Video Transcription: Today i got to sit down with someone who truly lives and breaths the culinary arts Chef Martin Bower, if you haven’t heard of him yet, let me set the scene. His journey started in the UK, London kitchens, Thailand resorts, Philippines, Australia.
He didn't just work in these places, he led.
Executive chef at luxury hotels, culinary director at big name resorts, chef consultant to restaurants. But what really stands out is his drive to share what he knows. Now, Chef Martin is the Culinary Academic Director at La Flamme Bleue Center for Culinary Arts in Tuguegarao City.
His energy is contagious. He said it's about giving back shaping the next generation in northern Luzon.
He isn”t just teaching recipes, he's teaching mindset asking questions, exploring flavors, organizing culinary competitions. Opening doors to global opportunities.
He is a proud member of the Philippine Chef Association, so if youre an aspiring chef in Northern Luzon, or just someone who loves food, keep an eye on ta Flamme Bleue, With Chef Martin at the helm, the future of Filipino cuisine, is looking brighter and a whole lot more delicious.
I think my international experience will bring a lot of wealth and knowledge into the curriculum here at the school for students, just because of the extensive cuisine that I've had working throughout the UK, Philippines, Thailand and Australia.
Being able to work with many different chefs within the kitchen brigade, I think they'll hold strong for all students and they will have a good learning from this.
I think having the large teams helps me with the class sizes of the the kitchen because I can understand how to put this across in lesson format to make sure the students understand the brigade system within the kitchen and how well they work, and how efficient they work, and how cleanly they work within the kitchen environment.
I think it's important that we manage the students' expectations in the way of cleanliness and HACCP from day one.
As soon as they enter school, they understand how to work cleanly, work tidy, and work efficiently.
Along with this, it's also fundamentally important that the students understand the costing andHow much food cost to understand the wastage perspective as well.
So this is very important to start this from day one to understand full kitchen management and enhance their kitchen skills.
I think it's important as a guest lecturer and senior judge and head judge at the Expo is to basically pass on my experiences, my learnings down to the students and really focus on the Filipino chef in developing them to make them stronger within their chosen career path, giving advice, mentoring them, tutoring them through the whole process, whether it be theory or practical work, just to really focus on them and make sure that they're learning to their full potentials.
I think my knowledge throughout the cuisines of being in Europe and in Asia will help the students beneficially because I understand the cuisines, the balance of flavours and how to deliver that in the class to make sure we enhance the learning of the student to ensure that they do understand the flavour balances of each different cuisine because they are different and it's fundamentally important that they understand these differences, especially when it comes to seasoning and flavour profiles.
I think it's fundamentally important that the student understands the full process of commercial kitchen workings.
That's through the process of HACCP, food safety and costing knowledge.
This is very important for their development as a chef because these days it's not all about cooking, it's about understanding the managerial process and the workings of kitchens.
So fundamentally, what I've learned throughout my career, I can pass down to the students to ensure that they're industry ready when they finish with us and graduate from the school.
I think on-the-job training is very much important for a student to understand commercial kitchens and how the process works.
Also for their learning, there's so much they can learn in school.
But on the job training really provides them with real world experience and how they can develop their career and which part of the career they want to go into, whether it be hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, they can really decide on their own career path having this beneficial part of their curriculum.
I think it's very important that the student understands these important roles in the kitchen, cleanliness and HACCP, because it's all about the food safety and how much we care about our customers.
And here at La Flamme, we make sure that our students understand this process from day one.
So as soon as they enter the lab, they understand how from our instructors to work cleanly, work safely and work tidy, which is drilled into them since day one and we carry that on throughout the year and it's also beneficial that we grade them on these systems on every single class that they do and every exam is has a part of HACCP and food safety.
The first thing I'd do is I'd advise any student if they want to open their businesses, yes, definitely pursue that goal.
But my in my experience in what I would recommend to them is to get some industry experience first.
That means going to work in a commercial kitchen, whether it be hotel or restaurant to really understand the fundamentals of how a kitchen works, how the processes work, understand the costings because when you're in business costings is very important.
So from my point of view moving forward, I would recommend that in that factor they would get their industry experience first maybe 2-3 years and then build their own business plan.
How they will run their own restaurant.
That would be my first and foremost recommendation for opening a new business.
I think it's understanding what world class curriculum we can offer to you.
With an academic director and instructor with vast experience, we can deliver culinary goals, make sure you succeed and enhance your passion in culinary.
We're here to help you deliver and help you succeed and in the future see the Filipino Chef aspire to be the number one in the country.
Thank you.