Pop-Up Capstone
Before our Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry Arts students complete their six-month certifications, they create a pop-up café as their capstone project. This original concept is dreamed up and executed entirely by the students as their culmination of everything they’ve learned at NOCHI.
Using knowledge gained in previous courses, students design menus, create recipes and develop a budget to support their restaurant concept. Their restaurant is then operated over a four-week period with service to the public.
To determine the executed concept, students work in small, dynamic that are carefully composed by their chef-instructors, balancing the strengths of individual to complement each other as they to conceive and pitch their restaurant.
As part of their pitch, students are tasked with creating and delivering several items. These include printed menus, a detailed cost breakdown for proposed food items, a sample receipt, an analysis of their target demographic, and thorough market research on local competitors. The objective is to present a fully realized restaurant concept that is as practical as it is creative.
This work culminates in a live pitch day, where local industry experts are invited to campus to evaluate each group’s presentation. Feedback is immediate, and the questions asked allow for our students to experience what it might be like to pitch their own business plan in the future.
While the pop-up pitch experience is a competition, as the winning concept is then executed by the full cohort, it is also a nurturing environment that provides support as our student work to collaborate on bringing their culinary visions to reality. This sets NOCHI apart from many other culinary schools and is an invaluable part of our students’ educational journey.
Net proceeds and donations from the pop-up fuel the NOCHI Scholarship Fund which allows us to open career pathways for students who rely on financial assistance to enroll.
