THE Cravings Group announced that it is set to open in November its P350-million mixed-used building in Makati City.
This developed as its new Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) satellite campus, which will be housed in one of the floors in the refurbished building in Salcedo Village, Makati City, welcomed its first 11 students under the CCA-Escoffier French culinary program.
The Cravings Group CEO Badjie G. Trinidad said the six-story building, which has 7,000 square meters of floor space, was bought from renowned architect Gabriel Formoso.
“We personally know the owners and it was just luck on our part to be able to purchase the building,” Trinidad said, while explaining that it was faster for them to acquire an existing building than building from the ground up.
Trinidad added that they will maintain the “Formoso” building name as respect to its original owners, whom she said was also responsible for designing the Manila Peninsula in Makati City and Serendra inside the Bonifacio Global City.
According to Trinidad, the ground floor of their newly acquired building will house four restaurants, including Epicurious, Cravings, 94 North and Where’s Marcel?
The second floor will house CCA’s new high-end and state-of-the-art culinary school, which will be manned by veteran chefs from Institut Culinaire Disciples Escoffier (ICDE), a professional culinary school that is based in Hong Kong.
The third to sixth floors will become The Cravings Group’s first venture into the hotel business.
“It will be a boutique hotel with 38 suites. It will have butler service. The sixth floor will become an events place,” Trinidad said, while adding that it will be a nontraditional hotel, as it will have no front desk.
She said rooms will have a floor area of 25 sq m and will have a distinct Filipino look, with local materials being used for its design.
“We are now working for the hotel to receive Department of Tourism accreditation,” she said.
Meanwhile, ICDE Director Vincent Leroux, responsible for the six-month Escoffier Culinary Program in the CCA satellite campus, said graduates from the program are expected to immediately get jobs after completion of the program.
According to Leroux, graduates, after passing a final one-day assessment examination, will be receiving the National Diploma in French Cuisine, which is recognized by hospitality and fine-dining establishments worldwide.
“They can find jobs anywhere in the world. We have 12,000 member chefs in 20,000 establishments,” Leroux said.
According to Leroux, in Hong Kong alone, the new graduates can initially earn $15 per hour, while also citing big demands for their graduates in Europe, Australia and the United States.
He said the normal career path will have them become second chef in two years and a full-time chef by their fourth year at work. From there, Leroux said they already can start their own businesses.
“They are being groomed to become executive chefs” Leroux said.
Leroux, who holds several French diplomas in culinary arts and hospitality, management and accounting, was an executive chef at several hotels worldwide and, for a time, managed his own restaurant in France.
The CCA-ICDE partnership was signed in November last year.
Image credits: Rodel Alzona