Next Generation of Latino Chefs Promoted at CIA in Texas

by Jason Best, Posted Oct 14th 2010 @ 1:00PM

CIA San Antonio Grand Opening Photo: The Culinary Institute of America

One of the nation's top cooking schools (and one the "expert" resources to KitchenDaily, Slashfood's sister site) has dramatically increased its commitment to Latin cuisine, opening a 30,000-square-foot campus in San Antonio dedicated to promoting "the true quality, depth and breadth of Latino cuisines in the United States."

The Culinary Institute of America has more than quadrupled the size of its Texas facilities, according to Nation's Restaurant News. The new digs not only offer more teaching kitchens and classrooms, but spaces that were specifically designed to teach traditional Latin American cooking techniques, such as an outdoor kitchen that includes a wood-fired clay comal, a parilla grill and an in-ground barbeque pit.

The expansion was financed by a $35 million gift from San Antonio businessman Kit Goldsbury, who is the former owner of the Pace picante sauce company. About $23 million of that gift has been set aside for a scholarship program called El Sueño, or The Dream.

At the ceremony that marked the opening of the campus on Saturday, CIA president Tim Ryan said: "There is a reality we want to change. That reality is that, depending on where in the country you live, somewhere between 25 to 75 percent of the kitchen and restaurant workers in food service are of Latino origin. However, just a small fraction of that talented population at present rises through the ranks to leadership or ownership positions, mostly because they lack the required formal education."

Filed Under: Chefs, Events
Tags: CIA, cooking schools, Culinary Institute of America, Latinos, Texas schools