Chair's Projects

In the Food Business Challenges Chair, students work in teams on chair projects. From January to June, each team gets involved in projects such as organizing events with FoodTech start-ups, the communication of the chair on social media, projects for the partners and affiliates of the chair, or research projects.

FoodTech Start-ups

Food start-ups are key players in the Food ecosystem.

Throught this chair project, The Food Business Challenges chair aims to develop interactions between Food startupers, the Chair students, our partners, Essec Alumni and the Food business ecosystem at large. Our desire is also to help Food startupers to shape their project, to build a network of start-ups and to bring value to our chair’s partners.

The team in charge of this project organizes events to share interesting and inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.

Folco Facchini, Marion Byungmi Lee, Muqing Lin, Students of Master in Management & member of the Food Business Challenges Chair (April 2021)

"Our team has launched the ESSEC FoodCast which is a podcast series from the Food Business Challenges Chair. It is composed of interviews of professionals, from startup founders to companies’ senior executives or experts from the industry. Throughout the series, we try to understand what the drivers of success or failure are and investigate food-related topics from different perspectives."

Research Projects on Food Innovation

Four Research Projects Food Innovation have been assigned to FBC Chair students:

  1. "Understanding and Mapping the New Business Models of Food Innovation" by Olga Magneeva

  2. "Food Innovation, Emotions and Emodities" by Benoît Hervio

  3. "The Future of Ice Cream Consumption and Innovation" by Xinwen Zhang

  4. "How Innovative Chefs Are Reshaping the Future of Food and Cuisine?" by Ghalia Awab

Ghalia Awab, Student of MS GAISC & member of the FBC Chair (April 2021)

"I chose to focus my research on the figure of the Chef today, their values and the innovations they promote all around the world. For me, this topic is fascinating because today, more than ever, their talents and innovations go beyond their restaurant or kitchen. They embody values, share messages through their dishes and by trickle down, redefine our daily eating practices. My goal is to better understand the mechanisms behind and what major innovations emerge.


To do so, I now have access to an unique methodology and tools developed by the Food Lab 2.0 and that do not exist anywhere else. Moreover, Pr. Richard C. Delerins weekly supervision allows me to share my different ideas and most importantly, to sharpen my critical thinking by giving me his anthropologist's point of view."


Chair Project with Company Partner

My restaurant moves
to Circular Economy


Independent restaurants face many environmental issues

The climatic and environmental challenges are unavoidable and will impose themselves on METRO customers. This is an opportunity for METRO to position itself as a responsible player and provider of advice and operational solutions to its customers by testing new circular economy models to evaluate their commercial potential and the economic equation, in partnership with innovative start-ups.


Social media communication

The team of students in charge of communication on social media promotes the numerous initiatives and events set up by the Chair.

They act as the Food Business Challenges Chair community manager and they animate the website, the LinkedIn page, the Twitter account as well as the Chair's newsletter dedicated to the Agri-Food community.