In the weeks leading up to on-campus coursework in Northern Israel, GCI offers an online introductory course that serves as a program orientation. The course familiarizes students with GCI faculty and staff, fellow classmates, reviews the curriculum and facility, and most importantly, instills select analytical frameworks necessary to explore food deeply. Each course includes core knowledge, hands-on activities, followed by a deeper exploration of specialized topics. Discover refers to becoming acquainted with and investigating a subject matter widely. During the Engage phases, students choose areas of interests for a customized approach to the subject. Finally Create means generating your own knowledge, service, or product. GCI provides ample opportunities for directed and independent work and research on food topics through lenses that match the four culinary personae—Storyteller, Activist, Entrepreneur, and Specialist.

These three theoretical lenses serve as a tool for complex reasoning and information processing skills in the problem-solving process. The fourth lens, Specialist, is mostly applied and practical skills and tools for culinary operators and chefs. Storytelling refers to applied communications and food media. This lens covers aspects of marketing, branding, and multimedia production, among others. It is about the concise and effective use of communications and marketing to connect each other through history, heritage, food and communal values. Activism focuses on community and culinary culture, a vast field that encompasses elements such as food preferences, geography, social life, health, recreation, customs, habits, and norms. Students explore various reasons why people and groups make certain food choices through impactful, collaborative, and creative engagement with area businesses, non-profits, and individuals on issues that matter, collectively solving local and global problems. Finally, Entrepreneurship empowers students to test market ideas and collaborate with food professionals, investors, marketers, and other entrepreneurs to establish the Galilee as a center of food innovation and tradition.

The introductory kitchen course focuses on making students fluid and fluent in an operational kitchen environment. Built on the day-in-the-life experience and philosophy of GCI founding Chef Lior Lev Sercarz for culinary success, new students establish kitchen order with daily station set-up, facility organization, and habits of mind. Foundational lessons in the application of sanitation and safety practices, use and maintenance of tools and equipment, and mastering knife skills prepare students to cook. Food production begins with purchasing and storeroom fundamentals, product identification, pantry set up, and then on to light fabrication and food preparation. Throughout the instruction, students explore the larger food cycle and system, visit farms, and support regenerative and sustainable agriculture, and waste management to include recycling and composting.

To be truly effective in community food activism, professionals need a thorough grounding in food culture. The term food culture from an anthropological perspective examines ethnicity and cultural heritage within families and communities. Food culture also includes food preferences, geography, social life, health, recreation, customs, habits, and norms. Students explore why people and groups make certain food choices through impactful, collaborative, and creative engagement with area businesses, non-profits, and individuals on issues that matter, collectively solving local and global problems. Using case studies in wheat, olives, and wine (WOW), students explore how food culture defines a society by creating connections among beliefs, ethnicity, identity and cultural heritage. The course also identifies regional eastern Mediterranean cuisines and explores culinary identity and nationalism through field trips, tastings, and cooking. Empowering activist chefs to implement creative solutions around food, feed communities, as well as to address food insecurity, hunger relief, and food recovery is the ultimate goal. Students learn to safely, efficiently, and economically serve the community in times of need. Students can repeatedly use the lens of activism to unleash the power of food for social impact.

Food operations begin in the field and Northern Israel provides an abundant farming and agricultural setting from vegetable gardens, vineyards, orchards, citrus groves, kibbutzim, and field crops such as wheat and corn. The instruction centers on place, immersion, food systems, and geography. Israel produces among others, almonds, avocados, citrus, guavas, kiwifruit, melons, mangoes and livestock such as cattle, sheep and poultry. Galilee is famous for olives, pomegranates, grapes, wine, dates, and apples. This course introduces students to farm operations with hands-on activities in our kibbutz and campus garden. Students learn basic principles of a regional food system, farm maintenance, and raising crops and animals. Students apply regenerative farming practices, assist with seasonal farm chores, and harvest produce for GCI activities. Students also benefit from experiences and projects with Israel’s leading agri-tech industries and food-technological innovations around how food is grown, packaged, distributed and stored for efficiency, sustainability and safety.

Storytelling is a powerful tool for connecting deeply with others and countering current damaging narratives in contemporary culture. When applied to food, communication becomes a lens for learning, marketing, and self-expression as well as inspiring others. Great storytellers need to intimately understand both their subject matter and their audience to convey messages for brand narrative, growing a business, and developing content marketing strategy. Students learn the power of this tool through detailed case studies which they will then apply to their projects throughout the program. In addition to multimedia content creation, public relations, and presentations, students will practice cross-cultural communications to transmit knowledge and meaning. Using GCI’s media lab, students practice presentations, interviews, and demonstrations for live and recorded audiences. Finally, aesthetics and design principles are applied to aspects of visual media, food styling, and messaging.

To understand the world of food, chefs must study flavor, particularly through spices, blends, oils, and pastes. Students practice describing the entire flavor experience. The goal of this course is to transform the use of spice from a final act in the cooking process to one that defines a dish, a restaurant and a chef. Spices are locally abundant and fresh with a special emphasis on Galilee specialties of akub, parsley, khalmit, mint, and fennel. Designed by Lior Lev Sercarz, GCI Chief Culinary Officer and Co-founder, this course distills three decades of his experience and expertise in spices. Travel the globe to explore flavor profiles, apply geography and history, and experiment in creative ways with spices and oil. Based on Chef Lior’s knowledge, students learn about spice selection, blends, handling, storage, and culinary uses. Through the program, students visit local growers, markets, and spice traders to examine sourcing and distribution.

While the GCI teaches global techniques and food preparation, students also practice managing a facility with separate meat and dairy kitchens according to the specific application of the principles of kashrut (the laws of kosher) and halal (permissible under Islamic dietary laws) cooking. The course introduces basic cooking methods and production, sauces and dressings, grains and legumes, and entry-level baking skills. A basic principle of kashrut mandates the complete separation of meat and dairy products. Therefore, meat fabrication and preparation are covered in Technique II. Pareve refers to neutral foods, containing or prepared without traces of meat or dairy. Students who do not follow dietary laws can also benefit by approaching the process as a disciplined system of thought that can be applied to any kitchen.

The key to any business rests upon profitability, where revenue exceeds expenses. This course lays the foundation for sound financial practices and decision-making in food-related operations by controlling costs. Using financial reports and data from GCI’s restaurant, Cafe, and brewery, students analyze real-world campus operations as living case studies. Students evaluate food, beverage, and labor costs, practice budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, as well as hands-on purchasing and receiving in the storeroom. The course presents flow-thru in a foodservice operation, reviews fixed, variable, and mixed expenses, and evaluates point of sales systems to include contactless payment methods in emerging technologies.

Building on the skills from Technique I (Dairy and Pareve), students practice basic cooking methods, prepare meat, poultry, and fish, and produce food in quantity. Kashrut requires meat and dairy products to be separated during preparation and students will adhere to dietary laws consistent with the Galilee and the Middle East, but this will not limit learning about other global practices. Students practice multiple preparations of beef, lamb, chicken, fish and plant-based dishes. Learners appraise cuts of meat and fowl and demonstrate proper ways of sourcing, storing, and cooking of animal proteins. Students augment these cooking techniques with plant-based proteins as well. Israel is a pioneer in the field of alternative proteins. The tech ecosystem includes plant-based proteins and cultivated meat and is one of the country’s fastest growing sectors. The course also reviews and practices many global noodles and pasta preparations as well. We also introduce entry-level concepts and techniques of baking such as ingredients and processes of baking. Finally, students explore plate design to artfully arrange, sauce and garnish serving dishes.