Exciting Update from One Chef at a Time! 🎉
Hey Everyone!
Hold onto your chef's hats because we've got some great news from our soon to be foundation!
Training for Change: Our mission to empower refugees from Burma and hill tribe people from Northern Thailand is in full swing! We're rolling up our sleeves and getting down to business, providing training that opens doors to new opportunities and brighter futures.
Student happenings! Excerpt from a popular local magazine: An incredibly heartwarming moment for the Culinary Arts Foundation of Thailand (aka One Chef at a Time) to see it's graduates excel in the workplace surrounded by top Chiang Mai Chefs. The Foundation provides a 12-week professional credited cooking class for underprivileged students whom have no resources and/ or family support. This special dinner was a sold out event at the Aquaria Restaurant featuring five (5) of Chiang Mai's top Chefs.
Student placements in Chiang Mai
Chef's House
Lanna Oriental
Shangri - la Hotel
Terras Restaurant
Red Box
Aquila Restaurant
Aquaria Restaurant
and
Fullerton Hotel Singapore!
Building dreams Stage 1: Our new training kitchen is shaping up nicely! With the foundations laid and walls up, we're now onto the nitty-gritty of installing utilities. Huge shoutout to our amazing supporters for making it all possible! We are about 80% equipped for the heavy duty kitchen equipment.
Cooling Things Down: Our new bakery department will be air-conditioned. It's all about creating the perfect environment for our trainees to unleash their baking talents and creativity!
Looking Ahead: Stage 2 is on the horizon, with plans for an adjoining restaurant and meeting room. But first, let's get this kitchen up and running! We'll be starting training again in our brand new kitchen, towards the end of August
Advisory panel: With everything happening so fast I advertised for an advisory panel to help with admin, fundraising, social media , accounting etc etc. I'm delighted to tell you we had many volunteer applicants and we now have some excellent advisors with foundation experience to help us along the way. On behalf of myself and the students, a big thank you to those who quietly give up their time to help others..
Training support: We have a new training support book for students. With language barriers, its a great way for them to take their own notes and reflect back on the course after they start work. Everything we do on the course is covered in the book, including over 400 recipes! During the course we have a social media group and share pictures of what we've been cooking or preparing. Methods of cookery are recorded and are there for reference after the course.
On schedule: With Thai new year and temperatures over 40C /105F things slowed down a little but we are ahead of schedule to complete the build. The builders are amazing, working in difficult conditions. Our bricklayer is a Burmese lady who is just amazing. The speed she builds walls is stunning! With a little help from previous students
Future events: We will be hosting a series of fundraising lunches/dinners in the new building (while it is still a raw brick and concrete floor environment) with a surprise theme. We hope to have parties of 10 at a time. Some of the post grad students will be coming to cook for us. Please let me know if this appeals to you!
Community: Chiang Mai University (CMU) will be creating a brand new degree course in Culinary Arts. I have agreed to do some teaching and assist with the syllabus. Ultimately a collaboration between our Foundation and CMU can only benefit our own students with possibilities of future employment on the university campus and accreditation of our certificate.
So, it's all systems go! We are actively seeking corporate sponsorship from companies who would benefit from a charitable footprint in South East Asia. If you or your employer would be interested please ask for a sponsor pack. It is our intention to commit to sponsors who commit with us and the students. Right now, we need 160,000 baht to complete the next course.
We are so grateful for your existing support - please ask a friend if they would like to join us on our journey
Book a table of ten friends to come and experience a great dinner and a fun atmosphere in our half built commercial kitchen - tel 0861117766 or 0847417471 (Thai)
Thanks again for all your support