Special day for the industry's future at GastroNord

This year's GastroNord is focusing on restaurant students by giving them their own day - Friday, April 29. On this day, students will be able to meet representatives from the entire industry and the Student Chef of the Year will be announced. A Student Restaurant is also being built at the exhibition, which will be run entirely by students, and the Junior National Culinary Team, of which several members are Sweden's leading young chefs and confectioners, will have a pop-up restaurant at GastroNord for the first time.

Student Restaurant
The name Student Restaurant was chosen to describe exactly what it is – a restaurant run entirely by students currently enrolled at hotel and restaurant schools. The restaurant is a cooperation between Stockholmsmässan, Mässrestauranger, Visita and sponsors.

“During the exhibition, Student Restaurant will be manned by high school students from programs that lead to jobs in the hotel and restaurant industry. We want to show and focus on the different jobs that are available within the hospitality industry. The industry will be recruiting 50,000 people by 2023 and the need for trained staff is very large,” says Eva Östling, Director of Visita.

The restaurant will be open every day of the exhibition and different schools will be responsible for different days. First on the list is Skärgårdsgymnasiet, followed by Stockholms internationella restaurangskola, Sågbäcksgymnasiet and Stockholms Hotell & Restaurangskola.

“We are very pleased that our students will have the opportunity to participate in and visit GastroNord. Student Restaurant will give them the opportunity to both show and improve their food preparation and service skills for knowledgeable guests. The restaurant industry is characterized by both tradition and change, and GastroNord is a good opportunity for both students and teachers to observe new trends. We believe that all industry cooperation helps give students a professional identity, which is also a goal of their education,” says Anna Hoffsten, Principal of Stockholms Hotell- och Restaurangskola.

Student Loop – guided tour through GastroNord
On Friday, April 29, GastroNord will arrange a number of student loops, where groups of approximately 20 students together with their teacher can follow a pre-determined loop through the exhibition and meet exhibitors and actors in the industry, who can talk about their business. The students will be able to ask the exhibitors questions, for example about needs of the future and skills. The loop will take approximately one hour.

Junior National Culinary Team runs pop-up restaurant
At this year's exhibition, the Junior National Culinary Team will be running a pop-up restaurant for the first time at GastroNord. The chefs and confectioners from the Junior National Culinary Team will create the menu. Several teams members will also be at the restaurant.

“It will be a lot of fun to run a pop-up restaurant at the exhibition. It is fun that a lot of young students will be coming. They might view us as being closer to their reality. I hope we can inspire them on many levels,” says Eric Seger, team captain and chef at Volt.

The Junior National Culinary Team is a part of the Swedish Chefs Association and team members are between 18-23 years old.

Student Chef of the Year
The competition is open to third-year students at the country's restaurant schools and will be held on April 29. Participants send in their recipes to a jury, which picks the finalists. The finalists will compete during GastroNord and a winner will be named. The Restaurangvärlden magazine are sponsoring the competition.

GastroNord and Vinordic, which will be held April 26-29, are northern Europe's largest trade fairs for hotels, restaurants, catering and fast food. The fairs are arranged every other year at Stockholmsmässan.

For more information, please contact:
Daniel Fritzdorf, Event Manager, daniel.fritzdorf@stockholmsmassan.se, + 46 70 789 41 96
Lotta Signeul, Press Officer, lotta.signeul@stockholmsmassan.se, + 46 70 789 43 36
www.gastronord.se, www.vinordic.sewww.gastronomicweek.se