Graduates in culinary arts specialities enhance the quality of service in tourist facilities, centres of traditional gastronomy and the private sector.

The collective of the Gilberto Smith Duquesne training centre in the municipality of Ciro Redondo, which belongs to the Culinary Federation of Cuba, has trained some 620 professionals over the last two years, with a view to improving the quality of service in the hotels of the Jardines del Rey tourist destination, traditional gastronomy facilities and centres in the non-state sector in the province of Ciego de Avila.

«The courses have a weekly all-day meeting for three months, in whose classes we link theory with practice in the subjects of hygiene and food handling, generic cooking I and II, among other specialities,» reported Idalmis Gómez Crespo, representative of the municipal grassroots section of the Culinary Association.

She affirmed that 2024 was a decisive stage with the holding of three graduation ceremonies and the beginning of preparations for the preparation of teaching staff and the incorporation of the third level generic cooking modality into the programme.

«Those interested do not have to have qualifications in the culinary arts, they can be young people, retired people, housewives, workers; we are already carrying out pre-registration and the certificates of completion of studies will also be endorsed by the Culinary Federation of Cuba and the Ministry of Domestic Trade, even with international credit».

For the international chef Alexis Iparraguirre Cruz, coordinator of the teaching activity in the Ciro Redondo base section, «one of the outstanding achievements was the training of more than 100 young people who had been disconnected from study and work.

«On the other hand, I consider as one of the most emotional meetings the one dedicated to the educators on 22 December in our centre, where at the recent graduation of 111 students, they prepared, with their own resources, starters, sweets and all kinds of dishes based on seafood, fish, pork, chicken and mutton».

Although they have not been able to realise their greatest desire to offer «à la carte» a place as a chef’s house in the municipality of Ciro Redondo, the collective continues to create the minimum indispensable conditions for the family home of Idalmis and Alexis, who put as much love into their daily work as they do into Cuban cuisine, the nation’s cultural heritage.