New award for up-and-coming Food & Beverage talent 

Last Friday, Hotel Management School Maastricht hosted the jury day of the 1st edition of the Jan Vlasman Award. For more than 60 years, Jan Vlasman introduced hotel school students to the taste, the smell and, above all, the passion for food and drink, or Food & Beverage (F&B). This new award was created this year by the Hospitality Synergy Group to honour his legacy. A third- or fourth-year hotel school student who has developed in a special way during his hotel school career has a chance to win this title of F&B talent of the year. 

Student association Amphitryon and Hotel Managementschool Maastricht nominated six students who met all the criteria of this competition. Anniek Meinema, Marieke Coumans, Maaike van Florestein, Niels Dirckx, Tim Dijkman and Xavier Maassen gave their all in several rounds, to convince the 16-member jury of professionals from the F&B industry. In the morning, the students' first pitch was scheduled, followed in the second round by working on a case about 'long-term sustainability and profitability'. After a speed dating walk with the students, the Top 3 were announced during dinner: Anniek Meinema, Maaike van Florestein and Tim Dijkman will compete against each other during the final day on Tuesday 24 September at Gastvrij Rotterdam. The final winner of the Jan Vlasman Award will be announced during BBB Maastricht on Wednesday 9 October.

The Jan Vlasman Award was created in honour of Jan Vlasman, a lecturer who has meant a lot to the Hotel Management School Maastricht. It is an encouragement and appreciation award for students, named after an iconic man who was able to convey hospitality, enthusiasm and guest-friendliness in an inimitable way, taking others along with him in his sense of hospitality etiquette. A former student of the Hotel Management School Maastricht, teacher of wine knowledge and skills and passionate organiser of wine tours, he dedicated his life to educating hotel school students where ethics, manners and decency were the foundation on which he could inspire everyone and everything around him.