April 15 - 21, 2003

ACCENT on food

The Thai cuisine course at Rajabhat Institute Suan Dusit’s new culinary school has proven to be a big hit with members of the community.

Rajabhat Institute Suan Dusit is taking its traditional strength in food-related courses and businesses to the next level with the opening of an international culinary school

Story and pictures by TERRY FREDRICKSON
Rajabhat Institute Suan Dusit doesn’t offer a course in entrepreneurship. Perhaps it should. From all appearances, Suan Dusit school administrators are a good deal more entrepreneurial than many schools which do offer such courses.

Of course, they have to be. Of Suan Dusit’s annual budget of more than 800 million baht, only about 200 million comes from the government, barely enough to cover the salaries of the permanent staff. To cover the shortfall, the institute charges higher tuition fees, but it has also opened a wide range of competitive businesses. These range from a high-capacity bakery to a sophisticated catering service that competes successfully with big names in the private sector such as Thai Airways, S&P, and See Fah.

Pitak Chancharoen

Most of the institute’s business activities are related in some way to food. This, explains Vice-President for Special Affairs Pitak Chancharoen, has been a special strength of Suan Dusit since it was founded 70 years ago as a special secondary school for girls.

"Maintaining our focus on food is a part of our basic mission," Acharn Pitak stresses. "We consider the businesses as value-added activities. They are not just profit-making enterprises since our students gain work experience – more so than they can get elsewhere."

Teachers, too, get practical business experience to fill out their academic training, he says. Seven teachers, for example, oversee the operation of the Suan Dusit hotel.

One of the key aims of the culinary classes is to help students learn to prepare foods to high standards of flavour, consistency and hygiene.

The institute’s latest venture is the establishment of an international culinary school. Apart from its obvious connection with food, Acharn Pitak says that it meshes nicely with Suan Dusit’s academic programme as well as its other food-related businesses.

"At the bachelors level, we have home economics and the science and technology of food. But these two academic areas are not as clearly defined as they could be. Thus, we are in the process of replacing home economics with a new programme focusing exclusively on the food services industry," Acharn Pitak says.

"We have a cooking laboratory, a hotel where students can train, and now we have an international culinary school too. All will be able to work together to service our students as well as people from the community outside."

The culinary school formally opened on January 16 and the learning post recently paid a visit to see how things are going.

Driving force

Naruemon Nantaragsa

Dr Naruemon Nantaragsa, director of the culinary school, is one of the driving forces behind Suan Dusit’s efforts to upgrade its food related academic curriculum. She felt home economics, with its diverse curriculum which focused not only on food, but also on crafts and tailoring, was not adequately preparing students for careers in the food-related occupations. This was the reason for the new food services industry major.

The establishment of the culinary school was another key part of the upgrading effort. The school would serve to support Suan Dusit’s regular students, but equally important it would also service the community at large.

"Our first aim is to train people – both students and people from the community – for careers to enable them to work in the food service industry in restaurants or catering services," Dr Naruemon explains.

Other aims include familiarising those who study at the school with the latest equipment in the field and teaching them about food safety and hygiene in the choice of raw materials as well as the preparation and serving process. Students are also expected to learn to prepare food with high standards of flavour and consistency, Dr Naruemon says.

The school must also be self-supporting, she says. "We need to find ways of earning money or else we can’t exist. The government won’t support us completely."

Four basic fields

To manage the international culinary school, Suan Dusit brought in Chachaya Raktakanishta, a young professional with wide experience in the food and hotel services industry both here and in Europe.

According to Ms Chachaya, when the school is fully operational, it will have four basic fields of study: Thai cuisine, European cuisine, bakery and bar and beverage. At present, only the Thai cuisine and bakery courses have opened. The first international cuisine course is scheduled to begin next month.

Thai cuisine has proven to be immensely popular. The first 75-hour course actually began in August, several months before the school officially opened. Courses seven and eight are now in session and the ninth has already been fully booked.

Class sizes are capped at 24 students, but Ms Chachaya says that 26 are admitted if demand is particularly high. That is the absolute maximum, however. Class sessions take place on weekends and successful students receive a certificate. The course costs 12,500 baht inclusive of all food materials. The students are responsible for their own chef clothing.

