Apart from BBA, Indian Culinary Institute now offers MBA in culinary art

Tirupati: For those who are more interested in culinary arts, the prestigious Indian Culinary Institute (ICI) in Tirupati has been providing a good opportunity to pursue the education. Though it was established in a temporary campus in 2016 in the temple city, it has moved into a sprawling 14.5 acre campus near to Tirupati airport in September 2018, facilitating the state of the art institute to offer more courses in the coming years providing advanced training to the students with a world class infrastructure such as culinary studio, smart class rooms, specialised kitchens, etc.,

From the coming academic year, the Institute will be offering a two-year MBA course in Culinary Art with an annual intake of 30 students. During the first year of its inception, ICI has admitted only 25 students in BBA in Culinary Art while last year 30 students have admitted. This year, ICI has been fully equipped to admit 120 students and the notification for both BBA and MBA courses was already issued.

The last date for applying online would be April 27, while the hard copy has to reach the concerned office by April 30. The academic in charge of ICI, Tirupati Dr M Tiruloga Chandar has said that the courses are being organised in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak which is a Central university. Students who have completed Intermediate with any group are eligible to apply for the BBA course. For MBA course, those having degree in Culinary Arts or Hospitability or Hotel Management etc., are eligible.

Interested candidates have to write entrance examination which is to be held on May 16 at 15 centres across the country and admissions will be based on the All India Rank earned by the candidate. For all other details one may visit www.ici.nic.in or www.thims.gov.in.

Needless to say that there are only two Culinary Institutes in India at Tirupati and Noida which have been developed as centres of excellence and were meant for promoting culinary tourism in India. Saying that culinary industry has become the most sought after field for jobs and lucrative career, Tiruloga Chandar has said that the curriculum was designed to meet the latest requirements across the globe.

Having a dedicated faculty with Dr D Vishnu Priya Devi, Dr Lumthe, CH Rao, Cheff Rajasekhar and George Alexander, ICI has been training the students to grab best career opportunities. Among the first batch students, many have found employment with renowned hotel groups like ITC, Taj, Marriot group of hotels, while one student Kunal has grabbed the employement at Jumeirah International Hotel in Dubai with an initial monthly salary of Rs.87000.

During the two-year MBA course, the main focus will be on entrepreneurship so that they can be able to start their own businesses in future. They can also become corporate Chefs in hotels and can even become faculty at ICI or consultants in the field. The institute will offer PhD programme in culinary art in the years to come along with some diploma courses. They have been planning to provide short-term courses for house wives and others also soon, said a faculty member.

The Academic in charge has said that they are ready to provide consultancy services to any Institute or organisation and design their hospitality requirements. The students who have prepared a variety of items have felt that they were more confidant of preparing any time and handle any situation with the training they acquired at the institute.