After the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, signed a memorandum of cooperation with German bakery Mächler GmbH, Chef Ya-Chun Li, an alumnus, went to Germany in September 2019 for a three-month short-term training. Ya-Chun Li is a former chef of a well-known chain bakery in Kaohsiung and has had experience of many years in the baking industry. This short-term internship has enriched her career and inspired her.

[Alumnus Ya-Chun Li (first from right) participated in the farmers' market on Christmas Eve during the internship, taking photos with the owner (middle) and chef (first from left) of Mächler GmbH, a famous German bakery.]

Mächler GmbH was founded in Schkolen, Germany, in 1856. It currently has 7 stores and a bakery with mobile vans. Bread is a staple food in Germany. Most of them are firm, sugar-free, oil-free, or low-sugar, oil-free hard bread. Among them, "sour rye bread," different from Taiwanese bread, comes with various kinds of grains in the dough or stuck to bread. Given expensive labor, Germany may make use of some large-scale production equipment to make bread and shorten the process. German bread is baked before the store opens in the morning, so the bread will be produced from 11 p.m. to the morning next day.

[Alumnus Ya-Chun Li practiced at German bakery Mächler GmbH]

During the internship, Chef Ya-Chun Li participated in the most important festival in Europe and the United States—Christmas Day. The Christmas- limited cookies and the most important Christmas bread "Stollen" has to be produced 3-4 weeks before the festival. Their hearts are like moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan. Mächler GmbH bakery also assists local school children to make Christmas cookies and gingerbread men. Every year, there are 1 to 200 children to experience the bakery work. It has been running for more than 10 years, which is very meaningful. Children always scramble to ask various interesting questions and use their creativity to decorate their own gingerbread men. They are encouraged and praised in the production process to enhance their self-confidence.

[Alumnus Ya-Chun Li went to Germany for a short-term internship to learn to knead German-style baguettes, farmer breads, and sour rye bread after work. 】

Chef Ya-Chun Li, an alumnus of the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that she has benefited a lot from this internship in Germany. In addition to experiencing a variety of different cultures from Taiwan, she has also deeply understood customers’ ideas and needs. In Germany, one can have 24 days of paid vacation in a leap year. She had to learn from Germans how to complete her work in a limited number of hours and learn how to enjoy life and value leisure. Only when one can only get a lot of rest in her body and mind can she maximize efficiency during working hours. In the future, as she said, if she has the opportunity to open a bakery, she would take this as her goal, so that she would be able to achieve a balance between work and life. Ya-Chun Li is very grateful to the Department of Hospitality Management, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, for giving her opportunity to be introduced and went to Germany for internship training. These international exchange experiences will help future entrepreneurship in product development and business management. In the future, STUST alumni and students will have the opportunity to participate in these rare technical exchanges and training.

[German elementary school students take turns to the factory to experience making Christmas cookies.]