugget

A new craze that’s grabbing chefs’ attention is the banana nugget business. Similar to Pisang Goreng, but prepared differently, these tasty treats are made with sweet bananas that get covered in flour and breadcrumbs, then fried until a little dry. Topped with a variety of flavours like chocolate, cheese, green tea, or Ovaltine among an assortment of others. The result is sweet, crunchy, with melted topping which is just perfect for dessert lovers.

Takoyaki

takoyaki

Takoyaki, originally from Japan, has been adopted by Indonesians and is presented with a twist. The traditional flavour is supposed to be stuffed with octopus, but here in Indonesia, the ingredient used is a different variety such as meatballs, sausage, chicken and cheese. These small snacks, approximately 3-5 cm, made from wheat flour, are fried in a pan with several semi-circle balls and flipped using chopsticks.

Martabak

Savory martabak

Martabak is a traditional Indonesian street food that comes sweet and savoury. The savoury one is made with a thinly stretched wheat dough that is overlaid and gathered onto an egg and minced meat filling. The filling consists of egg, shallot onions, coriander, and added meat minced chicken or beef. For the sweet one, it is made with a batter that is filled with butter, chocolate sprinkles, freshly grated cheese, a drizzle of condensed milk, and peanut and sesame seeds added on top.

Now that you have a few great ideas for the types of food to sell, let’s review some business strategies on how to sell it. A new method for having your food available to a larger audience is having a takeout menu available on Grab or Gojek. From the comfort of their home, customers can order your delicious food.

How about using a food kiosk cart? That’s a cheap and easy method to transport your food and to have it available for the public in a busy location. A food truck is a really convenient way of transporting your business anywhere, and it allows you to bring a wider variety of cooking methods and tools altogether. Don’t forget to share your location on social media to let your customers know where you’ll be.

You don’t necessarily need a restaurant to supply food. Consider a hot trend on how to make a considerably good income by selling baby food.  The examples used here are a sample of the wealth of food inspiration to create memorable meals for the culinary business opportunities available here in Indonesia. Become a foodpreneur through mentorship and teachings at OTTIMMO Culinary Academy in Surabaya. Learn how to create a business plan in order to secure funding. Choose your suppliers for fresh local produce. Get the government licensing, hire employees, advertise, and learn all of this invaluable knowledge as well as the hands-on kitchen skills with OTTIMMO. Discover more business ideas at OTTIMMO MasterGourmet Academy.

Food Presentation: Turning Toppings into Something Breathtaking

The art of food presentation is almost as important as the food preparation itself. Creativity can shine through, but it must work harmoniously with the dish and flavours. OTTIMMO has mastered this skill and will share its trade secrets with talented students who seek the knowledge and have the willingness to excel in this ever-evolving industry. 

The technique of garnishing and plating: pairing the flavours and ingredients into perfect plates. The visual appeal will impress and tantalise the imagination of the diner, making it Instagram-worthy to showcase your talent and skill, not to mention bring customers to your restaurant.

Let’s start with some basic techniques and ideas that will give you some inspiration and motivation on how to make a beautiful plate that will convince your guest it tastes superb before it even touches their lips. 

1. Food Presentation: The Smear

The first style to review is the smear. Using a filled squeeze bottle of your delicious sauce, make a circular portion on the plate, then take a spoon, starting in the middle of the puddle and pushing it out to make a tail-like imprint. Voila, not that hard for a beginner.

2. Food Presentation: The Swirl

The swirl food presentation

The second style, which requires a little more finesse, is the swirl. To achieve this effect, you will need to use a Lazy Susan or a cake spinner. With your plate spinning, use the squeeze bottle and pour out a line to create your design. Multiple sauces can be used in layers for intermediate difficulty and skill.

3. Food Presentation: The Stencil

The following technique uses spices powder for the stencil. You will need a fresh wall stencil and a powdered spice such as paprika, cinnamon, or cocoa. Place the stencil in the chosen space and sprinkle the powder. This is best used on a flat no-lip plate or platter in the unused area. It is a beautiful, simple design, guaranteed to impress.

4. Food Presentation: Graining

Now let’s try looking at a style that requires more of an expert touch, we call this graining. The tools needed are a food-safe paintbrush, a flat serving dish, dulce de leche, and chocolate sauce. Squeeze both sauces onto the dish, interchanging between colours, then use the paintbrush and pull down to create a wood grain effect in the sauce. For additional detail, use a graining comb, capture the imagination of the diner and leave a lasting impression for the final dessert course. 

