Big Ideas

Big Ideas

Creativity and flavour can enhance food product design and service.
Culinary design interests require the evaluation and refinement of skills.
Tools and technologies can be adapted for specific purposes.

Content

Learning Standards

Content

specialized recipe design opportunities
food preparation and methods for selected specialized cuisine
best practices
for example:
  • planning balanced and flavourful cuisine
  • limiting salt and sugar when building flavour
  • including fresh and seasonal produce when possible
  • providing interesting alternatives to address dietary restrictions
in recipe development and preparation
artistic elements
consider:
  • the art of preparing, cooking, and presenting meals to enhance the dining experience
  • complimentary and contrasting colours, textures, and flavours
  • use of negative space on a plate, height, forms and shapes, lines and focal points
of the culinary arts
food science
for example, pH involved in fermentation; molecular gastronomy; antibacterial qualities involved in smoking meat; gluten development; substitution for allergies, dietary restrictions, or health
in recipe development, including characteristics, properties, and functions of ingredients and substitutions
for gluten-free, lactose-free, and sugar-free cooking; vegetarian cooking; low sodium diets
advancements in ingredients and tools
for example, molecular gastronomy, freeze-drying, immersion circulators, sous vide, smoking, curing,  fermentation
food trends and how they develop
social, economic, ethical, and environmental effects
for example, land and water use, food miles, workers’ rights, food security, health, affordability, food waste
of food production, purchasing, preparation, and disposal
ethics of cultural appropriation
using or sharing a cultural motif, theme, “voice,” image, knowledge, story, practices, or recipes without permission or without appropriate context or in a way that may misrepresent the real experience of the people from whose culture it is drawn
interpersonal and consultation skills
for example, professional communications and collaboration
, including ways to interact with consumers and customers

Curricular Competency

Learning Standards

Curricular Competency

Applied Design

Understanding context
  • Observe and research the context of a recipe preparation task and/or process, including clientele
    for example, students or adults?
    and type of service
    for example, buffet or à la carte? formal or informal event?
Defining
  • Identify potential consumers or customers for a chosen design opportunity
  • Identify criteria for success, constraints
    limiting factors, such as available technologies and resources, expense, space, materials, time, environmental impact
    , and possible unintended negative consequences
  • Prioritize the steps
    consider what has to happen first and what needs to be done before going onto the next steps in order to complete a recipe or service
    needed to complete the task
  • Sequence the steps needed to safely organize the workspace and select tools and equipment
  • Anticipate and/or address challenges
    for example, figure out meaning of new culinary terms, food and personal safety precautions, and equipment needed and how to properly operate
  • Evaluate the physical capacities and limitations of the workspace
Ideating
  • Take creative risks in generating ideas and add to others’ ideas in ways that enhance them
  • Analyze and screen ideas and recipes against criteria and constraints, and prioritize them for prototyping
  • Identify and apply existing, new, and emerging tools, technologies, and systems for a given task
  • Critically evaluate how competing social, ethical, economic, and sustainability considerations impact choices of food products, techniques, and equipment
Prototyping
testing the steps or ingredients needed to create a food product, or creating test samples of a food product
  • Identify, critique, and use a variety of sources of inspiration
    may include personal experiences, exploration of First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, the natural environment, places, cultural influences, social media, professionals
    and information
    for example, professionals; First Nations, Métis, or Inuit community experts; secondary sources; collective pools of knowledge in communities and collaborative atmospheres
  • Select and combine appropriate levels of form, scale, and detail for prototyping
  • Experiment with a variety of tools, ingredients, and processes to create and refine food products
  • Compare, select, and use techniques that facilitate
    For example, when is it of greater value to employ estimation or precision measurement, or use a convenience form of a food product?
    a given task or process
Testing
  • Identify and communicate with sources of feedback
    may include peers; users; First Nations, Métis, or Inuit community experts; other experts and professionals both online and offline
  • Use an appropriate test
    for example, when to taste test, appropriate people to test, suitable product standards
    to determine the success of the dish, technique, or skill
  • Evaluate and apply critiques to design and make changes
Making
  • Identify appropriate tools, technologies, food sources, processes, cost implications, and time needed for production
  • Create food product, incorporating feedback from self, others, and prototype testing
  • Share
    may include tasting by others, giving away, or marketing and selling
    their progress while making to gather feedback
Sharing
  • Decide how and with whom to share
    may include tasting by others, giving away, or marketing and selling
    finished product
  • Critically reflect on their design thinking and processes, and identify new design goals
  • Assess their ability to work effectively both individually and collaboratively, including their ability to share and maintain an efficient co-operative workspace
  • Identify and analyze new design possibilities, including how they or others might build on their concept

Applied Skills

Apply safety procedures
including food safety and sanitation, health, digital literacy
for themselves, co-workers, and consumers in both physical and digital environments
Identify and assess skills needed for design interests, and develop specific plans to learn or refine them over time

Applied Technologies

Explore existing, new, and emerging tools, technologies
tools that extend human capabilities
, and systems to evaluate suitability for their design interests
Evaluate impacts, including unintended negative consequences, of choices made about technology use
Analyze the role technologies play in societal change
Examine how cultural beliefs, values, and ethical positions affect the development and use of technologies on a national and global level