Alan Orreal's growing dream for the past seven years to create a complete scholastic and practical training program in a working operational kitchen environment that delivers measurable accountable outcomes and delivers a globally recognized certification. Opening a resort of this size in mainland China was always going to come with its own special set of challenges not the least of which was going to be the standard of Culinary training available. We recognized early on that we were going to need help so we turned to WorldChefs and asked them how we can develop our training program further to meet global standards and to be able to award our cast a globally recognized certification? Needless to say WorldChefs were there to review our programs and offered us practical advice on how we could improve our program even further.
The Culinary is the Heart of the House at Shanghai Disney Resort. With over 1003 cast members strong receiving food, managing the massive inventory and logistics, preparing and producing meals for over 13 million guests annually, one can glean from this staggering statistic alone that training is extremely important.
Alan Orreal-Liang is the Culinary Director for the entire white coat brigade at Shanghai Disney Resort and we spoke to him concerning training for his Cooks and asked him about the partnership with WorldChefs and the Global Culinary Certification program.
This partnership between Shanghai Disney Resort and WorldChefs is a first in mainland China for any company and will enable our Culinary cast for the first time to be awarded a Globally Recognized Certification that will open doors for them throughout their careers. It’s terribly humbling to have reached this point and to realize the importance of what we have achieved together and what it will mean for all the cooks to come through these kitchens for all the years to come. I am very grateful to Worldchefs for their invaluable advice and vision, our incredible talented team of Chefs who helped me drive this program forward and for delivering it, our Disney partners who support us daily, my admin team for the hundreds of hours of planning and work and the Disney leadership for allowing us to Dream!
Walt Disney said,” All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” It is in this spirit that Shanghai Disney Resort has set forth the foundation for our Culinary Training program. It is our vision that our cast members will receive world class training opportunities to prepare them well for a work environment that relentlessly pursues excellence and innovation. Continuous sustained drive for creativity in menu creation requires that our cast have solid foundational culinary skillsets and more to deliver the highest quality dishes and products to our guests every day. With this front of mind our extensive full time programs that are both classroom and hands on delivered curriculum to levels within the Culinary from Interns, Kitchen Assistants, Commis levels and up to Chef De Partie levels
“Global Certification is important not just for our company it’s important for us all as I believe we must all work to stem the tide of declining culinary skillsets worldwide if we are to have a sustainable industry and maintain cross-cultural culinary standards.”
Alan Orreal-Liang
‘Worldchefs are delighted to be working with Shanghai Disney on our global culinary certification. We are particularly grateful to Chef Alan Orreal and his team for their vision and commitment to developing this unique partnership. Commis Chef and Chef de Partie trainees at the Shanghai Disney resort will now receive international recognition from Worldchefs, through our global culinary certification, for the continuous professional development opportunties which are offered as part of the Disney culinary programme. We have been impressed by the quality of the training delivered at the resort and hope that many companies around the world will follow the example set by Disney for the development of new talent the industry desperately needs. We are very excited about this special relationship which marks a key milestone in shaping the future of the culinary profession.’
John Clancy – Worldchefs Education Director
