Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila Institute recognizes its second batch of BS REnt graduates

On Saturday, 12 August 2023, Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila Institute held its Degree Recognition Program for the class of 2023. The ceremony, which was held at The Loft at Areté, recognized and sent off the Institute's second batch of graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Restaurant Entrepreneurship (BS REnt) program.

Among those in attendance at the event were Dr Maria Luz C Vilches, Vice President for Higher Education; Dr Rodolfo P Ang, Vice President for Administration; Dr Roberto Martin Galang, Dean of the John Gokongwei School of Management; Marleth S Calanog, Director of the Center for Continuing Education, Chef Annalisa Margarita Mariano, Program Director BS Restaurant Entrepreneurship; and Ms Liza Morales, Institute Director for Le Cordon Blue Ateneo de Manila.

Invited to speak at the event were Chef Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo, CEO & President, Wildflour Group, as commencement speaker; and Chef Edward Bugia (AB Philosophy 2004), Executive Chef and Co-Owner Mimi and Bros, among others, as inspirational message speaker. 

In her speech, Chef Lorenzana de Ocampo reflected on the challenges of opening a new restaurant concept. She recalled the difficulties she faced during the early days of Wildflour where the café was faced with empty seats and zero foot traffic.

In addition, she also recalled recent challenges that the company faced during the pandemic, the lockdowns that it caused, and the economic downturn that followed.

Throughout all these challenges, she emphasized the important of hard work and perseverance, something instilled in her by her family and reinforced by her time at Le Cordon Bleu.

She then ended her speech by reminding the graduating students that the degree that they've earned and the skills that they've learned are nothing but tools that amount to nothing without hard work and dedication.

"You should already count yourselves lucky to graduate not just from this amazing school, but to have majored in Restaurant Entrepreneurship specifically, which didn't even exist when I was still studying, and which should theoretically already give you a leg up on your peers," she said. "That being said, ultimately it is your own creativity, hard work, perseverance, courage, and passion to maximize everything that you've learned that will make you a successful restauranteur."

In his inspirational message, Chef Bugia also recalled his own experiences with putting up new restaurant concepts. This included his own experience facing an empty restaurant when he took over Ninyo, before its now famous kare-kareng bagnet was discovered by chef and columnist Reggie Aspiras, who wrote about it in her column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

He then recalled the later challenges that he and his partners faced as they continued to expand to new concepts – including grappling with how to create a vegan restaurant when their prior taste of success had revolved around a pork dish – and how he was eventually faced with handling nearly close to 20 restaurants.

"A lot of this you can do with time management," he explained. "You just have to trust the people you work with, and make sure you get to work with people who you know understand the way that you cook, and how you work."

"That's how you open more restaurants, that's how you scale," he added.

He then reminded the class that every restauranteur will experience trials and hard times. He used his own experiences during the pandemic, where he and his partners were forced to sell a majority of the restaurants they had put up due to the lockdowns.

From this, he and his partners decided that they would eventually rebuild – the words "let's rebuild" becoming their battlecry. 

"Not all of you will have an easy time opening your own restaurants," he explained near the end of his speech. "Pero kung gusto ninyo kakayanin niyo. That's the one most important thing I learned as a Philo major in Ateneo. Kung gusto niyo kayanin niyo, hindo young kaya niyo gugustohin niyo."

Following the guest speakers, the graduating students marched and received their diplomas, Le Cordon Blue medallions and chef's toques. This was followed by class 2023 representative Seth Matthew Jorge Fernando taking to the stage to give a message on behalf of the batch.

In his address, Fernando acknowledged the challenges his class faced, from the pandemic to hosting Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila's first fine dining functions that were open to guests outside of the program.

Beyond this, Fernando also issued challenges to both his batch mates as well as to the Institute to build on what they've done to create a larger impact on the community outside of the BS REnt program.

"My fellow graduates, as you now take the time to discern and consider, for the next few days, what to do with your time and what your next steps are after having graduated from Ateneo and Le Cordon Bleu," he asked. "I urge you to strongly consider how you can impact a world greater than yourself."

To the Institute and its faculty and administrators, he challenged them to find out ways to further its impact. In particular, he noted how only 8 percent of the graduating batch were scholars, a figure below the 24 percent average for Ateneo higher education.

The ceremony was concluded with the singing of the alma mater. This was followed by Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila Institute's BS Restaurant Entrepreneurship class of 2023 coming together for a class photo and the throwing of the toques.