Day: June 24, 2008

Just recently, Tita Noemi, Nina and I were invited by the Culinary School of Aristocrat to be a Chef for a Day. It was a day filled with so much fun as we made soup, appetizers, a main course and dessert.

The Culinary School of Aristocrat is a new school for the chefs and the chefs-to-be from one of the Philippines best Filipino Restaurant, Aristocrat.

BYAHILO, Chef for a Day. Photo by Noemi Dado

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.

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.

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.

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.

CIA’s faculty are mostly trained abroad and have vast experience in the culinary world Chef Gabby is a certificate graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and is professionally accredited by the World Association of Chef Societes, International Association of Culinary Professionals, and the National Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation.

Chefs Joey and Gabby

Chef Julius Dario, instructor for the hot and cold kitchen, graduated in the top 15 percent of his class at Ecole des Roches Hotel and Restaurant Management School in Switzerland; Chef Carlos Laureta, also a chef instructor at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) has a Grand Italian Culinary Certificate from the Higher Institute of Gastronomy and School of Regional Cooking in Italy;

Chef Anthony Ramirez, instructor for professional bartending, has trained extensively at both the Wolf Blass Wine Academy at Barrosa Valley, Adelaide and the Chivas Regal Plant in Aberdeen, Scotland, while Chef Christian Bautista, instructor for Baking and Pastry Arts, is currently the executive chef of Gourdo’s Restaurant and is a graduate of the Ritz-Escoffler Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise in Paris.

The Culinary Institute of Aristocrat (CIA) Culinary School is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, World Association of Chefs Societies, National Restaurant Association, American Culinary Federation. For more information about CIA, visit the Culinary Institute of Aristocrat website

BYAHILO, is Chef for a Day