Aristocrat’s 3rd generation ventures into culinary education

Celebrated as a Philippine historical and gastronomic icon, The Aristocrat Restaurant has served as an inspiration to successful eateries here and abroad, founded on the creativity and pioneering spirit of the Reyes forebears Engracia Cruz-Reyes, fondly known as Aling Asiang, and husband Justice Alex Reyes.

The Aristocrat Restaurant has certainly come a long way — from a rolling Studebaker van that cruised the streets of Manila selling sandwiches, to its present-day location along Roxas Boulevard – but still serving the delectable dishes that Aling Asiang had always loved.

Seventy-three years later, with the third generation of Reyeses at the helm of the family business, The Aristocrat Restaurant opens its most innovative venture to date - the Culinary Institute of Aristocrat (CIA).

“CIA is a long-standing idea that the family has always entertained,” explains CIA general manager and vice president for administration Ma. Teresa “Cookie” Reyes, daughter of Aling Asiang’s son Andres.

“All of us grandchildren grew up in the restaurant, trained as kitchen helpers, cashiers, and waiters. A school wasn’t far behind our thoughts when we eventually took over the business,” puts in Raymund Reyes, CIA president and chief operating officer, son of Aling Asiang’s son Jose. “After all, our grandmother was an industrious homemaker and businesswoman who was always busy with her hands.”

Strong demand

The CIA is a response to the growing need for competent hotel and restaurant practitioners overseas. According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, over 16,000 hotel and restaurant related workers are employed abroad every year.

The year heralded more employment prospects abroad for Filipinos, with over 200,000 jobs in the tourism sector in Macau, and similar openings in countries in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Quatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman); Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia); Australia and New Zealand; Canada, USA, Guam and the Carribean; and Europe (UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Iceland, Romania, Czech Republic, and Azerbaijan).

“Every year, a lot of our own people get hired for positions abroad, because of the excellent reputation of Aristocrat as an intensive training ground for professionals in the culinary field,” says Raymund. “We’ve already been conducting short courses for some time now, and we decided to put up the school to formalize the education we give to our students.”

Boutique school

With the number of culinary courses offered by a variety of schools, CIA stands out in all the considerations for a culinary school: curriculum, faculty, facilities, contact hours, and course fees.

“We are starting out small to ensure the quality of the education we provide, but it is a pilot school that will be easy to replicate once the demand is there. In fact, we’ve already been approached by schools that have no HRM courses, for negotiations to bring us into their campus,” Cookie states.

CIA’s major offerings include The Fundamentals of Culinary Arts, a course which ensures the mastery of the basics of cooking, including an introduction to the food service industry, sanitation and safety equipment and identification, ingredient identification, basic cooking principles, mise en place, hot kitchen preparations, and bakeshop production.

The school also offers young professionals, housewives, hobbyists, and students, a venue to further hone their craft and build their own business through Home Bakeshop: From Concept to Operation, covering a wide range of topics including an introduction to the home bakeshop industry, legal aspects of home bakeshop operations, marketing, product-costing and profit analysis, food safety and sanitation, basic principles of baking, ingredients and equipment identification, as well as various types of baked goods.

“CIA’s curriculum focuses on equipping the learner with the necessary competencies are at par with the stringent requirements of the profession, in a systematic progression of topics that build upon basic theories and skills towards more complex ones,” explains Raymund Reyes. “The certificate courses last for six weeks, a combination of both theoretical and laboratory hours.”

With state-of-the-art kitchen laboratories that can accommodate 24 students at a time, first-rate educational facilities, a roster of faculty with no less than six years of professional experience, and significant student contact hours, makes it a most admirable boutique school.

The CIA’s affiliations include the International Association of Culinary Professionals, World Association of Chefs Societies, National Restaurant Association, and the American Culinary Foundation.

(For more information about CIA, inquire at any branch of Aristocrat Restaurant, call 524-7671 or email [email protected].)