SFSG Masterclass Series with Adjunct Senior Lecturers - Chef Norman Musa & Chef Rene Johari

Final year students from Bachelor of Culinary Management were honored to attend a Masterclass Series by our Adjunct Senior Lecturer - Chef Norman Musa from Netherlands and Chef Rene Johari from Dubai through Zoom and SFSG FB live.

Chef Norman Musa who is a Celebrity Chef and a book author shared his experience on preparing the two classical Dutch Cuisine Bitterballen and Stampo with the students. An e-book was provided to the students as reference on his demonstration.

While Chef Rene Johari, an Executive Chef at Hilton Dubai shared about the professional approach in developing a dish using limited amount and similar number of ingredients. He also shared the art and techniques of plating using the professional approach in the industry.

From this Masterclass Series, the students learnt to distinguish and apply the methods of creating and developing a new dish in a professional manner as well as to identify and relate the similarity of food preparation based on the global trends and practices.

Master Class with Adjunct Prof. Mohd Said Bani on The Art of Preparing a Crisis Communication Plan

School of Media and Communication (SOMAC) Postgraduate Programme had recently organised a webinar on ‘The Art of Preparing a Crisis Communication Plan’ with its Adjunct Professor, Prof. Mohd Said Bani. This webinar is the continuation of the webinar on ‘Managing Crisis Communication’ which was held in March 2021. Adjunct Professor Bani discussed the flow of preparing a crisis communication plan from setting-up of a crisis response team to managing communication with stakeholders.

In preparing a crisis communication plan, it is important to know the DOs and DON’Ts when dealing with the media. This is essential as the objective of a crisis communication plan is to prepare the organisation in dealing with a crisis and to minimise the impact of a crisis to an organisation by having frequent communication with the media. The webinar was organised by the Risk and Crisis Management class at the postgraduate level of School of Media and Communication.

International Webinar on "Food Modernity and Diversity in Asia"

Two major research programmes the “Asian Food Barometer” and “Eating Out in Asia” led by the Chair of “Food Studies: Food Cultures and Health”. Created jointly by the University of Toulouse (CERTOP-CNRS and ISTHIA) and Taylor’s University in collaboration with researchers from the relevant countries, studies on “food modernity in Asia”. Started in Malaysia, the exploration has spread to other countries over the years from Indonesia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, etc.

The research programmes were introduced with the Theoretical underpinnings of the transitions and modernity in Asia by Prof. Jean-Pierre Poulain, Taylor’s Toulouse University Center and an overview of the international survey “Eating Out in Asia” and key findings by Dr. Elise Mognard, Taylor’s University. Two short videos provided a perspective on specific thematic focuses, namely “‘Eating out’ and obesity in Malaysia” by Yasmine Alem and “‘Eating out & in’ for mainland Chinese and diasporas in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia” by Kremlasen Naidoo, PhD candidates at Taylor’s University & University of Toulouse, Jean Jaurès. They respectively addressed questions to Associate Prof. Laurence Tibère and Associate Prof. Cyrille Laporte, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès.

The third webinar focused on the diversity of the food modernity in Asia with Eating Patterns of specific countries, namely by Prof. Dr. Neethiananthan Ari Ragavan, Taylor’s University, Malaysia; Dr. Helda Khusun and Dr. Judhiastuty Februhartanty from Seameo Recfom, Indonesia and Prof. Yoko Niiyama & Dr. Haruka Ueda from Ritsumeikan University, Japan. Discussion on the industrial implications of these studies between a Grand Témoin, Laurent Damien - Marketing and International Director & Deputy Director at CNIEL (The French Dairy Association) and Prof. Jean-Pierre Poulain concluded the webinar.

Participants from the 5 continents and 19 countries; Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, China, India); America (Canada, Brazil, Argentina); Africa (Algeria, Cameroun, Senegal) and Europe (France, Italia, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Austria, Sweden, Slovakia) have been attracted to the webinar, making this scientific event truly global. The diversity of participants’ backgrounds are from academicians, medical doctors, nutritionists, media and representative from several economic sectors such as gastronomy and wine, animal products and culinary equipment and websites, others and their active engagement during the discussions demonstrates the interest of these researches from the academia, industry and society.