Cooking schools

(Part I)

No matter how strong a chef’s inspirations, they are not enough to give rise to greatness. As Karen Page puts it, “They must be carefully honed and refined through directed effort. The palate, which allowed a chef to first learn what he or she found most enjoyable, must be trained to discern subtleties in flavors and flavor combinations and to critique as well as taste. Basic cooking techniques must be mastered with speed and efficiency, developed over repeated efforts.” This is what professional cooking schools are about.

Cooking is a profession

Cooking is a profession emphasizing continuous learning to be professional, means acquiring competence in a special field that provides service. One can expect a professional income. But like doctors or lawyers, the professional cook continuous to learn and is committed to the job his whole lifetime.

Today a chef’s formal education often takes place in a cooking school classroom. Cooking schools are mushrooming just now in Manila and Cebu. The oldest cooking schools started as apprenticeship. It is a long European tradition which originated in France, where one starts it at the early age of 13, seeking to work with the best known chef available. Later it became the program for older teenagers during the last two to three years of senior highschool, which employs expert chefs who have retired after working for decades abroad. This enables them to pass the “Certificat d’ Aptitude Professionelle” exam. Then the young cook is considered a commis, a paid position.

No great American chefs 10 to 20 years ago

There were no great American chefs 10 to 20 years ago. Many ambitious American chefs made their way to France to spend time in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants, as a sort of “finishing school” experience. Patrick Clark recalls “If you did not have European experience, restaurant owners would not bother with you.” Today with the proliferation of excellent restaurants in the United States, there are numerous cooking schools offering specialties ranging from vegetarian, to confectionery and even microwave cooking. The Guide to Cooking (Shaw Guides 1995) lists more than 700 programs.

While many of the country’s leading chefs reached to the top of the profession without the benefit of a cooking school degree like Margarita Fores, who had hands-on experience with Italian cooks or Ariel Manuel (Lolo Dad’s), a creative food “aficionado,” an overwhelming majority of chefs recommend cooking school as the most practical start for aspiring chefs. Cooking school offers to gain exposure at a concentrated period of time to an immense amount of information from cooking techniques (knife skills, sauté, grill) to theory (nutrition, food chemistry, sanitation) to international or regional cuisines like French, Italian or Asian.

Deciding which cooking school to attend

The decision whether and when to attend is highly personal and dependent on many factors: How long a program best suits your needs? Is location a factor for you? What is your best budget for school? Are you looking to attend full-time or part-time? During the day, or in the evening? (The New York Restaurant School, for example, offers classes 24 hours a day.)

Given the abundance of reputable cooking schools and programs, there is likely to be an option to suit everyone’s specific budget, time frame, and other needs, from four-year bachelor degree programs, to certificate programs, which can be completed in a few brief months, to one-session cooking demonstrations by culinary experts. The major cooking schools in Manila are Susana P. and Badjie Guerrero’s CCA, chef Norbert Ghandler’s ISCAHM, Rob Pengson’s Global Culinary School, Mike Tiaoqui’s AICA (Pasig, Cebu), Gene Gonzales’ CACS, Jack Tuason and Co.’s Enderun, and the Istituto Culinario of the O.B. Montessori Center. The 16-year-old O.B. Montessori Culinary Institute has just been converted into the Istituto Culinario, with chef Cyril running his Brasserie Cicou, right beside it along Annapolis St., Greenhills.

There are numerous opportunities to learn about cooking in a classroom. It is up to the prospective student to research various options to determine which offers the best fit. Get recommendations from leading chefs as to how to get the most of your experience before, during and after cooking school.

When visiting schools, don’t hesitate to ask a lot of questions from administrators, instructors, and even students. Find out whether they offer (or require) an externship program or an international study program. Ask what kind of placement assistance they provide to graduating students and alumni. Find out where some of their recent graduates are working and what the breadth of the school’s network is. Who are some of their most successful alumni? Are typical alumni working in the kinds of places you’d like to work in someday? Spend time talking with other students, and decide if they’re the type of people with whom you’d enjoy learning and spending time with. You’ll be happiest at a school that offers a “good fit.”

Don’t take a chef’s job

Chefs emphasize the importance of viewing graduation from cooking school as merely a starting point in one’s education. Andre Soltner puts it this way: “I think cooking schools give students the basic they need. But they are not accomplished chefs. They are just coming out of school. A doctor, after his four years, goes to a hospital not as the chief surgeon but as an intern. Parents send their kids for two years at The Culinary Institute of America and then think they are Andre Soltner or Paul Bocuse,” Soltner notes. “But they’re not.” Cooking school graduates might find themselves tempted with offers to become full-fledged chefs upon graduation.

In her speech to a graduating class at the Culinary Institute of America, Debra Ponzek used the opportunity not to pump up graduates’ hopes and expectations but to implore them, “Don’t take a chef’s job!” She explained, “It’s hard to go back, once you realize there are things you didn’t learn. Many people want to make the jump (to a chef’s position) too quickly.” Patrick Clark agrees, “Don’t look for glory right away. When you get there, it’s harder.”

(Part II: The Various Steps to Become a Chef)