Robert Christopher Calayan
BS Culinary Arts in Kitchen Operations, 2013
Company: Saudia Airlines
Achieving our dreams and goals is not a straight path rather a bumpy and an up and down road.
As I entered college, being influenced by my grandparents, I know already that I wanted to cook and prepare food. I love seeing the joy that good food brings to other people. Having this dream I know that I have to start somewhere, a place where I can have a strong foundation to be successful, that is Lyceum of the Philippines University – CITHM.
Being a freshman in LPU and entering as a transferee and an irregular student for the duration of my first year I thought it would just be ordinary. But this changed when I started to join my first culinary competition. Mrs. Maria Fe L. Meñez of CITHM was the first person who believed in me. Every day became very exciting and challenging as soon as I was given the opportunity to represent the university, I knew that I have to give my full commitment and hard work on every task that was given to me in my four-year stay in LPU as a student to succeed. Through practices, staying all day, and countless failures, it is not just techniques and delicious recipes that we learned, but rather the will to persevere and improve.
Going to my later years in LPU as a pioneer of BSCAKO. I was allowed to establish a student organization for culinary students the Le Cercle Culinaire. Being involved in this organization taught me a lot. I developed my leadership skills and dealt with different kinds of personalities and challenges.
Being in school, students are expected to learn facts, theories, and other things that were written in books. LPU B-CITHM is different, for me, it was extraordinary. I did not only gain all the basic knowledge and skills that I needed for my culinary career. I gained a lot more than that, through competitions, I became more persevering, patient, and diligent. Now, in my field of work as an I-Flight Chef, I learned that you need a lot of these traits for you to survive inside the kitchen. More than that being a student and having worked with LPU B- CITHM I gained what I consider to be my second family. Behind every great dream and goal, there is a greater God that will always guide us.
Thank you to all the Faculty and Staff of CITHM Department for the learning and continuous support to us alumni and students. #ButiNalangNagLyceumAko
#YLP #LyceanLaurel