The Culinary Institute of America, in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Temasek Polytechnic, hosted 200 guests for a celebration announcing the opening of the CIA Singapore earlier today. The event included tours of the college’s new 30,000-square-foot teaching kitchens, and marks the opening of the college’s fourth campus its first international location.
Offering the proven curriculum the CIA delivers at its United States campuses, the bachelor’s degree program in Singapore will build students’ command of global product knowledge, professional skills, and in-depth understanding of the culinary and catering professions. The program will also cover more advanced areas of study such as revenue management and marketing for the foodservice and hospitality industry. Culinary and service skills will be honed through hands-on learning and projects in the state-of-the-art kitchens and public restaurants at the CIA Singapore campus.
Among those present for the event were Dr. Tim Ryan, CMC, president of The Culinary Institute of America and Professor Tan Chin Tiong, president of the Singapore Institute of Technology. Other attendees included Mark Erickson, CMC, vice president dean of culinary education for the CIA, and Eve Felder, managing director at the CIA Singapore.
“SIT and The Culinary Institute of America have worked diligently with a shared goal in mind to provide our undergraduates with the best education that we can offer so as to produce culinarians who will graduate from this facility ready to take on the world,” explains Professor Tan Chin Tiong. “This is what we at SIT are extremely mindful of. From the day we meet a potential student at the interview session, we tell them that they are coming in to SIT to learn the science and art of culinary skills and to be educated. For the CIA, our graduates will be part of an illustrious family of some 40,000 alumni around the world. Some, in fact, are based here in Singapore at celebrity restaurants like Wolfgang Puck’s Cut and Guy Savoy at Marina Bay Sands.”
The new degree program is available to graduates of polytechnic institutions who have earned their diplomas in Hospitality & Tourism Management, Leisure & Resort Management, or Culinary & Catering Management, as well as to other hospitality, tourism, and culinary diploma program graduates.
“By establishing a campus in the heart of Asia’s ‘culinary crossroads,’ the CIA will be able to provide greater access to its gold-standard culinary education services, and this degree program is starting at a time of promising growth in the Singaporean tourism industry,” explains Dr. Ryan. “We will offer students our intense hands-on curriculum, taught by our world-class faculty, and they will gain an intimate knowledge of all aspects of the culinary, catering, and food industry.”
The first class of bachelor’s degree students will start at the CIA Singapore in January 2011. For more information about the CIA’s first campus in Asia, please visit www.ciachef.edu.sg.
Posted 12/20/10.
