Insider Spotlight
CCA Manila is addressing that market through its six-month Professional Chef Program, or ProChef, and seven-month Professional Baking Program, or ProBaking, which began in September 2026. Both combine online coursework with hands-on training at the culinary school's BGC satellite campus.
Why it matters
The programs reflect a broader use case for culinary education beyond students choosing their first careers, offering working adults a more flexible route to professional training while allowing them to continue managing jobs or businesses.
ProChef starts with kitchen safety, ingredients, knife skills and essential cooking methods before moving into culinary techniques, workflow, plating, quality standards and professional kitchen discipline.
Students complete online coursework through culinary education platform Rouxbe, alongside weekly face-to-face practical sessions at CCA BGC.
The baking angle
ProBaking follows a similar blended format but adds an entrepreneurship component. Students move from ingredients, technique and food safety into artisan baking, production workflow, costing, yield and quality standards.
The program culminates in a bakery business plan covering the concept, menu and costing, according to a company release.
Experience counts
For entrepreneur and recent ProChef graduate Joanna Ledesma, formal training was a way to build on years of cooking and hospitality experience.
“I wanted proper culinary training, stronger foundations, and professional techniques that would help me grow as a chef,” she said. “Enrolling in the CCA ProChef Program was my way of investing in myself and finally giving formal education to a passion I had carried with me for so many years.”
Ledesma said the training also changed how she approached cooking.
“It taught me to understand the reason behind each technique instead of simply following a recipe,” she said. “That gave me more confidence to experiment, create my own dishes, and combine what I learned in school with the flavors and ingredients that represent who I am as a Filipino chef.”
From classroom to business
Fellow ProChef graduate Jeremaine Sze applied her training while developing NamJai Thai Noodle House, including in food preparation, sanitation and safety, staff training and menu standardization.
“Obtaining a professional culinary certification significantly boosted my confidence as a leader,” she said.
For CCA Manila, the programs widen the potential market for culinary education to people who are not necessarily starting over, but want to formalize existing experience or build professional skills around a second career or food business. —Princess Daisy C. Ominga | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
