Culinary Institute of America, a wonderful treat to myself

By Ed Dychauco
Pots & Pans

Nestled along the hills of world famous and renowned Napa Valley, about two hours North East of San Francisco is a huge old building which houses another famous landmark, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

Technically, it is situated in St. Helena and is known as CIA, St. Helena, California Campus. The other campus is at Hyde Park, New York in the East Coast.

Since I was staying with my kumpare Tony and kumare Susan (their 2nd child is my godchild) in Clayton, our trip to the Napa Valley was cut in half.

Only an hour away, passing through Vallejo, another favorite destination of Pinoys in the San Francisco bay area, my "tourist" guide, in the person of Maribel or Ibing as she is fondly called, drove me to the beautiful hills of Napa Valley in her lovely BMW car! Maribel, also a registered nurse, originally hails from Dipolog City but grew up in Dumaguete City.

Having been in California several times before, I never had the chance to visit the place until now. Boy! Was I ecstatic to check out the place! I took a lot of pictures, of course!

It's really a good thing to own a digital camera because one can just point and shoot anything and everything! Plus, it doesn't need any films at all! Having a guide with you to take your pictures is definitely a big plus!

The Culinary Institute of America was our last stop after visiting three wonderful wineries in the area. As one enters the premises of the school, one can gaze in amazement with what the school has to offer!

There was a room that houses several shapes, sizes, and types of bottle opener dating back to the 1800's! Another room houses several huge wine barrels, where wines used to be aged. There were a lot of centuries old gadgets for wine making that are displayed too.

But what made me drool was when we went to check out their "shop" that sells assortment of cooking and baking gadgets, instruments, cookbooks, memorabilia, chef's uniforms, and many others! Truly fantastic and state of the art items! The staffs were very friendly, too!

Just besides the shop, there was a culinary studio that can fill about 30 or more people for their recreational classes, which is normally done on Fridays to Mondays since these are normally the peak days for visitors.

For the month of July, their cooking demonstrations were focused on the Flavors of the Philippines. I guess I was lucky enough to attend a couple of their demonstrations for a fee of $15.00 per session, which was approximately an hour long with free recipes & tasting.

Some of the foods demonstrated included: Grilled Chicken Wings with Adobo-flavored Pecans, Grilled Bread Soup, Grilled Squid with Chorizo Salad, Citrus Ginger Grilled Chicken, Pineapple Cilantro Rice and many others. Several Americans and Filipinos were in attendance.

The room has two large TVs that show what the Chef is doing since it is constructed like an auditorium. A huge kitchen table complete with functional oven, stoves, pots and pans, food processors, knives and several other state of the art gadgets were used during the demonstrations.

Really a wonderful treat to myself!

For the month of August, the culinary demonstrations will focus on the cuisines of Italy. Another room I was able to visit was a bigger and more modern culinary studio that can accommodate about 100 persons at one time with a bigger demo table and two big colored televisions.

The 2nd, 3rd, and succeeding floors were off-limits to non-students. Courses offered include Pro Chef Level I, II, III Certification Courses, World Cuisine Courses, Specialized and Advanced Culinary Courses, Baking and Pastry Courses, Foundation of Wine Courses, Wines of the World Courses, and many others.

One gets to earn CEUs for all the courses, which could last from a day to a week or several weeks. Payments for each course start at about a few hundreds to more than a thousand dollars. They also sell DVDs and textbooks for those who want to do things at their own time and pace.

After the grand tour of the place, I got out of the institute with so many memories and a heaping of experience. And lots & lots of photos! And I am looking forward to my next trip there sometime soon!

For culinary classes, visit or call Pots and Pans Home Bake & Coffee Shop, Don Apolinar Velez St., Cagayan de Oro City. E-mail potsnpans1976@yahoo.com.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/cag/2007/08/16/life/culinary.institute.of.america.a.wonderful.treat.to.myself.html