The Department of Hospitality Management, STUST, recently participated in the 2021 Taiwan Cake Association Christmas Cake Skills Competition. Yi-Chen Lin and Yu-Fang Jiang won two championships in the professional group mousse cake and firewood cake, respectively. Min-Shiang Tan won an excellent award in the Creative King's Pie Social Group. In addition, Mr. Yu-Zuo Liu, an alumnus of STUST, won second place of the professional group mousse cake. All these winners show that the teaching effectiveness of the department has been recognized by all walks of life.

[The award-winning teachers and students of the Department of Hospitality Management, STUST, took a group photo at the award ceremony, (from left to right): Min-Shiang Tan, Yu-Shue Wang, Instructors Zheng-Sheng Lin, Yu-Fang Jiang, and Yi-Chen Lin.]

Taiwan Cake Association has been established for 20 years. The association has always been aiming to promote Taiwan’s cake culture. The art competition held this time was a fairly indicative event in the domestic industry. The entries are not only selected for their creativity and techniques, but also for its desirability for the market trends. It was not easy to obtain approval from the judges. In addition to solid professional training in baking, contestants must also continue to learn new technologies. Preference observation was integrated into the product. STUST has always been cultivating practical talents in response to the needs of the industry, and at the same time actively leading students to understand the actual situation of the industry, participate in industry cooperation, and it deserves to be able to win two championships at the same time.

[STUST student Yi-Chen Lin won the professional group mousse cake with his work--Piaget Christmas Eve--in the 2021 Taiwan Cake Association Christmas Cake Skills Competition.]

Mousse cake and firewood cake are the most technically difficult items in this competition. The champion product mousse cake of STUST was named "Earl's Christmas Eve." The baker used lemon and earl grey tea to achieve a distinct taste level in proportion without any incongruities. It came with front-taste, middle-taste, and aftertaste, added by the fact that the cake looked very bright and smooth. The theme decoration was clear. It must have taken a long time of training and repeated practice before the baker could accumulate the sensitivity to produce such tasty cake and achieve this result.

[STUST student Yu-Fang Jiang won the firewood cake professional group with her work--Peach Milk Fragrant Christmas in the 2021 Taiwan Cake Association Christmas Cake Skills Competition.]

Yi-Chen Lin, who won the champion of the mousse cake group, said that the rich professional experience and guidance of Prof. Zheng-Sheng Lin of STUST was the key for her to have broken through the bottleneck. In addition, the department uses teamwork to achieve mutual support and co-prosperity. This kind of learning effect is better than the traditional individual practice. Thanks to the support of the baking team of the department, the students have learned the taste matching, the knowledge of ingredients, the decoration and color matching skills, and the product design and packaging that the industry pays attention to. All of these can make an student more mature in his or her learning mentality. It is hoped that students will be more diligent in the future under the guidance of Prof. Lin.

[Min-Shiang Tan’s winning work of the Creative King's Pie Social Group in the 2021 Taiwan Cake Association Christmas Cake Skills Competition.]

Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, said that STUST has been deeply engaged in catering technology training for a long time, providing professional catering practice venues and sending students to Australia to obtain catering licenses. The basic skills of teamwork can immediately help students break the bottleneck in practice and make proper responses. STUST is a big family, where teachers and students are partners and family members. Students can find academic and technical teaching, as well as the companionship and experience sharing of senior sisters and classmates, which will lay a good foundation for future employment.

[Yi-Chen Lin, an award-winning student from the Department of Hospitality Management of STUST was training.]

[Min-Shiang Tan, an award-winning student of the Department of Hospitality Management was training.]