Learn from The Expert

Chef Gordon Ramsay has dazzled the culinary world for decades. Let’s review one of his dishes at his famous London Maze Grill Restaurant. It’s called Sashimi on Ice, he uses 3 cuts of fish: 7 ounces each of sushi-grade tuna loin, butter fish fillet, and salmon fillet. Trim each piece into a perfect rectangle approximately 60 mm wide. Set a bamboo mat over a bowl of crushed ice. Add lemon and lime slices and shiso. Position the fish on the mat and garnish with the kiku flower. What an absolutely visually stunning presentation that will make your mouth water.

These are just some examples of the importance of food presentation and garnishing techniques used by world-class chefs. The OTTIMMO culinary academy will refine your skills through theory and hands-on training to enable the student to create their own masterpiece. No matter what your background, the main ingredients for cooking are passion and love of food. Come and join us today at OTTIMMO MasterGourmet Academy to upgrade your cooking proficiency.

Why Choose The Culinary Arts As A Career?

The culinary arts are an exciting career path to choose if you are passionate about food and have a creative edge, along with good attention to detail. It truly is a dynamic career path. Chefs are often praised and held in high regard and can be financially successful if you are willing to dedicate your efforts to the craft. Refine your skills and culinary education at OTTIMMO Culinary Academy, take out the guesswork; and learn the science behind the food. There are many unknown factors within the culinary business that the professionals at OTTIMMO will teach you with on-the-job training.

Why choose a culinary arts career?

How about the high demand for job opportunities? The food industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. There is a constant influx of employment postings for the tourism industry, on cruise ships, at resorts, theme parks, fine dining, personal chefs, and the list goes on.

Another reason is that it is ever-evolving and constantly changing. That said, you will never get bored because there is always something new happening. Menus are constantly changing due to seasonal ingredients, customer allergies, and the constant learning of new items and skills that will enhance your portfolio.

You can work around the world. The high demand for certified chefs can bring you to your desired vacation locations or favourite cities. Try your success in Paris by cooking French cuisine, or snowboarding in the mountains during your time off in the fancy European ski resorts.

Culinary Art as A Career

Things To Keep in Mind

Before you can reap the benefits of becoming a professional chef, you must realise that there is a lot of hard work involved in climbing this competitive ladder. The hours are long and you will not have much social life because you will likely work evenings, weekends, and holidays. It is possible to get a 9-5 job but it’s not very common unless you work in a corporate setting.

This is a physically demanding job. Sometimes you may be stuck in a small kitchen with no proper ventilation. It can get extremely hot in the kitchen, and you must be able to be on your feet for many hours. Be aware that not everyone can achieve high food standards and work a rigorous, busy shift. That is why being well organised and having a good work ethic are so important in the kitchen.

Start Your Culinary Career

The long-term career opportunities are endless. As you climb toward the top of the ladder, there are bountiful career choices for management and or financial investment into new restaurants. Whether you love to travel or have a business partnership, it is truly a dynamic and exciting career choice. The hype of being a chef artist and having a culinary business is at an all-time high. People watch cooking competition shows, or learn recipes on YouTube, and want to be chefs. Come to OTTIMMO Culinary Academy in Surabaya to begin your training and immerse yourself in the world of culinary arts.

OTTIMMO’S STUDENT COFFEE CLASS

OTTIMMO’s third year students

Third year students always get a beverage class, there is a coffee and wine class before they do the internship program.

On September 27th we started our drink class by giving material about coffee. Our students took us to a coffee plantation in Tutur village, Pasuruan, where they saw and learned about different types of coffee and how to process them from the plant, picking, peeling the coffee beans, selecting the best coffee beans and roasting.

After that in the first week of October they took a coffee class material class, the material was brought by a professional institution, namely Cattura, in that class they learned about cupping, in that class they were taught how to observe the taste of coffee first when it entered the cup, then proceed to manual brewing, in this class they learned how to brew coffee manually, without using an espresso machine and so on but requires special filter paper. After that, it was continued with roasting practice, in this coffee roasting students were taught how to remove water from coffee, dry and develop coffee beans, reduce the weight of the coffee aroma, and after that there was a latte class, in this latte art class students were taught how to decorate coffee beautifully.

