Education from new kitchen in town

ONE of Manila’s top culinary institutions, The International School for Culinary Arts & Hotel Management (ISCAHM), will open its first Cebu campus in July. With the aim to instruct aspiring professionals for the hospitality industry, the school will offer programs in culinary and pastry arts education as well as in hotel operations.

ISCAHM is a “realization of a dream” by founders Hansjörg Schallenberg and Chef Norbert Gandler.

Schallenberg had worked as consultant to hotels and restaurants all over Asia before deciding to put up what was originally the Institute of Hotel and Restaurant Studies back in 2002. The following year, he teamed up with Chef Gandler, and they fused their expertise into a school that would offer comprehensive education in both fields.

The first ISCAHM campus is at Loyala Heights in Quezon City.

Schallenberg and Gandler have been in the industry for over 30 years, 20 of them spent in reputable hotels in the Philippines. They were part of the team that opened Makati Shangri-la in the early 1990s.

ISCAHM’s main program offerings are the Diploma in Culinary Arts and Kitchen Management and Diploma in Pastry and Bakery Arts and Kitchen Management. Both are 12-month programs, after which students undergo an exam that would qualify them for an
Australian Certificate III in culinary arts.

The school also offers short courses (12 sessions) in the fundamentals of culinary arts, pastry arts, bread baking, Asian cuisine, cupcakes and pasta preparations. The Cebu campus will soon offer hospitality training programs, too.

In a press conference held earlier this month, the ISCAHM founders emphasized that the school strictly follows the standard European curriculum.

They also boasted of the school’s “very experienced faculty,” composed of executives and chefs from world-class hotel chains and cruise lines, as well as its “high-standard facilities.”

The school takes up the ground floor of the Synergis I.T. Center on F. Cabahug St., Brgy. Panagdait, Cebu City. It is equipped with large-scale kitchens, classrooms, simulation rooms, a library and an assembly hall.

To prospective students who have the impression that kitchen work is easy, Chef Gandler pointed out that it is anything but so.

“Everyone cooks here; it’s not just us doing demo,” he said.

Whether it is in the diploma programs or the short courses, each student is expected to be hands-on as it is the only way they can become competent in their trade.

Schallenberg added: “You can’t buy a position. You have to work your way up; a position is earned.”

ISCAHM Cebu is now accepting enrollees for the 12-month programs and short courses.