CCA developing a culinary school in Asia

When the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila (CCA) celebrated its sixth anniversary in November this year, it had its sights fixed not only on the past but also on the future.

It all started with a vision. CCA was established in 1996 by Cravings Group founder and president Susana P. Guerrero, after the Young Chefs Summer program, which was conducted at the bakeshop and restaurant, gained popularity.

The CCA was envisioned as an institution that would provide professional culinary training to food-loving Filipinos. A team of experts, headed by Dr. John Knapp, project coordinator for the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Dr. Corazon F. Gatchalian, CCA’s first programs director, laid the groundwork.

CCA is the country’s first culinary institution. The school initially offered short courses that combined hands-on cooking, hands-on baking, and pro-management courses.

In 1997, CCA launched two formal academic programs: Diploma in culinary arts and technology management; and diploma in bakery and pastry arts.

In 1998, the school received an accreditation from the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Also that year, the certificate course in baking and pastry arts was introduced.

The year 1999 saw the expansion of the CCA curriculum to include diploma courses in French cuisine, butchery and fish mongering, restaurant service operations and comprehensive examination. It was also in 1999 when Ma. Christina G. Aquino, a former faculty of the University of the Philippines and author of numerous cookbooks, joined the CCA as school director.

In 2000, CCA signed a memorandum of agreement with Miriam College Foundation which enabled Miriam’s BS Entrepreneurship students to take culinary courses at CCA every Saturday as part of their business practicum course.

In 2001, customized training programs for different food companies, such as Sysu, Florence, Masterfoods, Sanofi-Synthelabo, and Silver Swan, became a major part of the services offered by CCA. The CCA quarterly newsletter, CuisinA, was launched. It was also the year when CCA became the national champion in the cookery division of the Skills Olympics sponsored by TESDA.

CCA Manila has also been participating in the prestigious Chefs on Parade, the biggest biannual event in the food industry, where it has consistently been winning awards. In this year’s competitions, CCA’s culinary team won gold for the market basket classical living cooking, silver for the on-the-spot cake decorating category, diploma for Filipino dessert display, and gold for the Purefoods Fiesta Ham creative garnishes and sauces competition.

The signing of a memorandum of agreement with food services giant Nestlé Philippines early this year gave birth to CCA’s Culinary Food Partnership Program.

The Culinary Education Foundation was launched in March 2002. The brainchild of CCA president Susana P. Guerrero, its aim is to provide deserving individuals with the training they need to succeed in the food service industry. To date, the foundation has had three financial aid grantees and one full scholar.

"Our greatest achievement is our alumni, many of whom have made it out there, working for top food corporations in the country or setting foot in a foreign land to pursue their love for food and their passion for cooking," says CCA school director Tina Aquino.

Among them are Regina Violeta Acorda who now works for SYSU International as demo team leader and test kitchen specialist. She develops and tests recipes for Kikkoman, San Remo, Clara Olé, Lee Kum Kee and Smuckers.

Juan Martin del Prado is the R&D chef of San Miguel Corporation, while Angelo Alipio, Adriel Cruz, and John Paul Sia are chef consultants for California Manufacturing Corporation.

Maritess Gutierrez, who belongs to the first batch of CCA graduates, is the executive chef of Café Lupe, while Patricia Locsin is the executive chef of Cibo restaurant at the Glorietta. Miguel de Alba is chef-owner of the famous Alba Restaurant along Tomas Morato Ave. Verna Mariano owns a coffee shop named Cookie Cuckoo, while Kat Malvar owns Classic Confection. Kit Coronel owns Manila, Manila Restaurant in San Francisco, California.

After graduation, Kim Lori Ngo worked at the Stephen F. Austin Inter-Continental Hotel in Austin, Texas for a year after which re-joined her alma matter as one of CCA’s chef instructors. Ramon Abalos, on the other hand, first had his teaching stint at CCA while working as head chef of Monsoon Restaurant before going abroad. He now works as a resort chef in Canada. Rupert So currently works for Holland America, a luxury cruise ship.

Last month, CCA inaugurated C2 Bar and Restaurant in Makati. As CCA’s training restaurant, it is run by the students under the supervision of CCA’s professional chef instructors.

"This year, we also formed the CCA Culinary Team," Aquino says. "It is a mix of students from the different levels. To qualify to be a member of the culinary team, it’s not enough to have the skills, but you must also have the commitment. A lot of the students who have the potential earn extra hours in the kitchen. We are looking at sending the team to a culinary competition in Hong Kong in May 2003. Last April, a group attended a hotel exhibit and training convention in Singapore. Some of our students attended some of the seminars in order to gain international exposure. Abroad, you have to work alongside different equipment and different ingredients."

This is CCA’s future thrust: "We want to market our school in the Asian region," the school director reveals. "We would like to expand our student profile to include people from other countries, such as Singapore and Hong Kong."

CCA has also been beefing up its pool of chef instructors. "For the laboratory classes, we limit the number of students to a maximum of 15 students per instructor," she adds.

Among the new recruits are chef instructor Inky Dario, who studied at Les Roche in Switzerland and is owner of Matina Restaurant; chef Mafe Traje, who finished her culinary arts program in Cordon Bleau in London; and Jill Busuego, a UP HRA graduate who also took short courses at the CIA in the US.

"Chef Gene Cordova, our curriculum programs coordinator, makes sure that faculty members are executing the curriculum or course outline that we designed," Aquino says. "We have enhanced the curriculum developed initially by our partner school, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, which is based in Edmonton, Canada, since we saw that there were some areas that needed to be better suited to local conditions. Soon, we will also be offering an entrepreneurship program, in partnership with the Asian Institute of Management. A study showed that close to 75 percent of our students eventually open their own business, so we would like to make sure that they are equipped with the management skills which they will learn through our AIM affiliation."

"Our student population is rapidly growing and our main campus in Katipunan is getting to be crowded," she observes, "We are looking for a location where we can put up a new structure. It is possible that this could be somewhere out of town, like Tagaytay, where the students will have to board, like they do in culinary institutions abroad. But this is still in the planning stage."

Based on their track record, it will be a short wait since CCA has proven it has the easy knack for turning vision into reality.