Program
Train Gourmet department staff in:
- Sensory analysis
- Understanding of cheese: what it is, how it is made, and how it can be used by the customer
- How to evaluate and care for cheese
- Proper cutting and wrapping techniques
- HACCP and best sanitation practices
- Customer interaction: how to sell cheese
Methodology
- Weekly three-hour sessions in company meeting room
- Each session to include:
- Sensory analysis practice
- Instruction and discussion (see Topics, below)
- Review of homework, sharing reflections, responding to questions
Topics:
- Session 1: Introduction to sensory analysis, from grass to milk
- Session 2: Preparation of milk for cheesemaking: heat treatments, physical treatments, milk maturation, inoculation and renneting
- Session 3: Cheesemaking techniques and the families of cheese
- Session 4: Cheese labeling and quality indicators, sourcing cheese
- Session 5: Notions of affinage
- Session 6: Discussing cheese
- Session 7: Case setting: principles and analysis
- Session 8: Cutting and wrapping
- Session 9: HACCP and sanitation protocols
Homework assignments:
- Each week participants will be asked to keep a journal of their cheese work, answering the following questions:
- How has what we covered in the previous session(s) been of practical use to you in your work?
- What have you discovered that you do NOT know?
- ‘Sell’ one cheese from the store’s stock to the group (one person per session)
- In addition, occasional homework may include assignments such as:
- Research and present your company’s procedures or protocols in the cheese department (e.g., receiving, unpacking, sanitation, triage, returns/recalls, inventory management, margin calculation) (one person per session to present)
- Research a cheese in the case: history & origins, milk source, make technology, awards/quality indicators, shelf life, in-store care, at-home applications, and the distribution route the cheese took to arrive at your store.
- Occasional tests or quizzes may be given. These will be corrected in class, together.
CORPORATE OBJECTIVES
Incentivize cheese department staff through:
- Skill development
- Pride in quality and service
- Colleague and customer recognition
- Preparation for ACS CCP status
Company Growth through:
- Increased competency in handling product and sales effectiveness leading to increased sales and loss reduction
- Preparation for cut to order program
- Competitive advantage
- Public recognition
TERMS:
The course will be taught by Sue Sturman, Director, Makers & Mongers. We will provide all instructional presentations, including homework assignments, tests, journals, and handouts of PowerPoints.
Client will provide a conference room, projector and screen, and product for sensory analysis, sales practice, and cutting and wrapping. Client will also provide tools, cutting boards, paper, and all other materials required for any given course.
Client will select up to 10 participants in the course, to form a cohort that is not interchangeable. Attendance by each participant will be mandatory and included in staff working hours. A maximum of one absence will be permitted during the course. All homework assignments must be completed, regardless of attendance in class. Participants are expected to arrive on time, remain for the entire course, ready to participate fully.
Upon completion of the program, participants will receive a framed certificate of completion and a written statement of the course hours completed, which can then be applied towards the required hours for application to the ACS CCP© exam