The coffee class ends with a competency test, with the aim of measuring the extent to which students understand the material that has been delivered for 3 weeks.

Why Culinary Arts?

Attending a culinary arts program will allow you to learn the skills and knowledge that are required of a chef in the kitchen, which includes not only knowing how to cook but also how to create new dishes, how to keep the kitchen safe, how to run the kitchen efficiently and more.

Studying the culinary arts can help improve your life in many ways, including allowing you to improve the lives of the people you cook for as well. The following are just a few of the reasons why you should study the culinary arts:

1. A variety of career opportunities

There are a broad range of opportunities within the culinary arts fields. Career paths range from members of the preparation staff to head chef. Culinary arts training can provide the skills you need to safely prepare food and present it promptly in a visually pleasing way. With further education, you can even specialize in a specific area of the culinary arts, such as pastries. To become a chef, you could work your way up as you gain more experience. With a culinary arts education, you have the ability to start in professional environments and advance your career further.

2. Hands-on training

A culinary arts program will help prepare you for food safety, professionalism, entrepreneurship, and ethical practices. At OTTIMMO International, you will also get knowledge about food sanitation, cost control, entrepreneurship, wine, coffee, and many others along with learning how to cook in a variety of distinct and creative ways.

3. Try new flavors

An education in culinary school can give you the opportunity to try new flavors and experiment with the creation of dishes. You will be educated in flavor pairings and profiles that will give you the foundation and the potential needed to create culinary masterpieces.

4. Healthy lifestyle

Good culinary arts programs will teach you about nutrition. Many chefs these days have emphasized the importance of creating delicious dishes that are actually healthy in order to promote nutrition to their customers. This is the reason why the restaurants that offer vegan or plant based menus are getting popular.

5. Have the chance to travel the world

One of the advantages of going to a good culinary arts school is the opportunity to travel the world. Traveling the world will provide some enlightening experiences that will help to shape your view of life as well as your thoughts about food. OTTIMMO International will give you a chance to do an internship abroad, like to Europe, Asia, USA and Australia.*

Students with Special Needs? Why Not

OTTIMMO — Ottimmo International has a commitment to become an open college for anyone. The best culinary academy in Indonesia students come from various backgrounds and areas.

Now Ottimmo is more open with the acceptance of students with special needs, in accordance with the mandate of Pendidikan Tinggi (Dikti). Starting in the academic year 2019-2020 there are already some students with special needs who are studying by taking Diploma 3.

In accordance with Government Law number 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System, inclusive education for persons with special needs must be applied in university. This system adopts an international education system, that is, there is no difference for people with disabilities.

Ottimmo International Director Zaldy Iskandar said, Ottimmo is very open to anyone from anywhere, including students with special needs. The instructors at Ottimmo, both chefs and lecturers, and also the staffs, will do their best to provide assistance to them.

“The modern education system no longer distinguishes students with special needs. They are also entitled to vocational education, including Ottimmo International culinary academy. “However, before they enrol, we need to see whether the students with special needs are able to accept lecture material, especially in the kitchen,” explained Zaldy Iskandar.

Zaldy admitted, the challenge of accepting students with special needs was clearly not light, especially Ottimmo is a campus with more practical lecture material. But he was very optimistic that the chefs and teachers could provide assistance very well.

“During the last accreditation visitation by Dikti, it was also emphasized that Ottimmo be open to students with special needs. We are happy because starting in the academic year 2019-2020 there are already students with special needs who study at Ottimmo. Of course I hope they will succeed in the culinary field,” he said.*

Ottimmo Involved in 2019 ICSP

OTTIMMO – For the first time, Ottimmo International joined the 2019 International Community Service Program (ICSP). In collaboration with Petra Christian University (UK) and the Al Wali Foundation from the Netherlands, ICSP 2019 was held in Dusun Parang, Parang Village, Kediri Regency.

In the event which was held from July 16, 2019 to August 5, 2019, Ottimmo International was involved in various activities there. These activities include Dental Care for kindergarten, elementary school students and public, Nutrition Class, Cooking Demonstration, Water Projects, Waste Projects, Improvement of Facilities in the village and others.

ICSP 2019 participants were 15 dentist students from the Netherlands, six students from UK Petra, and three from Ottimmo International. They lived in the homes of Dusun Parang residents during ICSP, so they could feel the real village atmosphere.

