In-depth learning for the food designer
Whether it was due to her family name (‘spek' means bacon) or because food was always a topic of conversation at her house - from an early age Lotte van der Spek new she was going to work in food and innovation. "This fascination for food is ingrained. I wanted to create food. But not as a chef." So she chose Food Design at HAS Den Bosch, the first class. After her graduation in 2007 her hunger for knowledge of the business kept itching her. The Master Course of the Anton Jurgens Institute satisfied her appetite. "Literally everything is centred around food, perfect for what I was looking for."
After her graduation from HAS, Lotte worked for the purchase department of La Place. "Despite the wonderful, fresh and organic products, it was not really the place for me. It didn't fulfil my ambitions: inventing new food products and packaging, researching markets and trends, and finding out how to anticipate and respond." When a colleague from product development went on maternity leave, Lotte was happy to -temporarily- switch. "But there it just became clearer to me what I really was interested in was to learn more about the managerial part, the marketing, the entrepreneurship. My curiosity kept itching me; I wanted to go more in-depth."
Instructive and practicable
This itch brought Lotte to the Anton Jurgens Institute. "I checked out other MBAs as well but the Anton Jurgens felt familiar - I already knew it from my time at HAS. Besides, everything was focused on food, exactly what I was looking for." During my Master Course I switched to a new employer: organic ice cream and chocolate producer Australian Homemade. "They were looking to develop a new line of ice cream, I contributed to that. It became apparent everything I had learned during the course perfectly connected to real life; the things I had learned I could use directly in my work.
During the course there are many Master Classes taught by people from the business, the true experts. They take you through all the stages of innovation, from idea to launch - set to my experience with Australian, theory and practice go hand in hand. And yes, sometimes it was a bit tough, but always incredible instructive and practicable - to me that characterises the Anton Jurgens Institute. My itch is gone, I have found the in-depth challenge I had been looking for."
After her graduation from HAS, Lotte worked for the purchase department of La Place. "Despite the wonderful, fresh and organic products, it was not really the place for me. It didn't fulfil my ambitions: inventing new food products and packaging, researching markets and trends, and finding out how to anticipate and respond." When a colleague from product development went on maternity leave, Lotte was happy to -temporarily- switch. "But there it just became clearer to me what I really was interested in was to learn more about the managerial part, the marketing, the entrepreneurship. My curiosity kept itching me; I wanted to go more in-depth."
Instructive and practicable
This itch brought Lotte to the Anton Jurgens Institute. "I checked out other MBAs as well but the Anton Jurgens felt familiar - I already knew it from my time at HAS. Besides, everything was focused on food, exactly what I was looking for." During my Master Course I switched to a new employer: organic ice cream and chocolate producer Australian Homemade. "They were looking to develop a new line of ice cream, I contributed to that. It became apparent everything I had learned during the course perfectly connected to real life; the things I had learned I could use directly in my work.
During the course there are many Master Classes taught by people from the business, the true experts. They take you through all the stages of innovation, from idea to launch - set to my experience with Australian, theory and practice go hand in hand. And yes, sometimes it was a bit tough, but always incredible instructive and practicable - to me that characterises the Anton Jurgens Institute. My itch is gone, I have found the in-depth challenge I had been looking for."
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