Suntory to Open Japanese Cuisine Course in New York's CIA

This Episode originates in New York as Suntory's venture to open a Japanese cuisine course in the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). you of course know CIA is a leading cooking school good enough to offer a college diploma - often called the "Harvard in Cooking".

Starting this week this legendary cooking school offers a Japanese cuisine course for the first time in its 70-year history. Behind this project is Japan's Suntory, the liquor giant, by way of Suntory Holdings with a total investment of 100 million yen or roughly 1 million dollars. The maiden class of Japanese cuisine was attended by its president Takeshi Niinami, September 12. President Niinami calles it a social contribution.

His idea, of course, is to promote Japan in the charming world of its cuisine which, he believes, will lead to globally disseminating Japanese culture in the ultimate interests of his company handling extensively beverages, foods and fast food chains industry.

Meanwhile, Japanese cooks are short in supply in the United States. As CIA President L. Timothy Ryan puts it, demands for Ramen and Sushi are on the rise but not enough cooks are around to meet them.

The US, the world's biggest food chains industry, sees Japanese cuisine most promising as evidenced in its popularity at CIA where applications (30) have already outnumbered the scheduled number of openings (18). This year's Food Fest in Los Angeles slated in November is expected to draw a total attendance of 3000.

The popularity of Japanese cuisine highlights the charms of Japanese liquors - Sake. So much so that the Japanese Sake Seminar in August at Washington attracted a large audience; a sommelier (wine steward) contest in Texas was won proudly by a Japanese brewery. (Nathan Shiga)