Grand Opening of the New Home of HRC Culinary Academy

HRC Culinary Academy in facts & figures

The new facility:

• over 2 years of renovation works.
• creating careers for 200 young aspiring chefs, half of which are from Bulgaria
• the new HRC Culinary Academy is currently home to over 200 students and can grow up to 500+ students;
• a typical student spendsover 2,000 hours training in the kitchen, and travels 20,000 kilometers to gain international experience abroad; (round trip Sofia-Amsterdam and Sofia-Chicago)
• the new facilities of HRC Academy are equipped with 41 hot stoves, 12 ovens, 25 fridges and 200+ cutting boards. We have stoppedcounting pots and pans!
• for our Grand Opening event, we have chefs participating from America, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and off course Dobrich,Yambol and Sofia.

History:

• 14 generations of graduates since 2008 when the Academy was established;
• Almost 350 people from 27 countries around the world have passed their education so far (graduated and current students). Studentscoming from Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Holland, UK, USA, Canada, SA, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines.
• Since the beginning of 2013 the Academy`s program is accredited by the American Culinary Federation (ACF), which makes it the onlyschool in EU with an academic accreditation (only Switzerland has accredited culinary arts program on the continent).
• Professional study programs in Culinary arts and Food & beverage management, certificate programs and short courses; Dual bachelordegrees with universities from Switzerland, UK and Bulgaria.
• 2-year program in Culinary Art, entirely taught in English by foreign and Bulgarian chef instructors, 2 semesters of mandatory internshipsabroad are part of the program. The Academy offers a great number of industry placements at renowned restaurants and hotels – some of them Michelin star awarded. The main locations of our industry placements are in Europe – Holland, Belgium, Germany, UK, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus; South Africa, Dubai, Qatar and USA (where our partner organizations/host employers are more than 70 in 18 states).

• The statistic shows that more than 90% of the graduates are working as professional cooks and chefs, some of them start their own, inmost cases, restaurant business, or family business in the restaurant or food industry. More than 50% of all Bulgarian graduates find their professional development outside Bulgaria, mostly in Holland, Germany, UK, Norway and USA. Several of our graduates are working in China, Australia, Canada and the Caribbean countries.
• The Academy has been the host of the first national competition of vocational schools for tourism, which has taken place in Dobrich.Ever since, traditionally every year, the Academy is participating in national and international culinary championships with teams and individual participants and is winning at least one medal each year at the National Culinary Championship of Bulgaria: Pastry chef of the year – twice; same category – silver medal; Culinary team of Bulgaria 2014; Culinary team of Bulgaria 2015 and bronze medals for the same category in 2015.

• HRC Academy is official regional representative (for Bulgaria and all neighboring countries) of the International Federation of Pastry, Ice Cream & Chocolate(http://www.internationalfederationpastry.com).

• HRC Academy has developed a Cooking for Fun program for culinary enthusiasts and a Kids’ Academy for healthy cooking with childrenfrom 6 to 12 years.