Choices, Choices, Choices

After weeks of research (online and offline) I narrowed down the choices to three. CACS or Center for Asian Culinary Studies, IChef and Most Insitute (Islacare). My brother did the Certificate course at CACS and according to him, it was pretty informative. Not much help huh? Well, I decided to drop by the other day and to my surprise, the person there told me that they were no longer accepting applications for the culinary certificate course due to some issues with the parent company. Oh well, that makes my search much easier as that option is now off the list.

On the same day, I went to IChef to inquire about their shorter and more comprehensive course. Their course runs for 3 months with an M-W-F schedule. Their rate is, and I quote the person who wasa kind of entertaining me (and by "kind of" I mean that he was barely answering my question and was almost not interested in answering) was "Mga 50,000 sir" I mean, that's really no way to entertain a potential student now is it? Especially if your school touts hospitality as one of the foundations of their system.

Not to be turned off by that reception, I messaged IChef on Facebook and this was the reply:

Thank you for your interest in ICHEF! The next session for the 3-month course will be this coming June because we follow the academic calendar. For the requirements, kindly bring 6 pcs passport size pictures and original NSO Birth certificate. The schedule for 3-month course is 3x a week, 8-5pm and weekdays only. It costs P60k, approximately. Our rate includes chef's jacket, culinary knife set, toque, apron, towels, ingredients. For More information, you can visit out office at ICHEF building, S. De Jesus St. Davao City or contact us at (082) 305-8833 / 09199298154. Thank you and looking forward to having you be a part of the ICHEF family!

Well, I got two different figures, one is around 50k and the other is around 60k. Still, that's still within my budget so that's still in the running. The only turn-off of me was that their next batch isn't until June. I mean, a lot of things could happen in six months, and I'm not getting any younger ahahah.

Now the only other remaining choice would be Most Institute (Islacare). Their tuition is around 45k for the chef's uniform, knives, apron and course. While that might look cheap, one also has to factor in the cost for ingredients. Yep, you read that right, cost of ingredients isn't included. If you add it all up, it'll still hit the 60k mark for the entire 6-month course. Whether that's a clever marketing ploy or what, there's that psychological effect that they're "cheaper" than the other two places. After thinking about it and after talking to their admissions person, it does seem like a good idea to make the students buy the ingredients themselves, good training if I say so myself. 

I guess the only question now is which of the two do I choose? I mean, time-wise, they're kind of the same. If I go with IChef, I'll start June, and finish Late August/Early September. If I go with Most Institute, I'll Start February and finish Late July/Early August. 

Hayyyyy, choices, choices.