Cooking with the Sala Baï students on the day of their new school opening was for me a very intense moment full of emotion, happiness and pride. Each time I go to Sala Baï I feel this incredible energy, this willingness to learn, as strong as ever, intakes after intakes. But on this specific celebration day, excitement was in the air. I clearly felt it among the students and still they remained focused as much as possible, trying to work at their best. This is the Sala Baï miracle! Young Cambodians some of whom barely knew how to read and write in Khmer when joining the school and have become in only a few months real professionals in hospitality thanks to their hard work and determination.

With this new school no more 100 but 150 young Cambodians who all carry the same strong desire of a better future, will be able every year to find their place in a labor market which seemed unreachable before.

So when I was there cooking with those young students from the intake 14 on the inauguration day, I could not help thinking about all these future students who will get the same extraordinary opportunity to be trained in this beautiful kitchen, three times as big and with a more modern equipment than the previous one… And I think that Sala Baï has taken a huge leap forward to guarantee a training of excellence to much more deserving young Cambodians! Long live Sala Baï! Long live the Cambodian youth!

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