With the rising interest in eating, cooking and more eating, local culinary schools have sprouted left and right. But which ones would you think have the distinction, credibility and backing of culinary authorities?

Those who want to go beyond watching Rachael Ray’s 30-minute Meals on the Food Network no longer need to go abroad—at least not right away—to find prestigious culinary schools or take classes from foreign chefs.

The American Hospitality Academy has opened a local institution operated by a management staff with solid and international experience in the hospitality industry. Although AHA in the United States is considered young in all its 20 years, it has built a sound reputation for travel and tourism services, which it intends to bring to the Philippines with the establishment of AHA Philippines.

Chef Gene Cordova, AHA Philippines president and managing partner, said “the local opening is a milestone in the history of AHA” because it taps a wellspring of talent and enthusiasm in the Filipino.

The main courses

AHA Philippines, located in the heart of Salcedo Village in Makati, boasts a theater-style demo kitchen, air-conditioned rooms, classroom equipment with modern audio-visual teaching tools, state-of-the-art kitchen equipment, fully equipped institutional kitchen stations, a library and wi-fi Internet access.

Under the authoritative hand of management and academic staff schooled both locally and abroad, the school offers two diploma programs to high school and college graduates, as well as to career shifters. The six-month Culinary Arts program includes courses in food safety and sanitation, kitchen math, product identification, knife skills, butchery and fish mongerie. It also conducts lessons in breakfast cookery; sauces and cooking methods; and Asian, European and American cuisine.

Four months is devoted to theoretical hands-on training and the last two to internship in a local hotel or restaurant. The P200,000 tuition includes all the ingredients, two sets of complete uniforms, textbooks, knife kit, free meals on lab days and exam fees. Fees can be paid in two or four installments.

This six-month program is a requisite to the nine-month Culinary Entrepreneurship program, whose last three months will focus on business-oriented topics such as market research, marketing practices, principles of catering and banqueting, purchasing, planning the food expo and even bread baking and patisserie. The program fee is P240,000.

In both programs, applicants receive a P10,000 discount for full payments.

Few are chosen

The logic for the entrepreneurship program is simple. “Not everybody can be chefs,” Cordova said. “We Filipinos are more inclined to be our own bosses,” he adds with a knowing smile.

It certainly is no joke standing for long hours, slaving away in the kitchen in front of a hot stove, with the “chef shouting orders at you, customers complaining, the time pressure,” he counted off.

“It takes passion and a lot of humility to be a chef,” he added emphatically in a mix of English and Pilipino. “You have to persevere and have the right attitude. If the chef asks a student to scrub the tiles, he has to have enough humility to do it. Why? For his own safety. What if he’s carrying a pot of hot water and slips on some spillage? He can hurt himself seriously or die. A lot of accidents happen in the kitchen.

“We also know that a lot of the great chefs in this world started out as dishwashers.” Great talk for someone who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and Ecole de Ritz, both in Paris, Peter Kump’s Cooking School in the United States, and continuing education units from the Culinary Institute of America.

Overseas internships

More than mere celebrity chefs, the school wants to turn out sensible students they can be proud of, the main reason why it has the final authority to accept or veto an application to enter the local school or for the overseas internship at a global partner hotel, which can range from six months to one year after the local internship.

“We want students to get the experience right away. That’s why we offer the no-nonsense, practical approach to culinary arts.”

The overseas internship includes training in a US-based partner hotel, the likes of Sheraton, Marriott, Hilton, Westin, Radisson, Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt; a monthly stipend, free accommodations in a well-furnished apartment, free transportation to and from the facility, and a much-coveted international certification.

Cordova clarified, however, that the student has to work on obtaining a visa from the US Embassy.

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AHA Philippines starts its school year on June 19. Enrollment is ongoing. For details, call, 6700-8510 or visit www.ahaphil.com