Chef Fraser Instructs Students in Culture, Food, and Spirits

March 25, 2021 / Lutgert News / Tags: Undergraduate, Resort & Hospitality, New Course

Chef James Fraser has spent many years teaching Resort & Hospitality (RHM) students to plan menus and events through required coursework in food and beverage management. As the RHM program has transformed into a reinvigorated curriculum in Resort & Hospitality Administration (RHA), Lutgert’s popular chef has added a new course to his personal menu:

Olivia Stinson pours a sample of her honey brown ale so she can determine if it’s fermenting.

HFT 4894C Culture, Food and Spirits

Though offered as part of a new food and beverage concentration in the RHA degree curriculum, Culture, Food and Spirits is open to all FGCU undergraduate majors. In addition to gaining hands-on experience making beer and wine, cured meats and cheese, students learn about regional artisanal food culture, gastronomic entrepreneurship, branding and marketing, fair trade, food deserts and tourism centered on food, among other topics.

It’s very cross-disciplinary. It’s hospitality, it’s entrepreneurship, agribusiness, science, marketing, sustainability, and ethics.

“The class is about discovery,” Fraser says. “It’s very cross-disciplinary. It’s hospitality, it’s entrepreneurship, agribusiness, science, marketing, sustainability, and ethics. When we’re doing food and beverage production, it’s not so much developing recipes as understanding the techniques and skill sets that are a lifetime commitment for artisan producers. [Students] learn how to put a value on that expertise and cost and how to market it.”

Students interested in taking the course can sign up for

CRN 84523

Thursdays 10:30am-1:15pm in the Fall 2021 semester.

Read the full story on FGCU 360