Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, has been actively encouraging students to participate in corporate competitions. So far this year, it has won two awards in baking enterprise competitions, including the winner of the "Pin Yuan Cup Korean Bread Creative Competition" and an Excellency Award in "Uni-President Baking Cup."

[Student Zhao-Yu Chen (right) from the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the "Pin Yuan Cup Korean Bread Creative Competition"; he was awarded by Kun-He Shih (left), Director of the Institute of Crop Planting Research.]

This year Zhao-Yu Chen and Jing-Yi Huang from the department won an Excellency Award in the "Uni-President Baking Cup" with their brilliant performance. This time the "Uni-President Baking Cup" was created to promote Taiwan's baking culture and the exchange of baking skills, which was a student platform dedicated to colleges and universities (including graduate schools) in baking creation. In addition to the pursuit of the honor in the competition, this was the first award-winning event to be Uni-President by the commercialization; the award-winning works will be sold at 7-ELEVEN convenience stores, so that the students can integrate the practical aspects of social enterprises on campus and grasp the opportunity to realize their dreams of collecting a fund for their career.

[The work "The Cat’s Tripping An Elephant," which was jointly completed by Zhao-Yu Chen (left) and Jing-Yi Huang (right) from the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the " Uni-President Baking Cup."]

The "Pin Yuan Cup Korean Bread Creative Competition" was won by Zhao-Yu Chen from the department, adding another glory to the university. The "Pin Yuan Cup Korean Bread Creative Competition" was designed to meet the needs of the booming tourism industry in Taiwan. "Souvenir" is the main focus of the competition, and the starting point of the competition was how to be convenient and portable for one to taste the “Taiwanese flavor.” In addition to the taste and originality of the works, the scoring standard of the enterprise competition also emphasized market feasibility. The main demand of the “Uni-President Baking Cup” was that the finished products must have commercial production benefits and that the products must be finally machine-made, quantified, and distributed to the 7-ELEVEN supermarket store. The selection standard of enterprise competition was very high, and most of the contestants had talents in the workplace. Therefore, in order to stand out from the enterprise competition, the competitors must have a certain understanding of market acceptance, along with product creativity and stability. In addition to students from the bakery and catering departments of colleges and universities, the enterprise competition also included members from the baking industry. This could encourage competitors to learn from each other in the competition, so as to improve the innovative thinking and baking skills of each competitor.

[Student Zhao-Yu Chen (right) from the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the "Pin Yuan Cup Korean Bread Creative Competition."]

Zhao-Yu Chen, who won two awards this time, said that he had participated in many competitions in the past, while these two competitions cover the subjects which he had relatively seldom encountered. During the competition, he learned about how to package a product and how to attract consumers to buy, which together formed an important part of the baking industry. For example, the product design of Pin Yuan Cup"—“Purple Potato Crispy Cake" used purple potato as the main taste. The cookie dough was pressed into granules and then put into the model to form. By this method, there was a gap between the cookie dough and the dough. To achieve a crisper taste, adding caramelized walnuts should be able to enhance the level of taste. The competition was not about paying attention to the result or winning any prizes; rather, it was all about what one learned and experienced in the process.

Chen further stated that he was very happy to receive the award, and he thanked Instructor Hong-Ru Tsai from the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, for his constant reminder and revision of creative product development. Without his efforts, Chen would not have won the gold medal in the competition, for which he did not have much confidence. He would also like to thank STUST for having continuously asked teachers to help students participate in various competition activities, so that students can obtain the opportunities from competitions to show what they have learned. He also wanted to thank the Uni-President enterprise, Pin Yuan Industrial Company, and the Crop Institute for holding the competition, giving everyone the opportunity to learn from each other in the enterprise competition.