Master of Science in Culinary Innovation and Food Entrepreneurship
Restaurants, food brands, catering enterprises and food technology ventures are among the most common businesses founded in Africa and among the most likely to fail, usually for want of the commercial, operational and product discipline that the culinary craft alone does not teach. This taught, ...
Employment thesis
What this programme is designed to produce
Forward publishes the destination of every programme before you enrol. If the thesis stops holding, the programme is reviewed and, where necessary, retired. Next review: 2032.
Roles
- Restaurant and food venture founder
- food product innovator
- culinary director and concept developer
- food brand and franchise builder
- catering and food service entrepreneur
- food technology founder
- culinary innovation lead in hotel groups and manufacturers
- food business consultant
Employer types
- The graduate's own restaurant
- catering or food brand
- hotel groups and restaurant companies
- food manufacturers and brands
- franchise and food service operators
- food technology startups and investors
- airlines
- cruise and contract caterers
- culinary media and consultancies
- development Forward University · School of Hospitality
- Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume programmes supporting agro food enterprise
- and the graduate's own venture
- incubated through the Forward Venture Studio
Target outcomes we hold ourselves to
- This programme is built for chefs, food professionals and founders, and its primary destination is the graduate's own or a partner food venture, alongside culinary innovation roles in industry. Progression routes include doctoral study.
Compulsory · The Forward Core
How the Core works →Every Forward programme, including this one, carries the same five cross-cutting requirements. They are graded, not optional.
- AI Fluency
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Ethics and African Context
- Human-Advantage Skills
- Enterprise
Includes 12 months paid work-integrated learning
Work integrated learning is carried by the applied project or dissertation, which is commissioned wherever possible by an external host organisation under a written brief, and by the practice components inside the taught blocks. Working professionals may site the project inside their own employment under Part D4, with the host's verification entering the assessment. The Capability Passport records the capability claims the project evidences, signed by the supervisor and, where applicable, the host. Read the co-op commitment
Am I eligible?
Check yourself against the published requirements
7 questions written specifically for Master of Science in Culinary Innovation and Food Entrepreneurship. Every answer is checked against a requirement Forward has published, and the result tells you which page that requirement comes from. Indicative only, the admissions office decides on your full file.
What is the highest qualification you hold?
Curriculum structure
The same degree, in both pathways
Every Forward programme is published in both pathways: Path One, the term plan of two six-month terms, and Path Two, the block sequence of twelve four-week blocks. Same competencies, same assessments, same award. Toggle to see this programme in each.
Path One term plan shown
Path One · The Term Model
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 501 | Applied Intelligence for Professionals Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| FDC 502 | Research Evidence and Method Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| MCFE 510 | Culinary Innovation, Product Development and Food Science Both | 6 | 3-2-2 |
| MCFE 511 | Food Business Economics and Unit Economics Performance | 6 | 3-2-4 |
| MCFE 512 | Food Brand, Channels and Customer Growth Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 503 | Governance, Ethics and Leadership of Intelligent Systems Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| MCFE 520 | Scaling Food Operations, Safety and Forward University · School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume Supply Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| MCFE 521 | Food Venture Finance, Cash and Investment Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| MCFE 522 | Intelligent Food Enterprise: Data, Menus and Demand Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| MCFE 523 | Food Enterprise Leadership, Law and Ethics Objective | 3 | 2-2-0 |
| MCFE 530 | Food Venture Build Project Performance | 15 | 0-2-12 |
Total credit units: 60
Curriculum source
Forward University Curriculum Compendium
Assessment
Assessment follows Part E without variation. Taught units are assessed inside their blocks by built artefacts, defended analyses and oral examination, with not more than 40 per cent written examination in any single unit. The major project or dissertation is supervised under Part F, examined with an external Forward University · School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism · Curriculum Volume examiner, and defended orally; where the commissioning host is external, the host's verification enters the assessment under Part E6. Assessment principles. Assessment is authentic, criterion referenced and, for every capability claim above Level 2, verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer. There is no compensation between competencies: a student must master each one, and a marginal performance in one cannot be offset by strength in another. Feedback is returned quickly, within seven days of a block closing in the Block Sequence, so that it can inform the next unit. A student who does not yet meet the standard is given a further, structured attempt under Part E rather than being carried forward, which protects the value of the award while supporting progression. Reasonable adjustments for disability are made under Part D without altering the competency standard.
