Fulfill your culinary dreams at CCA, Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Aspiring young chefs-to-be now have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams to become an executive chef with a college diploma. The Center for Culinary Arts (CCA, Manila), the country’s pioneering school for the culinary profession, will be offering its first baccalaureate program, the Bachelor of Science in Culinary Management degree, a four-year program that is tailored exclusively for future culinary professionals. This groundbreaking program will be offered starting June this year.

The BS Culinary Management program being offered by CCA is steps ahead from the many courses being offered by some institutions, as it is one of the few degree programs that cater specifically to the food service industry. Aside from the general education subjects, CCA’s degree program integrates elements from its much-admired two-year diploma courses in culinary arts & baking and pastry arts, with emphasis on practical learning while on the kitchen. Moreover, it inculcates values of nationalism, service-orientedness and environmental stewardship to all its students.

CCA’s managing director, Dr. Ma. Veritas Luna, is pleased to announce the school’s groundbreaking offering, which she said is a product of careful planning and coordination. While there are other schools and universities offering similar culinary programs, CCA’s offering is more cutting-edge as it has 15 years track record of producing not only world-class cooks but socially responsible chefs. CCA, Manila is also the first culinary school in the country to have its programs accredited by the American Culinary Federation (ACF), a prestigious organization of chefs based in the US.

 “We have created the BS Culinary Program in order to contribute to the food and beverage (F&B) industry, in tune with the needs of the times,” Dr. Luna said. She explained the rationale behind the cutting-edge program. “There are about 200 programs in the culinary arts, but there are very few that train them for supervisorial and management level,” she explained. Being a pioneering school in the culinary arts, other schools look up to CCA as their template.

“For a school that is around for 15 years now, it has a big responsibility for raising the bar on culinary education and the culinary industry,” she said. “And because of that role, we have to be innovative. We reviewed the landscape and we wanted to see now how the culinary arts contribute to manpower development.”

 This degree program will benchmark with national and international standards as it merges the ACF-accredited diploma courses in culinary and baking & pastry arts with the prescribed general education classes. The school’s state-of-the-art facilities will become the students’ laboratory and learning ground. Some of the students will also have the chance to learn by simulating professional work through practicum in other restaurant and hotel establishments of the Cravings Group. Its inaugural year will include instructors and culinary faculty that have been certified culinary professionals by the ACF. The BS Culinary Management degree to be offered starting June this year has already been approved and accredited by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

On the other hand, Dr. Luna is confident of the quality of learning that CCA will offer with this inaugural baccalaureate program, speaking of the electives that will make the program one-of-a-kind and at the same time, at par with international standards. These special electives target various important aspects of the culinary and F&B industry, such as culinary tourism, sustainable CM leadership, food technology and manufacturing, culinary education and food media.

CCA, Manila’s BS Culinary Management program will definitely change the landscape of the Philippine culinary industry. According to Dr. Luna, it will accept students from all backgrounds, whether or not they have prior background learning on culinary arts provided they pass the Kitchen Discovery Course. This means that recent high school graduates and career shifters may apply. Meanwhile, those who have finished a culinary course from other schools may also apply, which will require a validation exam as CCA will assess the requirements first.

For more information, call: 9942530 or 9942540, e-mail: [email protected] or visit their website www.cca-manila.com.