Center for Foods of the Americas
The C.I.A. is Planning a New Focus on Latino Cuisine
A $35 Million grant from Salsa King, Kit Goldsbury is making it possible for the Culinary Institute of America to Develop a new Center for Foods of the Americas.
A $35 million grant from a salsa king – the largest in the history of culinary education – is making it possible for the Culinary Institute of America to create a Center for Foods of the Americas. The C.I.A., whose main campus in located in Hyde Park, New York, plans to develop a new Center for Foods of the Americas in San Antonio – the ‘heartland’ of Latino cuisine north of the Mexican border - to train aspiring chefs. Many of these new students, C.I.A. president Tim Ryan explains, have worked in the food service industry for years, albeit in the more low paying strata. This new program, he believes will provide terrific Latino would-be chefs with a far more lucrative career path in the industry. The San Antonio center is the first step, Ryan explained, adding that there are also plans to develop a parallel new facility in Hyde Park.. There, students pursuing a full B.A. will now have the option of specializing (majoring) in Latin American cuisine.
In San Antonio, the CIA will offer a basic certificate in Latin American Food and have the opportunity of coming to Hyde Park to complete their BA, with a large proportion of the grant also earmarked for scholarships.
The move into exploring Latino cuisine in a culinary context mirrors the highly successful strategy the C.I.A. employed many years ago, when it acquired Greystone in the heart of California’s Napa Valley and used it to champion the now iconic spa/organic cuisine the valley is now famous for.
Kit Goldsbury, the San Antonio entrepreneur and philanthropist – as well as the creator of "Old El Paso Salsa" – the man whose money is making this El Sueno (dream) a reality says he envisions a future where Latin American cuisines are elevated to their "rightful place among the great cuisines of the world." He added that he sees this new venture as a partnership to promote Latino diversity within the food service industry. Currently, while hundreds of thousands of Latinos work in that industry, very few ever escape the lowest rungs of the food service ladder – with only a handful ever attaining executive chef (let alone "celebrity chef") status.
"San Antonio is the perfect place to build this certificate program," said Ryan. "70 percent of the population is Latino and it is absolutely a hot spot for wonderful Latino, Mexican and Tex Mex food already."
Of the $35 million Goldsbury has pledged to the program, $20 million is earmarked for scholarships. $7 million will go into facility and program building efforts in San Antonio for the certificate path and $5 million will be spent in Hyde Park on the Bachelor Program here.
"In Hyde Park, the new center for Latin Cuisine will be part of a other curriculum changes," said Ryan, adding that – just like students in colleges the world over – CIA students pick "majors" such as Italian or Asian cuisine, or, in this case Latino.
According to Ryan, the dream of creating a Center for Foods of the Americas began several year ago, when the C.I.A. first encountered Goldsbury, serving as a consultant for him on a pilot program he was undertaking in San Antonio. He sees this newest joint venture as a natural extension of the C.I.A.’s mission to promote and spearhead sectors of growth and innovation in the food service industry. The C.I.A. Greystone campus in the heart of California’s wine country, for example, has played a leading role in fostering the fresh, organic, "slow foods" movement so reflective of that regional cuisine. Here, at Hyde Park, the school has moved from being a basic certificate program for training chefs to becoming a full bachelor’s degree program, with specialties in many different cuisines.
"We’re proud to be able to provide this new avenue of opportunity to the Latino community," said Ryan. "There are some great Latin-American cooks working in restaurants all over this country, but they’re too often stuck at the bottom of the hierarchy. This program will give them the opportunity to learn more and to trade up, a far as jobs are concerned."
Ryan added that it would also be a wonderful opportunity for C.I.A. professors to expand their own knowledge base of Latino cuisine and to partner in pushing the limits of that cuisine out a little farther.
