JOLLY University partners with CCA, Manila for Year 4

A student practices his knife skills from the bootcamp activity

With the goal of helping the youth define their own pathways towards success through a campus-based culinary competition that harnesses youth entrepreneurship and skills training, JOLLY University has partnered with the country’s pioneer culinary school, the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA, Manila), for its JU Year 4 Bootcamp workshops.

The fruitful collaboration between JOLLY and CCA, Manila paved the way for two whole days of fun and enriching boot camp activities. Apart from hosting the venue, CCA also provided the resource speakers, namely CCA faculty Chef-preneur Jonvic Mangibin and award-winning Chef Kerwin Funtanilla. Topics covered include Food Presentation & Food Safety and Sanitation, and Conceptualizing & Preparing Your Competition Dish. The lectures gave the 30 JU Individual Category finalists an overview about pre-competition know-hows as well as served as a great refresher on practical kitchen skills and techniques.

For the Individual Category finalists, a surprise activity called the Market Basket-style cooking challenge, was conducted as part of their pre-competition preparation. Each participant was assigned to one of four ‘houses’ headed by top CCA students who served as their mentors. The dish entries were graded based on presentation, taste, innovation/creativity, food safety/sanitation, green chefmanship and use/integration of JOLLY food products as mandatory ingredients. Serving as panel of evaluators are JU Head Master Chef Mitchie Sison, Chef Jonvic Mangibin and Fly Ace Corporation representatives, Senior Product Manager Marilou Acuna and PR and Digital Manager Dianne Pagtalunan.

Alyanna Mae Ranola (UST, 2nd runner-up), Bernice Angeline Tenorio (UST, 1st runner-up), and Charlene Baltazar (EAC-Manila, grandwinner) emerged as challenge winners. The elite JU Year 4 batch and CCA student-mentors were also recognized with certificates for their participation.

For the 30 Group Category Teams, the bootcamp activities include cooking demos and talks by Chef Lionel Go and Chef Jonvic Mangibin which serves as vital inspirations for them. This was followed by consultation meetings with the group finalists. The CCA students and their respective houses mentored them on improving the recipes, presentation, and also imparted strategies on how to upgrade their dishes. The core rules for their final dish entries were stressed: the recipe/dish has to be baon-ready; it should incorporate 3 Jolly products; and should be budget-easy, especially that the target market of this competition are mothers.

Seasoned alliance

Both with a clear focus on igniting enriched learning experiences for aspiring culinarians, JOLLY University and CCA Manila are known for promoting innovative platforms and positive impacts that help boost workforce readiness and life skills among the next generation of culinary champions. For JU, it is now on its successful fourth year of advocacy and takes pride in leveraging business leadership potentials among college-level students while for CCA, its internationally-recognized professional academic expertise has proudly produced many of the country’s formidable culinary talents both locally and overseas.

JU elite finalist Francis Marion Santos of Centro Escolar-Manila, was elated by his bootcamp experience. “I’m really thankful and honored to be part of JU batch 4. The hands-on training, coaching tips and mentorship by the esteemed chefs gave me and the others a huge confidence boost,” he said.

Moving forward, Fly Ace Corporation and CCA, Manila hope to pursue more joint efforts that elevate genuine youth empowerment and promote career path exploration among learners.

“Fly Ace Corporation, through JOLLY, is pleased to have this world-class partnership with CCA and to bring the world’s best food and beverages to the Filipino consumers. We believe that fostering competitiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills through programs that support youth development is a great investment that leads to positive outcomes both for the next generation and for the country,” concluded Marilou Acuña, Senior Product Manager for Jolly Food Line.

Jolly University is an education advocacy program of Fly Ace Corporation committed to elevate the competitive advantage of talented students through focused culinary workshop and competition, leadership training and entrepreneurship lessons. Visit Jolly University’s official Facebook page to learn more.