FHM Malaysia: HORECA School of Excellence

International talents doing their thing*

Definitely not a teh tarik*

Good music added to the flavour of the night*

Cocktails galore!*

Spotted! FHM GND 09 Finalist Vivien Cheng with a hot friend

Lap Sap providing the cool beats at Frangipani

Kuala Lumpur – The HORECA School of Excellence (HSE) kicks off the second term of the year today, promising yet another exciting 4-week long training programme, specially designed for employees of local food and beverage (F&B) outlets. Patrons to participating outlets are not exempted from the fanfare. Following the success of HSE’s signature ‘Bar Nights’ featuring a cast of internationally acclaimed bartenders who double up as trainers in the programme, in this term, expect to see international deejays competing for equal attention!

Formed in 2006, the twice-a-year HSE programme’s key objective is promoting ‘excellence amongst F&B employees’, as represented in the ‘Arrow of Excellence’ in the HSE logo. The vibrancy of the local F&B industry provides the perfect platform for the internationally acclaimed trainers to share their experience and know-how with HSE participants and these trainers too help to ensure that the programme’s content remain relevant to industry demands.

Now in its 4^th year, this year’s final term aims to provide training to about 550 service personnel from 40 of the most popular F&B outlets in Malaysia through flexible one-day modules, covering the entire array of skills that are essential to service staff – from gaining an appreciation of the history of famous beverages to salesmanship and communication skills. The HSE programme is not limited to front-line crew but has modules specially designed for more senior service personnel that focus on management issues like the roles leaders’ play, consumer profiling and conceptual marketing, amongst others. To-date, about 1,000 service personnel have graduated from this programme.

‘Mini-Bar Nights’ is also a new initiative introduced this term, providing an added opportunity for trainees to feature their own cocktail concoctions alongside those of the trainers. To be held starting from 10^th November 2009 at selected outlets, Bacardi-Martini Malaysia, a valued partner of the HSE programme, aims to increase the awareness of its portfolio amongst participants and consumers at large.

Similar to the previous term, the trainees’ key learning experience includes understanding the heritage and the production processes of the Bacardi-Martini brands. Having confidence and appreciation of the brands plays an important role, besides enhancing the service quality, these experiences will equip them to explore new and interesting cocktail concoctions.

Themed ‘Twilight Masquerade’, the Bar Night which is the largest event of this term’s programme will take place on 20^th November, to be held at Maison, Heritage Row - providing yet another avenue for consumers to try out signature cocktails made by aspiring local talents. This event starts at 10.00pm and will feature DJ Scott Pullen from Sydney. There will be no cover charge before 11.00pm while cocktails will be available for just RM10.00 each. Truly an event not to be missed for alcohol lovers!

International trainers that will be brought in for this term’s HSE programme are Kelli K. Barnett, Chanond Purananda, Dhasan (Golffy) Prabhananda and Maya Samuelsson. These globe-trotting professionals have worked in world renowned properties located in swanky areas like Hollywood, Manhattan, New York, Soho and Stockholm. With each training having at least seven years of working experience, many of them now own (or co-own) famous entertainment or training centres.

At the end of the course, HSE participants will attend a grand graduation party, with the highlight of the night being the Mixology contest. Here, bartenders will put their newly acquired beverage knowledge, mixing and preparation techniques and creativity to the test, aiming for the coveted title of ‘Best Mixologist’. Top students and outlets will also be awarded with certificates of recognition, trophies and cash prizes.