International Culinary Arts and Hospitality School

International Culinary Arts and Hospitality School A culinary school rooted in Filipino hospitality and international standards.

We shape future chefs through hands-on training and work experience in a real professional kitchen.

Ask any chef what separates a good kitchen from a chaotic one, and mise en place will surely be mentioned.The phrase is ...
18/08/2026

Ask any chef what separates a good kitchen from a chaotic one, and mise en place will surely be mentioned.

The phrase is French (literally, "putting in place") and it refers to the preparation and organization a cook does before service begins: Ingredients weighed and portioned, vegetables cut, sauces prepared, tools laid out, and station set up so that every item is exactly where the cook expects to find it when the tickets start coming in.

It's a discipline that separates working professionals from home cooks more sharply than almost anything else. A cook without proper mise en place is a cook who spends service reacting instead of executing. A cook with proper mise en place, on the other hand, moves with intent. Everything they need is within reach. Their station is clean, their head is clear, and when the pressure comes, they're ready for it.

There's a reason mise en place shows up on the first day of most culinary programs, and why it's woven into every level of the Certificate in Culinary Arts program at ICAHS. Because before you can cook well, you have to set yourself up to cook well.

16/08/2026

Next up in our mother sauces series: the espagnole. If you missed the first video on the béchamel, or the earlier post explaining what the mother sauces are, both are worth a look before diving in.

The espagnole is a rich, dark brown sauce built on a base of brown stock, mirepoix, and a roux cooked to a deep color. The depth of flavor comes from slow reduction and letting the sauce develop over hours rather than minutes. The espagnole is rarely served on its own. Its real power is as a foundation: reduced further with additional stock, it becomes demi-glace, one of the most useful and versatile bases in a professional kitchen. From there come sauces like bordelaise, chasseur, and Robert. In this video, Chef Jun walks through the espagnole from start to finish.

Three more to go; velouté, sauce tomate, and hollandaise. Follow the page so you don’t miss them!

espagnole

At first glance, a salad looks like the least demanding thing on a menu; no heat, no timing, no complex technique. But b...
13/08/2026

At first glance, a salad looks like the least demanding thing on a menu; no heat, no timing, no complex technique. But building a salad that a guest genuinely enjoys is one of the more revealing tests of a cook's ability. You're working with raw ingredients, which means there's nowhere for a mistake to hide.

A good salad demands a real understanding of flavor balance: acidity against fat, sweetness against bitterness, crunch against softness. It demands a feel for freshness and seasonality, because a tired ingredient will show immediately. And it demands restraint, which is harder to teach than most people think.

There's also the technical side. Vinaigrettes need to be balanced. Emulsified dressings need to be built properly or they break. Greens need to be washed, dried, and stored so they hold up through service. None of it is complicated on its own, but doing it consistently, at pace, is a skill.

That's why salads and dressings have their own dedicated unit in Level 3 of the Certificate in Culinary Arts program at ICAHS. For more information about our curriculum, please message us!

11/08/2026

A busy service is unlike any other work environment: the orders keep coming, and every plate has to leave the pass on time, cooked properly, seasoned right, and looking the way it should. There’s no pausing to think it through. You react, you execute, you move to the next one.

It’s demanding, and it’s not for everyone. But for the people who thrive in it, a professional kitchen ca be the best workplace in the world. That kind of environment builds a way of working that stays with you long after the shift is over.

At ICAHS, students learn to cook in a real resort kitchen for a reason. Because reading about pressure and working through it are two very different things! For more information about our Certificate in Culinary Arts program, please message us.

09/08/2026

The mother sauces are the five foundational sauces of classical Western cuisine – the base from which countless other sauces are built. If you missed our previous post explaining what mother sauces are and why they matter, it’s worth having a look!

The béchamel is arguably the most familiar of the five. Made from a roux of butter and flour cooked with milk, it’s the base for everything from mornay sauce to lasagne, gratins, and soufflés. Simple in principle, but easy to get wrong! The roux needs to be cooked properly, the milk added at the right temperature, and the seasoning balanced with restraint. In this video, Chef Jun walks through the béchamel from start to finish.