Work-integrated learning
Work integrated learning is carried by the applied project or dissertation, which is commissioned wherever possible by an external host organisation under a written brief, and by the practice components inside the taught blocks. Working professionals may site the project inside their own employment under Part D4, with the host's verification entering the assessment. The Capability Passport records the capability claims the project evidences, signed by the supervisor and, where applicable, the host.
Your week at Forward
A typical week on Master of Science in Culinary Innovation and Food Entrepreneurship
Path One, the Term Model: your own pace across a six-month term, one live session a week, short flexible lessons, and assessment on demand.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Curriculum explorer
Drill into the degree, step by step
Choose a study path, then a year, then a term or block, then a course. Credit totals add up as you go, and every course shows what comes before it and what it unlocks.
Step 1, choose a year
Step 2, choose a term
SEMESTER 1 | YEAR 1 | 25 COMPETENCY UNITS
Year 1 · this step is worth 25 CU
Cumulative
25
Programme total
60
25 CU of 60 CU completed by the end of this step (42%)
Step 3, choose a course
Pick a course to see the detail
Credits, assessment, prerequisites and what each course unlocks later.
The twelve Forward capabilities
What this programme develops in you
Every Forward degree develops the same twelve cross-cutting capabilities. The profile below is the level this programme is designed to develop and verify by graduation, on the four-level scale in Part B2 of the Curriculum Compendium. Every claim above Level 2 is verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer.
- C1Intelligent Systems FluencyLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C2Quantitative and Evidential ReasoningLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C3Ethical and Contextual JudgementLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C4Communication and Persuasion CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C5Disciplinary MasteryLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C6Technical Production and Craft CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C7Problem Framing and Systems ThinkingLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C8Collaboration and Multidisciplinary TeamingLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C9Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C10Professional Conduct and Workplace PerformanceLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C11Learning to Learn and Adaptive Capacity CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C12Stewardship and Public ContributionLevel 3 of 4, Independent
Critical capabilities for this programme: Communication and Persuasion · Technical Production and Craft · Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy · Learning to Learn and Adaptive Capacity. A graduate cannot pass out of this programme below the stated level on any capability marked critical.
Programme Learning Outcomes
What you will be able to do
Each outcome is assessed, and each is tagged with the Forward capabilities it is verified against.
- PLO 1Develop a food product or culinary concept from idea to validated, scalable specification.
- PLO 2Apply food science and culinary craft to innovation, shelf life and quality.
- PLO 3Build the commercial engine of a food enterprise: unit economics, pricing, supply and margin.
- PLO 4Build a food brand and win customers through channels and experience.
- PLO 5Design and run food operations that scale safely and profitably ol of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and.
- PLO 6Finance a food venture and manage its cash and investors.
- PLO 7Apply intelligent systems and data to menus, production and demand.
- PLO 8Lead a kitchen and enterprise team ethically and legally.
- PLO 9Build and test a real food venture against a real market with measured traction.
- PLO 10Acquire and demonstrate a new capability without formal instruction, evidenced in the Capability Passport.
Why this programme exists
Restaurants, food brands, catering enterprises and food technology ventures are among the most common businesses founded in Africa and among the most likely to fail, usually for want of the commercial, operational and product discipline that the culinary craft alone does not teach. This taught, venture heavy masters is built inside the Forward Venture Studio for chefs, food professionals and founders who intend to build food enterprises that last: product innovation and food science, restaurant and food business economics, brand, scale and the leverage of intelligent systems, and it terminates in a food venture built and tested against a real market.
Admission requirements
A good first degree (second class or above) in culinary arts, hospitality, food science, business or a cognate field, or substantial professional kitchen or food enterprise experience admitted through recognition of prior learning; plus a venture concept and tasting or product task scored against Capabilities C6 and C9. All applicants must demonstrate competence in English, the language of instruction, through their qualifications or an approved proficiency test under Part A. International and non standard qualifications are assessed for equivalence against the profile above under the Credential Portability provisions, so that a suitably prepared applicant may enter from anywhere in the world. Selection considers the whole application, including the structured admission task, and is conducted without discrimination under the University's admissions policy. Alternative pathways: recognition of prior learning against the admission profile under Part G, including substantial professional practice in lieu of the named first degree field. Online components require the Digital Readiness orientation under Part D6.
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