Aside from our chefs from CACS-Manila who fly in to the Davao school, we also have our local chefs from Davao teaching you some of our courses.

Local Chefs from Davao:

Chef Booboo Maramba

    A mother of two, Chef Booboo is a cake specialist. She won the Bronze Medal in the Freestyle Wedding Cake Category in the Mindanao Culinary Festival in 1996. She was a graduate of the Wilton School of Cake Decorating where she specialized in Fondant Art and Gumpaste. She recently finished her Wilton instructor accreditation in Japan.

Chef Paddy Lascano

    Chef Paddy has been a chef and consultant for many years. He is currently the executive chef and consultant for the Bangayan Group of Companies and the Villa Margarita Hotel. He was the executive chef at the Asean Tourism Forum last January 2006

Chefs from CACS-Manila:

Gene Gonzalez, President

At age 23, he opened, as chef-owner, Cafe Ysabel in San Juan. He is a Chef instructor to the Professional and Recreational courses. Aside from a series of apprenticeships in France and Italy, he has completed various specialized courses in food arts, Culinary Institute of America and the California Culinary Academy.

He has undertaken research and development projects with major food manufacturers and flavor laboratories. He is a co-founder of the Alta Cocina Filipina, the movement for contemporary Filipino cuisine. An avid writer, he is a writer to a weekly food page for one of Manila’s major newspapers and authored cookbooks including “Cocina Sulipena” a book on 19th century recipes from Pampanga. Chef Gene is the only Ten Outstanding Young Men awardee in Culinary Arts and at present, author to a book series on Philippine cuisine. He was also a board member of the College of Saint Benilde and at present, conseiller culinaire of the National board of the Chaine des Rotisseurs and also member of the London based International Wine and Food Society.

Junjun de Guzman, CACS Manila Pastry Arts Programs Director

Chef Jun Jun is a graduate of the British owned Peregrines' Cooking School whose teachers were professors of Le Cordon Bleu London. At present he is consultant to several food establishments,restaurants, institutional food companies and bakeshops. He is our Programs Director and Chef Instructor in our Professional and Recreational programs. A United States Department of Agriculture Council of Chef and chef trainer of their demo kitchen. He graduated from intensive chocolate training program from Barry Callebaut Chocolate College and recently took further studies in Baking Technology from the American Institute of Baking, Manhattan, Kansas under the Cochran Culinary Fellowship Program. He also took numerous Cuisine and Pastry classes at the Institute of Culinary Education, Manhattan, New York.

Adoree Uy

As a student, she was a gold medalist in her professional culinary program. Adoree also took several professional courses at the Culinary Institute of America before being an entrepreneur in the food business. Adoree has been teaching at CACS-Manila for almost 5 years.

Toto Erfe

Also a graduate of the professional program, Chef Toto is currently the assistant of Chef Gene. He belonged to the team of Chef Gene Gonzalez when they represented the country in the Philippine Gastronomic Festival at Meritus Mandarin Singapore and did the Logistical planning for the Asian Tourism forum in 2006.

He has taken various Master classes in Chiang Mai for Thai Cookery and Master Programs in Vietnam for authentic Vietnamese Cookery.

Lawrence Zafra

Being a practicing stock broker, Chef Lawrence is presently sous chef of the Cafe Ysabel kitchen. He has extensive experience in the field of business and operations and will be handling the nutriciutical line of products designed by Chef Gene for the consumer and health conscious market.

He has taken various Master classes in Chiang Mai for Thai Cookery and Master Programs in Vietnam for authentic Vietnamese Cookery.