Follow the page so you don’t miss the next four: velouté, sauce tomate, espagnole, and hollandaise are coming up in the next weeks.

Almost every sauce in classical Western cooking traces back to one of five origins. The mother sauces – béchamel, velout...
07/08/2026

Almost every sauce in classical Western cooking traces back to one of five origins. The mother sauces – béchamel, velouté, sauce tomate, espagnole, and hollandaise – were codified in the 19th century by the French chef Auguste Escoffier, building on the earlier work of Antonin Carême. Each one is defined by its base ingredients and the technique used to make it. Together, they form the framework that generations of chefs have built on since.

From each mother sauce comes a family of "small" or "daughter" sauces. Béchamel becomes mornay when cheese is added. Velouté becomes suprême with cream and mushroom. A single espagnole can lead to bordelaise, chasseur, or demi-glace. Learn the five, and you've unlocked hundreds.

That's why the mother sauces are considered foundational in any serious culinary curriculum – including at ICAHS, where they're covered in Level 3 of the Certificate in Culinary Arts program.

Over the next weeks, we'll share Chef Jun's step-by-step demonstration of each one, starting with the béchamel this Sunday. Follow us if you don't want to miss these videos!

Our very first batch of the Certificate in Culinary Arts program starts on August 15, and enrollment closes soon! If you...
05/08/2026

Our very first batch of the Certificate in Culinary Arts program starts on August 15, and enrollment closes soon! If you've been following along, thinking about it, waiting for the right moment, this is it.

You'll be part of the very first cohort at ICAHS. A small, focused group, learning in a real resort kitchen at Atmosphere Resorts & Spa. As part of the first batch, you'll enroll at a promotional rate of over 30% off the regular tuition. And if a single upfront payment isn't for you, we offer a flexible installment plan spread across the program.

Once these slots are filled, they're filled. Send us a message today! We'll walk you through the program, the schedule, and the payment options.

03/08/2026

Pizza is deceptive. It looks like something you can throw together: flour, water, sauce, cheese, into the oven. But making a truly good pizza is a discipline of its own, and every stage of the process asks something of the cook:
The dough needs time and technique
The fermentation shapes the flavor and the structure
The stretch determines the texture
The sauce needs to be balanced and the toppings restrained

In this video, Chef Jhun walks through the process from scratch. This is how it’s done in the Atmosphere kitchen, where every pizza is made to order and finished in a traditional wood-fired brick oven. A rarity in this part of the Philippines, and a craft in itself to work with.

At ICAHS, pizza making is one of the skills students learn as part of a broader education in professional cooking. Because knowing how to make something simple well is often harder than it seems!

It may seem surprising to find a culinary school in a small coastal town. But there's a reason ICAHS is based in Dauin.A...
30/07/2026

It may seem surprising to find a culinary school in a small coastal town. But there's a reason ICAHS is based in Dauin.

A culinary education isn't just about what happens in the kitchen. It's shaped by everything around it: the pace of life, the environment, the community, and the standards of the hospitality being practiced nearby. Dauin brings all of that together in a way few other places in the Philippines can.

There's a reason why chefs wear a uniform. Every element of the classic uniform is functional: the double-breasted jacke...
28/07/2026

There's a reason why chefs wear a uniform. Every element of the classic uniform is functional: the double-breasted jacket can be reversed to hide marks during service, the toque keeps hair out of the food, the apron protects, and the trousers are cut loose for movement and hemmed short to avoid catching underfoot.

Not every kitchen sticks to whites. At Atmosphere, the culinary team also wears uniforms in the resort's brand colors: navy, grey, and even black. The colors change, but the principle doesn't. A uniform still signals cleanliness, structure, and professional identity.

The uniform is also a signal to yourself and the team around you that you're taking the work seriously. Putting it on is a small daily act of professional discipline. It marks the shift from your day into service. It reminds you where you are and what's expected of you.

At ICAHS, students wear their uniforms from the first day of training. It's part of their identity as future chefs, and of course it looks the part too!

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