The Culinary Institute of America has produced top chefs across the country, including Hawaiʻi's Roy Yamaguchi. The restaurateur has taken over as executive director at the Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kapiʻolani Community College.
Now students will have the opportunity to tap resources at both places to get them on their way to a career in the kitchen. The culinary collaboration will provide intensive study to develop Hawaiʻi's workforce.
The goal is a world-class center for culinary excellence — from creating in the kitchen to developing value-added products for the market to expanding hospitality opportunities.
"So there's a lot of moving parts, and I thought that one of the ways that we can really get it off the ground and get some ideas from an institution that has done extremely well, CIA is considered, you know, the world's premier culinary college," said Yamaguchi, who came out of the CIA program.
But he credited his wife, Denise Yamaguchi, for developing the relationships to make this collaboration happen.
The CIP is also creating a restaurant that will allow students to learn alongside chefs, cultural food practitioners, and purveyors.
"The thing that everyone's waiting for is the restaurant," KCC Culinary Arts Department Chair Grant Itomitsu said. "So the restaurant is currently near completion, but we're about a year out, and we're going to have a lot of inquiries on that."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment took a hit, he said.
"I think a lot of the programs across the state were able to pivot, so we would come back face to face sooner than most academic programs," Itomitsu said. "So that really helped save us, and really helped keep our numbers up. So we're slowly growing."
The Culinary Institute of the Pacific received $2 million in funding last year through the state Legislature and the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism for the collaboration.
"We were very fortunate that Gov. Green had signed his agreement, and it was put together by DBEDT," Yamaguchi said. "So we have a three-year agreement to bring the CIA to have this workforce programs throughout the year."
The first cohort will focus on ʻĀina-Based Mediterranean Cooking and the second will focus on Pacific Rim Plant Forward Cooking. Both will run for 5 days.
The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority will cover full tuition for the 32 professionals in those programs this September. Applicants must have at least three years of experience in a commercial kitchen — and be a state resident.
Applications are open through Aug. 1. To apply, click here.
This interview aired on The Conversation on July 9, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
