CCA Manila Interactive - Hottest Job in Town

Hottest Job in Town

By Eric S. Caruncho
July 06, 2008, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – Forget dog grooming.

Our continuing obsession with good food and fine dining has made being a chef the hot new career choice for young Filipinos wondering what to do with their lives.

With slick new restaurants opening every week, entire cable channels devoted 24/7 to food and cooking shows, reality shows like the "Iron Chef” competition and the emergence of celebrity chefs from Wolfgang Puck to Emeril, the status of the once-lowly kusinero has been elevated to the same lofty heights once reserved for the more traditional professions. Not only that, the top-ranked chefs now have the potential to earn as much as dentists and business executives - more if they open their restaurants. Next to nurses and caregivers, food professionals are also among the most in-demand for employment overseas.

Small wonder then that culinary schools are sprouting like champignons. Ten years ago you could count the number of culinary schools on one finger. Today there are at least ten in Metro Manila alone, many with international connections. Some of them charge more per semester than the top private universities: another indicator of the professional chef's new-found status.

So, should the fresh high school graduate consider cuisine as a career?

The key, many newly-established chefs agree, is passion.

“Before entering culinary school, I asked myself if I really wanted this career,” says Paolo Sia, 25, corporate chef at Unilever Foodsolutions.

“Ask yourself a million times because being a chef is never a glamorous job. When you see chefs on TV, 'Wow! Ang galing nila!' But it's not always like that in the real world. For instance, when I was a banquet chef, I used to clean grease traps. I spent Christmas and New Year in the kitchen cooking 10 kilos of galantine. Sobrang hirap. Seven days a week, 15 to 18 hours a day in the kitchen, no days off depending on your functions and the season. It's never a glamorous job. It's really the passion that drives you.”

As a corporate chef for Unilever, Sia and his colleagues provide free consultancy services, cooking demonstrations, recipe development, menu planning, and kitchen layout for clients who want to put up a restaurant or catering service.

A graduate of the Center for Culinary Arts, Sia decided on a career in food shortly after finishing high school at De La Salle. For him, it was a necessary step toward his ultimate dream, which was to open his own restaurant.

“My parents asked me if I was sure I wanted to pursue culinary arts because the tuition was so expensive,” he recalls.

Sia was set on a career in food, however, so he went ahead and enrolled in a two-year culinary arts course.

“For me culinary school was very straightforward in teaching you how to deal with a professional kitchen, making food, making your kitchen efficient, all things concerned with putting up a restaurant,” he recalls. “I was cooking already but I wasn't sure if I was doing the right things. When I entered culinary school, that was the time I formally trained, and eventually I corrected my mistakes.”

Culinary school also gave him a taste of the kind of grit and determination needed to succeed as a chef, because the course requirements were demanding, calling for long hours in the kitchen.

“There were 40 of us when we started out, but only 18 graduated,” Sia recalls. “The rest dropped out because of the difficulty. It's physically, emotionally and mentally demanding and challenging. Sometimes you're demoralized because you burned the food, or your executive chef will scold you every day. Mentally, you need to think, you need to prep, you need to decide what to do first, soup, salad or entree. The whole system is exhausting. I used to work 15 to 18 hours. I'd be there 5 a.m. and leave at 12 midnight.”

But finishing his course was only the beginning.

“Before, the thinking was that if you graduated from culinary school you're already a chef,” he says. “But that's not true at all. Culinary school is just the foundation; all the knowledge is there but you need to gain experience outside. So after graduating, I applied in different establishments. I went to Starbucks and Gerry's Grill, then I went into hotels, the Westin Philippine Plaza and Linden Hotel as banquet chef.”

Continues Sia: “To launch yourself as a chef you have to become an apprentice first or become a student for life,” he continues. “That's my principle. To be a sponge and learn everything, absorb. Even if I'm a corporate chef here, I still talk to other chefs, ask questions because I'm a student for life. Eventually you gain respect and you can launch your career.”

Sia also continues to hone his palate by eating local food whenever he travels, figuring out the local flavors that he can then incorporate in his own cooking.

Being a chef, according to Sia, is now on par with other professions.

“Unlike before, kusinero ka lang, but now it's one of the most highly-paid jobs in the country,” he says. “Everywhere you go they're looking for chefs. Any establishment that has a food service outlet: airlines, hotels, hospitals, country club, restaurants, even fast food chains nowadays hire chefs as consultants. There are also a lot of opportunities overseas.”

But again, passion is still the key to success.

Link: Inquirer.net

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roxy : hello! can u please send me a copy of the tuition fee..so, that i can tell my mom how much..thx a lot
chum :
chum : i want to enroll but i dont know how much the tuition fee
dzen : hi maam i just want to ask how much is the total fee for your culinary arts program and can you send me the list of payments including its mide of payments. Thanks and good day
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