EVEN CULINARY CLASSES ARE ONLINE!
In an effort to come up with the best possible online program for its students, the Center for Culinary Arts Manila, which is the country’s pioneering culinary school, recently joined hands with Rouxbe, which is the world’s leading online culinary school
The COVID-19 pandemic — and the quarantines and lockdowns that it necessitated to keep everyone safe and healthy — has changed the academic landscape completely. While it is true that we have had online courses for the longest time, they used to account for only a small percentage of the educational system. Now, online classes are the norm in the “new normal.”
The method of instruction is done online via high-quality videos, with additional support given by veteran chef educators.
This includes culinary schools.
In an effort to come up with the best possible online program for its students, the Center for Culinary
Arts Manila (CCA Manila), the country’s pioneering culinary school, recently joined hands with Rouxbe (pronounced “ru-by”), which is the world’s leading online culinary school.
The groundbreaking partnership seeks to offer CCA Manila students the best possible online culinary program in the face of the worldwide pandemic. The collaboration between the two prestigious institutions aims to address the volatile situation in the culinary industry worldwide and to continue providing quality culinary education to Filipinos.
While CCA Manila takes pride in being the pioneer and the trailblazer in culinary education in the Philippines, Rouxbe had masterfully transformed traditional culinary school curriculum into an effective online culinary education system worldwide long before the pandemic happened. It has successfully trained over 600,000 students since it was established in 2005, and its programs are recognized as approved training programs by the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation and by WorldChefs.
How the partnership came to be
Dr. Veritas Luna, the chancellor for education of CCA Manila, first encountered Rouxbe in a webinar sponsored by the American Culinary Federation (ACF). Rouxbe’s program was mentioned by the ACF as the new culinary standard for online training. ACF happens to be the largest organization of professional chefs in North America and its certification program is considered as the standard for excellence in professional skills and knowledge in the culinary industry worldwide. Given the ACF’s reputation plus the fact that it has earlier appointed CCA Manila as the test site for ACF professional certification in the Asia Pacific region, Dr. Luna reached out to Rouxbe for a possible collaboration and the rest, as they say, is history.
“We saw an opportunity to partner with a well-established and respected culinary institution, and we felt it was mutually beneficial to collaborate. The geographic locale of CCA Manila allows Rouxbe to have a greater global reach and creates the opportunity to expand our impact in Southeast Asia. CCA Manila’s brand recognition, professionalism and enthusiasm for the potential for its students to learn in new ways furthered our desire to partner,” says Ken Rubin, chief culinary officer of Rouxbe.
Rubin adds: “The partnership will allow more people to access instruction safely and affordably, with the intention of building foundational cooking techniques.”
The online programs
Borne out of the partnership is CCA Manila’s current offering, Procook Certification, which starts on 2 November 2020, and is purely online and self-paced. There is a once-a-week “Ask a Chef” session with CCA faculty, as they summarize the lessons learned on the online platform and set expectations from the program weekly. The CCA Manila faculty serve as mentors in this program. Exams are conducted online, and an assessment of competence takes place at the end of the six-month program.
There is a secondary program called Procook Certification + Cooking Club, which has a hands-on component every Saturday to apply the principles and techniques taught on Rouxbe’s online platform. Both programs run for six months.
In the first quarter of 2021, the main event — the eight-month CCA-Rouxbe offering called Professional Chef Plus — begins. Centered on blended learning, this program will have lectures during weekdays and laboratory classes on weekends. Towards the end of the program, there will be both a face-to-face assessment and an online assessment.
The method of instruction is done online via high-quality videos, with additional support given by veteran chef educators. Rouxbe provides an excellent team of foreign chefs who conduct live events accessible by all Rouxbe students virtually. These include chef Scott Samuel, culinary director; chef Barton Seaver, a seafood literacy expert; and chef Chad Sarno, an expert in plant-forward cooking. Students shall also be receiving support and mentorship from CCA Manila faculty, including chef Michael Cheng, an expert in international competitions who also specializes in Asian cuisine; chef Kerwin Funtanilla, an expert in Filipino cuisine and knife skills; and chef Philip Golding, program director.
Available from any Internet-connected device, the CCA-Rouxbe course enables students to learn virtually anywhere — from the comforts of their respective homes or while on the go — and it extends quality online education to not just culinary students but to at-home chefs, professional chefs, schools, hotels and food establishments as well.
“Even though the pandemic disrupted traditional learning in the kitchen, it doesn’t prevent us from bringing learning right to your kitchens. With CCA Manila’s time-tested curriculum, add to this fresh insights from Rouxbe’s effective online learning system, this program would be the most innovative of its kind in the industry right now,” says Badjie Trinidad, owner and chief executive officer of CCA Manila.