Ottimmo sent three representatives, Reyhan Dhira representing students, Yasin Karyono as student affairs representative, and Kukuh Setyawan from public relations. It is expected that for ICSP 2020 student involvement will increase later.

“For the first involvement in this ICSP, Ottimmo can only send one student. In the future, we hope that more students will be involved because this program is very important and gives students good experience in community service,” explained Yasin Karyono, Ottimmo International Student Affairs.

Special activities held by Ottimmo are the Nutrition Class and Cooking Demo. “We provide an understanding of nutrition and processed food by using ingredients that are easily found in Parang,” explained Heni Adianata, a lecturer at Ottimmo International.

Meanwhile, Al Wali Foundation representative Cigdem Demir said that his party was very happy with Ottimmo’s involvement in the 2019 ICSP. “The existence of Ottimmo as a culinary academy provides a new atmosphere for ICSP, especially with programs related to food and nutrition which are very important for rural communities,” said Cigdem.*

Learning Coffee To Jember

OTTIMMO — The Coffee Class held by Ottimmo this year is different from previous years. This time the students were taken directly to the coffee processing center, the Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (Puslitkoka) in Jember, East Java, on 29 and 30 September 2019.

For two days the 5th semester students were in Jember specifically to learn about coffee. On the first day, students get The History of Coffee given by Ir. Cahya Ismayadi MSc, reviewing all about coffee from history, plantation to processing.

On the second day, students headed to Puslitkoka which is about 30 minutes from the Aston Hotel, where they stayed. In the Puslitkoka area, in the first session the students did a Coffee Tasting which was to try the aroma and taste of various types of coffee, both Arabica and Robusta.

After that, the group headed for the coffee processing area, starting with the release of coffee beans, drying, and sorting the types of coffee according to the size of the seeds. At that location there is also the manufacture of coffee processing equipment and various products processed by Puslitkoka.

“We bring students here so that they understand how coffee is processed from the start to be served. So, they know that the processing of coffee goes through a rather long process, “explained Gilbert Hadiwirawan, assistant chef who accompanied students in Jember.

After learning the history of coffee and witnessing coffee processing, Ottimmo students get Coffee Brewing session. Specifically this session was given in the Ottimmo International campus, because the equipment in campus itself was very complete for Coffee Brewing.

In recent years, coffee is indeed very popular and a lot of cafes or coffee shops have sprung up. That is why learning about coffee is very important at Ottimmo, because however coffee cannot be separated from the culinary business today.

Coffee expert Cahya Ismayadi said, “Learning coffee is not enough just once or twice, but it takes a long time. This is because scientifically, coffee has a very broad scope, from planting, processing, and serving.”*

Sushi Ends Asian Culinary Lessons

OTTIMMO—The lessons on Asian culinary arts was ended with Japanese food. For the whole week, the students have learned to cook Ramen, Yakisoba and Sushi.

 

For the last few weeks, second semester students have learned various Asian dishes, from Indian, Korean, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Malaysian and Indonesian food. After finishing the lessons on Japanese food, next week the students will learn more on Latin American cuisine.

 

As a review to the Asian cuisine lessons, Chef Jerry said that overall, the students have understood the character of Asian cuisine. Accuracy in using spices and techniques are necessary for cooking Asian food.

 

“The students have succeeded in mastering Asian cuisine with satisfactory result. They had practiced well on how to use spices and learned the techniques seriously,” stated Chef Jerry, one of the instructors in Ottimmo International’s kitchen.

 

After learning more on Japanese and other Asian cuisine, Chef Jerry reminded them to keep practicing and expand their knowledge on Asian culinary arts as the way to cook them is very different from cooking other continents.

 

“To make the lessons stick on their mind, students must also learn by themselves and expand their knowledge on it. If there is a problem during their practice at home, students can ask the chefs and we will provide guidance later,” said Chef Jerry.

 

Japanese food for example, there are some techniques which they should be more careful, such as rolling sushi. It looks easy, but it is not as easy as it looks. Therefore, students must practice them again outside the class.

THE PERFECT FRENCH MACARON

Are you a Macaron lover?

Do you know that Macaron have feet?

Do you know how to make a Perfect Macaron? Yes, our Short Course Gourmet Frenzy Program this time is about Macaron! with the hands-on training, you will learn how to make the perfect macaron from our expert Chef. Take the chance and peek the secret recipe… on Thursday, July 18 2013 at 10 a.m. in our Baking & Pastry Arts Kitchen.

Register now since our space are limited!