GIM, Verna college join hands on course for foodpreneurs

Panaji: The Atal Incubation Centre set up at

Goa Institute of Management

(GIM), Sakhali, under NITI Aayog, will offer a unique programme focused on supporting culinary start-ups and upcoming foodpreneurs. For this, the incubation centre has partnered with Verna-based Kamaxi College of Culinary Arts (KCCA).

KCCA has been founded by a GIM alumni Parixit Pai Fondekar and the incubator titled ‘Fierce (Fostering Innovation, Excellence & Resilience in Culinary Entrepreneurship) Kitchens’ will operate from KCCA’s Verna campus.

The programme is open to those interested in setting up a business which revolves around food. This can include professional chefs, home and leisure chefs, bakers, eatery promoters, restauranteurs and food processing industry professionals. Even aspiring culinary photographers and bloggers and those associated with allied services can sign up for the culinary incubator service.

The programme will run for a period of four months and will give foodpreneurs access to infrastructure, including kitchen space, for research and development as well as restaurant and classroom training.

Each programme will have a batch of 10 food entrepreneurs, shortlisted from the applications received. The first batch will begin from June 2021. The incubation centre will support the programme with its supply of business knowledge and provide access to domain experts and investors to facilitate funding.

“We are excited about this collaboration and look forward to a spurt of foodpreneurs emerging from Goa. At the same time, we believe that this incubator will also attract foodpreneurs from India as well as all over the world. We see this as the start of putting Goa on the world’s culinary map,” Atal Incubation Centre CEO Rajesh Joshi said.

GIM director Ajit Parulekar said the Atal Incubation Centre wants to serve as a catalyst to create an ideal startup ecosystem in the state.

“The curriculum of the Goa University-approved three-year BVoc Culinary Management Program offered at KCCA is designed not only to teach students about food and culinary techniques, but also towards sparking the spirit of entrepreneurship in them,” Pai Fondekar said.


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