"The course is open to anyone," Ms Chachaya says. "Currently we have an arrangement with the Sunrice Culinary School in Singapore and Johnson and Welles of the US. Students are sent to Singapore for a month to learn Asian cuisine and one week of that is spent at Suan Dusit.

"Presently, we are not considering individual tourists. We take groups but not individuals because that would cost a lot. We don’t want to charge a very high price."

According to Ms Chachaya, the school will open a three-level (beginning, intermediate and advanced) diploma programme in Thai cuisine next year. This, says Dr Naruemon, should help alleviate one of the biggest problems for skilled Thai cooks seeking employment in prestigious foreign-owned hotels and restaurants. Up until now, there have been few opportunities for them to gain the required certification.

The 75-hour courses include at least nine hours of theoretical training. Here students are learning some of the intricacies of restaurant management.

The culinary school’s first international cuisine course is scheduled to run from May 6^th through the 29^th. The course will include nine hours of theoretical training, covering subjects like raw materials and equipment, cost control and food sanitation. The practical section will run 56 hours and cover everything from the European breakfast to the preparation of lasagna. The tuition fee is 14,900 baht.

In addition, Ms Chachaya says the culinary school will soon open its pastry section. The first course begins June 7^th and will cover cakes and cookies. It will take 65 hours and be conducted every Saturday through August 9^th. The course will be limited to 15 students and cost 14,900 baht.

The bar and beverage course is intended to be one of several two-day courses offered at the school. The first B&B course will be held on May 3^rd and 4^th. Other two-day courses will include bakery, Thai cuisine, Thai desserts as well as fruit and vegetable carving. The fee for each will be 2,700 baht Ms Chachaya says.

Home at last

Suan Dusit International Culinary School manager Chachaya Raktakanishta has been a person on the move ever since she graduated from Assumption University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, majoring in hotel management.

"I chose that field because I like cooking and at the time there was no bachelors degree in that field," she explains.

Still, she seemed destined for a rather traditional MBA from the United States until her father enquired whether she might like to take culinary courses in the United Kingdom.

"So I went to London to the Cordon Bleu school and took a full course there both in cuisine and pastry. That took about one year. Then I got a job in a French restaurant as a pastry cook, but for a very short time because actually I didn’t have a work permit. I asked to train there but after a week or two they said they didn’t have enough staff and they asked me to work there," Ms Chachaya recalls.

Upon returning home, she read about the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies. Before long she was back in the UK enrolled in a master’s degree programme in hospitality management.

"It took me one year and after that I tried to look for a job in England again. It was quite difficult because at that time it was the beginning of the EU. So I thought I would go home and find a job in a hotel."

Once again, her father intervened, and at his suggestion, she sought a job in Germany for a Thai-owned hotel chain. Accepted as a trainee, she took advantage of the rather lengthy visa and work permit process, to return to Thailand and study intensive German at the Goethe Institute here in Bangkok.

Ms Chachaya stayed for one and a half years. The first half year was training and after that she moved to another hotel in the same chain and worked there like a normal employee only with a trainee visa.

"When I was in Germany I worked in the front office, not in food and beverage. That was kind of a routine job. After that first year, you really get nothing more, so I decided to come back," Ms Chachaya recalls.

Home to stay at last, Ms Chachaya took a job in the Hotel Plaza Athenee working in the executive floor. "I first started as a guest service agent," she said. "But there the guest service agent has to do everything, including food and beverage service and also work as part of the front office – everything."

The hotel offered her good prospects for promotion, but it also presented her with a bit of a dilemma. There did seem to be a job to fit her full interests and capabilities.

"I always thought that if I worked in the kitchen I wouldn’t have chance to use my management skills much, but if I worked in management, I wouldn’t have the time to cook. So I tried to find something in the middle, but that’s quite difficult," she explains.

Then Suan Dusit came along. Rector Dr Sirote Pholputin asked if she would like to come because they were setting up a culinary school.

"I work here and run the courses. Since it has a management side and also a cooking side, I thought that might be something I was looking for."

From the looks of it, it is.

Read our other cover stories here.

Back to our home page

| Comments to Terry F. at