Expect French culinary influence soon to be felt soon in Punta Cana resorts. The Hotel School of Avignon, the prestigious French culinary institute, is behind the opening of a new gastronomy training center in Higuey.
The Escuela de Hotelería, Gastronomía y Pastelería was inaugurated in the city center of Higuey at the former location of the government-owned Hotel El Naranjo. President Danilo Medina was there for the formal inauguration on 22 February 2018. The school has capacity to graduate 1,800 technicians every year.
The school is operated by the National Institute for Professional and Technical Training (Infotep), the vocational training center funded by the Dominican government and employees. The school was co-financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) of the government of France and is supported by the prestigious French hospitality school, the Hotel School of Avignon.
The school seeks to contribute to the training of hotel staff for the hotel industry in the nearby Punta Cana area. Higuey is a bed city for large numbers of staff that works in the Punta Cana area resorts.
The school mostly will serve students from Higuey interested in a career in the hospitality industry. But it has 20 rooms for students from the Dominican Republic and abroad to come for the excellent instruction there offered. Rafael Ovalles, director of Infotep, said during the opening that the school expects to attract Caribbean and Central American students.
Francisco Castillo (Paco), an experienced hotelier best known for his long years with the Paradisus (Sol Meliá) chain and a Dominican Hotelier of the Year, is in charge of the operation.
There are programs in general gastronomy, pastry, hotel front desk, housekeeping and more. The methodology includes continuous training in centers, dual training, technical teacher training, graduate training, certification by competence and qualification, complementation and occupational validation. The center will also offer technical assistance to tourism and hotel companies to improve their productivity, and the management of human resources.
The hotel and gastronomy school has five buildings in an area of 14,500 square meters. The main building is for classrooms, a lab for front desk instruction and practice, and admission and management areas. The second floor has 20 rooms for lodging of students from around the country and abroad and others for hotel practices. The other buildings have been fitted for gastronomy, pastry, breadmaking, bar and restaurant workshops, sensorial analysis and a multiuse.
Monsignor Nicanor Peña Rodríguez, bishop for the diocese of La Altagracia, blessed the new installations. Also attending were Labor Minister José Ramón Fadul; legal advisor to the President Flavio Darío Espinal; Luisa Fernández, director of the National Council of Free Zones; La Altagracia Senator Amable Aristy Castro; La Altagracia governor Ramón Guilamo, and Higuey Mayor Karina Aristy. Also Frank Rainieri, president of the Puntacana Group; Joel Santos, president of the National Hotel & Tourism Association; and Gregory Dilone, of the French Development Agency.
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Presidencia
28 February 2018
