The Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) has since 2011 offered a Bachelor of Arts degree in Culinary Arts Management. The four-year programme is aimed at those either working in hospitality or those wishing to become a cuisine professional.

The programme covers a wide range of skills that could be applied either in a career as a chef; or in a career as an all-round culinary professional. Topics covered include: introduction to gastronomy; nutrition; food preparation; wine study; menu and restaurant development; kitchen and restaurant design; and kitchen management.

Via the programme, students can acquire skills supplementary to those required for food preparation, i.e. ones relating to leadership, business management, food marketing management, and human resources management.

One of main features of IFT’s Culinary Arts Management programme is the flexibility of its approach to instruction. In addition to theoretical classes, there are plenty of opportunities for students to practise their skills.

Members of the programme’s teaching staff has years of experience working in either a 3-, 4- or 5-star hotel or a Michelin-rated restaurant in different places across the world. Their experience and passion for teaching provide students with hands-on skills and can inspire their creativity.

Students of the Culinary Arts Management programme are able to hone their skills in a well-equipped kitchen with modern facilities.

The students on the programme have not only a route to becoming eventually a professional chef, but also – upon graduation – a sufficient qualification for positions such as: a food and beverage department manager; a culinary school teacher; a food writer, or a food columnist in a periodical publication; or an advisor to restaurant or other culinary businesses.

In addition to offering the Culinary Arts Management programme, IFT holds master chef demonstration workshops. This is so that students of the programme and industry professionals can gain fresh insights regarding the culinary sector.

Chef Chantel Dartnall – named the “World's Best Female Chef “at the Best Chef Awards in Warsaw, Poland in 2017 – visits IFT to share information on some of her recipes featuring ecologically-sustainable approaches, and on techniques relating to “mise en place”, i.e., presentation of food on plates and at tables.

IFT’s events and courses – which help introduce fresh ideas and elements to people’s experience of cuisine as an art form – complement to the Government’s overall efforts for advancing Macao’s role as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.