A new model kitchen called the Studio of Culinary Excellence has opened at The Maldives National University, donated by hospitality supplier Bestbuy Maldives (BBM) to the university's Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Studies. It is fitted with professional and industrial kitchen equipment plus audiovisual gear, so students can train on the same kit they'll meet on day one in a working resort kitchen.
The idea goes beyond a standard teaching kitchen. BBM, which supplies resorts, hotels and restaurants across the country, wants the Studio to run as a permanent platform for chef masterclasses, live demonstrations, workshops and industry training — essentially plugging the gap between classroom theory and the realities of a five-star island kitchen. The university's Vice Chancellor, Dr Shehenaaz Adam, was blunt about the problem it solves: the hardest gap for students has always been the jump from classroom to working resort kitchen, and training on identical equipment to identical standards closes it.
The Studio kicked off in style. Its inaugural masterclass on 20 September was led by Chef Romain Dupeyre, the Michelin-starred executive chef and founder of Racines in Hong Kong, with industry chefs from across the Maldives invited alongside students. Dupeyre, from Nice in the south of France, started as an apprentice at two-Michelin-starred La Chèvre d'Or at 15, cooked his way through Ireland, Paris, Melbourne and Bangkok, then led the kitchen at Petrus at Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong before opening Racines in 2022. His restaurant, built on Provençal and Mediterranean traditions — think aioli and ratatouille reworked for a modern dining room — picked up its first Michelin star in 2024 and has held the recognition since.
Why does this matter to travellers? The Maldives runs on hospitality: roughly every holiday there involves a resort kitchen somewhere. A pipeline of locally trained chefs, taught on professional equipment and exposed to international names like Dupeyre, should mean better food and stronger service standards across the islands — and more career paths for young Maldivians in the industry that dominates their economy. BBM frames the Studio under its "... because tomorrows start today" banner, and says this is the start of an ongoing programme of masterclasses and collaborations rather than a one-off ribbon-cutting.
If you're holidaying in the Maldives in the coming years, don't expect to book a dinner at the Studio itself — it's an educational facility in Malé, not a restaurant. But its effects should trickle down to resort menus and the local culinary scene, and it signals an industry increasingly investing in homegrown talent rather than importing every skill.
Story via Maldives Insider.
