Our Parenting World team recently attended the media launch of CULINARYON which is Europe & Asia Largest Culinary Entertainment Centre. We are very honoured to be able to interview Giulio D’Erme, Founder and Managing Partner of CULINARYON.
1) We are very excited to know about CULINARYON. Can you share more with our readers how did CULINARYON get started?
We opened the 1st CULINARYON in Russia 3 1/2 years ago (Nov 2012). The idea was to disrupt the Recreational Cooking School Business by making the learning experience more Fun and Engaging. In Russia, it has been an incredible success; we are now celebrating more than 200 events a month for a total of 30000 guests a year.
2) What led you and your team to set up CULINARYON in Singapore, the first school in Asia?
Singapore is a City in Love with food, the perfect environment for Culinaryon. Moreover we celebrate many Culinary Team Building events and Singapore host a large number of regional offices. We opened in Singapore in October 2015 and we are receiving very warm welcome and positive feedbacks by our guests.
3) Tell us more about your team of Chefs at CULINARYON?
CULINARYON’s Chefs are best be compared to improvisational actors or street performers, as they must be prepared for several different scenarios and may have to change their script on the fly, as all our events are just as in a carefully calibrated performance, every move an Chef or Event Master makes should be deliberate and should have a specifically intended effect. Our staffs like actors act with the intention of getting positive emotional reactions from our guests. We have three Resident Chefs (Antonio Massagli, Resident Chef Western Cuisine; Resident Chef Asian Cuisine – Daniel Teo and CULINARYON Brand Chef Giuseppe d’Angelo that is starring as one of the judges of Junior Master Chef Russia.
4) There are many culinary schools in Singapore. What set CULINARYON apart from other schools?
CULINARYON is not Cooking Studio, it is an adventure land, a provider of memories and experiences that happens to stage cooking classes at the same time. At CULINARYON, we have therefore transformed the studio into an attraction, an entertainment venue, a grand theatrical production, embodying the exact kind of elements that belongs in the emerging Experience Economy. Our customer experience resembles closely that of the Broadway shows rather than that of the typical cooking school. Moreover CULINARYON is also the biggest facility in Singapore with 7,000 square feet (4 interconnected cooking studios and a conference room)
5) Can you advise parents how to choose a good culinary school to send their children to?
Children will only learn if they are having fun. Look for a cooking school that will ignite their inner passion and that will make them enjoy the learning process.
6) What is your best tip for those who want to learn to cook?
The most important recommendation is to break-the-ice as soon as possible, without being afraid of making mistakes. Unleash your creativity and cook for the one you love.
7) What’s your favourite dishes? How about the food in Singapore, what’s your favourites?
Being Italian I like Pasta Carbonara. It is a typical recipe from my home town, Rome. I also love Singaporean food especially Pandan Cake.
8) Finally, any last words that you would like to share with our readers about CULINARYON?
We like to describe CULINARYON as the Disneyland of culinary school. An EDUTAINMENT concept (Education + Entertainment) as we fully subscribe to Walt Disney belief that “in the discovery of knowledge, there is great entertainment, as, conversely in all good entertainment there is always some grain of wisdom, humanity or enlightenment to be gained”.
When our guests come to CULINARYON they are often focused on the fun & entertainment aspect of experience, yet when they leave the premises they are surprised about the strong educational bent and everlasting team bonding value gained by the organisation.
At CULINARYON we believe that we are bringing EDUTAINMENT to the next level by transforming it into Playful Learning. It might seem like a small change, but the words we use can make a big difference in how we think and what we do.
While most of edutainment companies try to provide a mix of education & entertainment to passive spectators, at CULINARYON we have transformed the edutainment concept in Playful Learning, as we understand that guests are likely to learn the most, and enjoy the most, if they are engaged as an active participants in the staged experience.
Thank you so much to Giulio D’Erme, Founder and Managing Partner of CULINARYON for taking our interview!
Earlier on, we shared about the media launch of Asia’s Largest Culinary Edutainment Studio, CULINARYON where we all had a fun time learning and cooking together for both adults and children.
CULINARYON features a spacious 7,000 sq ft studio with state of the art kitchen equipment conveniently located at One Raffles Place offering premium hands on cooking experiences for corporate team bonding events and private parties (up to 200 guests). Its edutainment format is best defined as “The Disneyland of cooking schools” where you can be expected to experience fun in cooking!
“We can’t wait to start our cooking party!”
At the media launch, the children get hands on whipping up two dishes, Chocolate Lava Cake and Coloured Pasta.
“We are taught how to make Chocolate Lava Cake and yummy, I love chocolate.”
All the children have the opportunity to take turns in making this delicious cake from the beginning like cracking the eggs, stirring and pouring the mixture into the baking tins. After all the mixture has been evenly poured into the baking tins, they will be send to the oven for baking.
The children really enjoy their cooking sessions with the chefs who conducted the lesson in a fun and lively manner. If you have noticed the flour or what seems like white dust on the floor, it is actually flour, the children are having flour fights with their friendly chefs in-between all the mixing, kneading and rolling their dough. They had so much fun!
Next dish that they are going to make is actually the boys’ favourite, pasta. “Chef is going to teach us how to make delicious pasta!”
This is the first time the boys learnt how their favourite dish was being created from making the dough, kneading and rolling it to make fresh handmade pasta.
It is a great experience for the children as they are able to learn and understand how their food is being created, cooked and served.
“This is how pasta is being made!”
“Finally we get to eat our pasta lovingly cooked by our Chefs with sauces like Cream and Tomato.”
Parents also have the opportunity to try their children’s creations. The boys finished their food in no time and get a second helping too. They enjoyed their food even better having made the food themselves. It is absolutely delicious!
Chef demonstrated a “Ice Cream Show” on how they made ice cream using liquid nitrogen to freeze the mixture, parents and children were excited to see lots of smoke coming out of the mixture. The ice cream is used to accompany the Chocolate Lava Cake. Needless to say, the dessert was awesome with delightful melting-middle chocolate together with smooth and delicious vanilla ice cream.
Thank you to all the Chefs and CULINARYON Team for the wonderful experiences! We all had a great time having fun with cooking.
CULINARYON has a wide variety of classes for both children and adults. The children’s class is for children age 4 to 12 years old. They can learn how to make 3 dishes and each lesson costs $88. Classes are held during weekend. If you are looking for adult cooking class, to hold birthday party, corporate team building, conferences, trainings and many more, please click HERE to go over to CULINARYON website to find out more.
Additional Information:
Culinary entertainment center CULINARYON
Daily 11am to 9pm
#04-63, Tower 2,
One Raffles Place,
Singapore 048616
Tel: (65) 3108 0385
To find out more about CULINARYON, please click HERE.
