Aim of Unit 27 Contemporary Gastronomy
Gastronomy is an art of cooking or intake of good food. Thus, Unit 27 Contemporary Gastronomy focuses on providing an insight into the gastronomic principles to the learners. This unit helps the learners to understand the necessity of organoleptic and academic skills and also guides regarding the implementation of these skills in contemporary gastronomy. In addition to this, this unit helps the learners to acquire an understanding of gastronomic trends and different ways to develop skills to respond to these trends. At the same time, this further provides the learners with an overview of the future perspective of the application of gastronomic trends.

Learning outcomes
1 Understand contemporary gastronomic developments and trends
2 Be able to use food preparation and cooking knowledge and skills to prepare a range of gastronomic dishes in a professional, safe and hygienic manner
3 Be able to apply sensory evaluation techniques to assess food and beverage acceptability and quality
4 Understand the application of gastronomic principles and practices within contemporary food and beverage settings
LO1 Understand contemporary gastronomic developments and trends
In this section, the learners acquire knowledge of the development of contemporary gastronomy and its trends. The development and trends focus on diversity of development, client-based and choices, operations and management, choices of food, organic food and availability of international food and development of different cuisines as well. This section also provides information regarding the contemporary influences on the organisation. The influences could be framed as contemporary personalities, effectiveness and roles, political, technological, social, fallacies of food choice, leadership and vision.
LO2 Be able to use food preparation and cooking knowledge and skills to prepare a range of gastronomic dishes in a professional, safe and hygienic manner
This section would provide the learners with an overview of implementing the skills of cooking and preparing food to a wide range of gastronomic dishes. The learners would be able to understand the requirements of planning for cooking that include timing, quality of food, number of food orders, selection of appropriate equipment and maintaining safety and hygiene. They would also acquire an idea of attitude and standard they need to maintain, hygienic practices, body language and respecting customers with effective communication skills. Further, they would also acquire an idea regarding compliance with legislation to maintain safety and hygiene.
LO3 Be able to apply sensory evaluation techniques to assess food and beverage acceptability and quality
In this section, the learners would be able to acquire knowledge to apply sensory techniques for evaluation of acceptability and quality of food and beverage. This section would help the learners to identify the taste and flavour using five senses. They would also acquire an idea of using different rating scales such as numeric, hedonic, values and criteria.
LO4 Understand the application of gastronomic principles and practices within contemporary food and beverage settings
This section would provide an insight into the application of gastronomic practices and principles within the contemporary food and beverage settings. They would be able to acquire knowledge of different techniques that could be used such as collecting information from different sources, collecting quantitative or qualitative feedback. This helps the learners to acquire an idea regarding the areas of improvements. They would also acquire understanding criteria they need to fulfil and would also understand the situation for which they could avail sales of services.

Learning outcomes and assessment criteria
Learning outcomes On successful completion of this unit a learner will: | Assessment criteria for pass The learner can: |
LO1 Understand contemporary gastronomic developments and trends | explain contemporary developments and trends in gastronomyapply gastronomic principles in the construction of menus, dishes and the selection of appropriate beverages |
LO2 Be able to use food preparation and cooking knowledge and skills to prepare a range of gastronomic dishes in a professional, safe and hygienic manner | discuss the equipment, commodities and methods used to prepare and cook gastronomic dishesdemonstrate skills in the preparation and cooking of gastronomic dishes demonstrating a professional attitude at all times, following safe and hygienic working practices |
LO3 Be able to apply sensory evaluation techniques to assess food and beverage acceptability and quality | evaluate the inner-relationship between food and beverages and the five sensesdiscuss an appropriate rating scale with criteria and values to determine the acceptability and quality of food and drinkapply organoleptic evaluation techniques to assess the acceptability and quality of food and drink |
LO4 Understand the application of gastronomic principles and practices within contemporary food and beverage settings | discuss evaluation techniques and criteria for evaluation of a food and drink experiencejustify the outcomes of the evaluation making valid recommendations for improvement |
Links
This unit is linked to practical units within the qualification, such as:
- Unit 4: Research Project
- Unit 25: Menu Planning and Product Development
- Unit 28: World Food
- Unit 29: Creative Patisserie
This unit also links to the following Management NVQ units:
- A1: Manage your own resources
- A2: Manage your own resources and professional development
- B2: Map the environment in which your organisation operates
- B8: Ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, ethical and social requirements
- B11: Promote diversity in your area of responsibility
- C1: Encourage innovation in your team
- C2: Encourage innovation in your area of responsibility
- C3: Encourage innovation in your organisation
- F9: Build your organisation’s understanding of its market and customers
- F10: Develop a customer focused organisation
- F11: Manage the achievement of customer satisfaction
F12: Improve organisational performance