Exclusive interview | Niklesh Sharma Founder & Managing Director, Academy of Pastry and Culinary Arts

Overview of APCA and Journey so far?

APCA is an esteemed group of Professional Culinary & Pastry Schools with a Pan-Asian presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Our journey started in 2010 with the flagship school in Malaysia and we are evaluating new possibilities to increase our footsteps .We are the largest and one of the most awarded Pastry Schools in Asia. 

How has hospitality education changed post pandemic- Are students still looking at it as a career ?

Ideally there is more keen interest in the Culinary and Pastry arts as almost every one realized that home chefs/ bakers did manage to survive by establishing home business during the covid times and now the business is back with a  vengeance  and there is a heightened demand of chefs.

Our courses are both for food enthusiasts, home bakers and people who are looking to learn it professionally and either establish their own bakery/ restaurants or work for large hotel chains.

Hospitality education is back on track at the same level as pre pandemic and we are in the process of expanding our geographic presence as APCA is getting heightened queries for tie ups and new academy proposals from all over. We are currently Looking for more opening in Middle East and Certain cities in India

Does the Academy develop its own curriculum? If so, How does it differ from other Academy 

APCA develops its own curriculum keeping in mind the ways that the buddying chefs need to be taught the basics of cooking followed by traditional / authentic recipes and then to keep up with the trends of world cuisines. We have our course curriculum divided into 3 stages – basic/ intermediate and advanced and each stage build on the previous stage through upskilling , theory classes and hand on practices. Our curriculum is not only delivered in the classroom setting, our chefs give a live demo at  the beginning of the day and then supervise our all chef students as they practice the cooking in our lab kitchens and then they have the recorded demo of the  dish along with the written recipe available to them through APCA Chefonline learning platform for an ease of access 24/7 , 365

Also we have course curriculum structured by the various different world cuisines and by the masterchef series and we also have specially curated course curriculum for Master chef series that gets conducted as a part of Asia Patry Forum in Malaysia once every year by award winning chefs from across the globe.

What are your thoughts on cloud kitchen and struggle faced in India Market ?

We understand the cloud kitchen challenges / struggles faced in India are as follows

•       Standardized production

•       High attrition of cooks/chefs

•       New cuisines ideas

•       Sustainable cooking - Waste management/Apt menu planning

•       Demand for food festivals and special events

•       Develop skill pathway – generic and specific

•       Lack of  bulk cooking mechanized equipment and delivery infrastructure

What we are offering at APCA

•       Menu planning & recipes standardization

•       Skill development for high potential chefs/staff

•       Support your Learning & Development agenda

•       Develop and deliver hybrid skilling model

•       Introduce in-demand diets like Keto, Vegan

•       Sustainable cooking practices

•       Support in planning and organizing events and festivals

•       Online platform to follow recipes, track progress and utilization

What is a buffet style approach to learning ?

APCAchefoneline,com is the best example of buffet style learning approach – we have our courses well structured and any chef student / learner can pick up the courses they need either as a short course or a long duration coupled with weekend classes , long duration courses at the academies and having a chef on call for clarifying their doubts