If you’re interested in gaining a culinary education, AICA and AICHI are among the culinary schools that can be found in Cebu. Below is a description of each, to help you differentiate these two schools from each other.
The Academy for International Culinary Arts
Since it was founded in 2004, the Academy for International Culinary Arts (AICA) prided itself in providing world-class culinary education. Its faculty is composed of top professionals who already gained a favorable reputation in their respective fields of the culinary arts.
The culinary program director of the AICA in Cebu is Chef Johann Young. AICA’s instructors include such culinary achievers as Chef Vance Borja, Chef Indira Grant, Chef Jose Miguel Lontoc, Chef Marleen Ong, Chef Lor Torres, and Chef Raki Urbina.
The Academy’s intensive twelve-month international culinary arts diploma program, with a strong foundation in theory, practice and experience, is designed for people who are serious about starting a culinary arts career. With the most compact and focused classroom setup in the country, AICA has a policy of fourteen students per class, to ensure that each student receives thorough and personal attention from the master chef instructors. This TESDA-accredited program is composed of two modules: (1) commercial cooking and (2) advanced professional cooking & kitchen management. You can view the outline of the program on the school Web site.
At AICA, you could also earn a certificate in the fundamentals of professional baking and pastry or a certificate in the fundamentals of professional cooking. The scientific and technique-driven course on fundamentals of professional baking consists of eight sessions, while that of professional cooking consists of sixteen sessions. Summer Cooking Fun, a recreational course just for kids, is also offered.
You can enroll in special elective programs at AICA, for a quick course on certain programs. Courses that you can choose from are bartending, catering, food styling, front of house, and specialty baking.
Students of AICA not only experience 100 percent hands-on training in every session but also learn to handle premium ingredients in first-class commercial-grade kitchen facilities. This industry-level working environment is supported by the AICA Restaurant Simulation Program and Restaurant Immersion Program.
AICA’s campus facilities in Cebu are well equipped, with a restaurant management boardroom for project presentations and reporting and audiovisual lecture rooms for class briefings and short lectures in addition to the state-of-the-art industrial kitchen.
The business address of AICA in Cebu is as follows: The Gallery, Juan Luna Street corner Golam Drive, Mabolo, Cebu City. You may call up the school at telephone number (032)268-5636. You can also write [email protected] an e-mail message or simply visit www.aicaculinary.com as it is the school’s official Web site. You could even connect with AICA via its Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Academy-for-International-Culinary-Arts/128868513791910 or its Twitter account, @AICA_Culinary
American International Culinary & Hospitality Institute
The American International Culinary & Hospitality Institute is perhaps better known by its acronym, AICHI. It is actually an entire portion of the facilities in the ACT Cyber Tower, and these culinary facilities are said to be the biggest in the Visayas and Mindanao.
AICHI has spacious and fully air-conditioned facilities with a complete set of culinary equipment that is compliant with the international standards and specifications of the American Culinary Federation (ACF). The ACF is the largest professional chefs’ organization in North America, with more than twenty thousand members in chapters across the United States.
AICHI’s facilities are divided into the Competition Kitchen, Training Kitchen, Bakery Room, Chocolate Room, Demo Room, and Pastry Room. Rodrigo A. Abellanosa, who started the Asian College of Technology (ACT), planned to make ACT the best hospitality school in Cebu, so the school partnered with AICHI. The culinary school’s offerings include a two-year diploma program as well as Asian Cooking, Baking & Pastry, Commercial Baking, Cruise-Line Management – Culinary & Stewarding Services, and Cruise-Line Management – Hotel Services, among others. One-month (short-term), five-month, and two-year culinary programs are available.
The school continually adds to its curriculum and taps its instructors, who enrich the AICHI curriculum with their wealth of professional culinary, tourism and hospitality experiences. A strong foundation in theory, practice and experience equips AICHI students with the basic knowledge necessary to practice culinary, tourism and hospitality professions. To give its students the cutting edge they need to enhance their careers, AICHI also equips its students with in-depth understanding of the various facets of international cuisine and the international standards of the tourism and hospitality industry.
The American International Culinary and Hospitality Institute is located at the second floor of the ACT Cyber Tower on P. del Rosario Street corner Leon Kilat Street, Cebu City. It’s across the street from E-Mall. To get in touch with the school, you may call telephone number (032)505-0918 or connect with it through its Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/aichiculinary
Map Indicators
A) The Academy for International Culinary Arts
The Gallery, MaboloB) American International Culinary & Hospitality Institute
ACT Cyber Tower
