Tourism, culinary, and hospitality industries are among many developing sectors in various cities. This rapid development must be combined with creativity and skills to keep workers in this sector to keep being relevant. For this reason, the Hotel Management Student Association (HMPP) at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro, (Udinus) hosted the ‘Hospitality Competition.’
This event, which was a part of the 2024 Dinusfest, had several categories, one of which was the Cooking Competition. This competition was hosted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2024 in the hospitality lab on the fourth floor of the G building. Additionally, it featured various participants, encompassing high school students, college students, and practitioners under 25 years of age. The participants also came from many cities, including Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Cirebon.
As stated by Nabilla Dinda Ramadani, the head of the committee, the theme of this event was ‘Indonesian Fusion Challenge Seafood.’ “This particular theme was chosen to encourage participants to push their boundaries in making seafood, considering the time was limited, and they had to cook the seafood from scratch,” she uttered.
Furthermore, she explained that there were eleven teams, consisting of two people each, participating in the competition. This rule was enacted for participants to improve their teamwork skills in cooking.
“There were two assessment criteria, encompassing creativity and aesthetics, food ingredients, sanitation, presentation, and preparation. The judges mainly consisted of experts from the Indonesian Chef Association (ICA) of Central Java,” Nabilla added.
In addition to the Cooking Competition, Making Bad, Towel Art Competition, and Coffee Creation were also featured in the 2024 Hospitality Competition. Those three competitions were held offline from January 24th to 25th, 2024.
Collaboration
Not only did the Humanities Faculty send chefs for judgment purposes, but it also partnered with ICA and Arturo to host the Workshop on Fruit Carving and Bakery. Moreover, the participants of the 2024 Hospitality Competition were also allowed to attend the workshop and learn fruit carving and bakery directly from the experts.
Dr. Neni Kurniawati, SS., M.Hum., the Head of the Hotel Management Department, revealed that this year marked the second year of their partnership with ICA and Arturo. Previously, the partnership was also embodied in the form of public lectures and forum group discussions.
“Hopefully, participants could not only hone their skills through this competition but also garner new insight concerning hospitality to improve their skills through the workshop,” she revealed.
This event also gained a positive reception from Dr, Raden Arief Nugroho, S.S., M.Hum., the Dean of the Humanities Faculty, particularly concerning the efforts taken by the Hotel Management Department in committing to always developing various aspects.
"Through this series of events, we could see the animo coming from the public, particularly students interested in hospitality. It is indeed our responsibility to maintain the quality of this department so the learning materials can always be relevant to the industry,” the dean concluded.
The Hospitality Competition is among 36 contests featured at the 2024 Dinusfest. This total of 36 contests will last for two weeks, from January 20th to February 5th, 2024. For those seeking information concerning the 2024 Dinusfest, you can visit our website on https://festival.dinus.ac.id/. (Humas Udinus/Ika. Foto: Humas Udinus)
