Chef Hinnerk von Bargen is a professor of Culinary Arts at CIA San Antonio, where he has taught since 2009. In this role, he teaches most courses in the associate degree program, leads ProChef® Certification classes, and teaches food enthusiast courses while also contributing to projects for CIA Consulting. Fluent in English, German, and Chinese, he brings a global perspective to his teaching and emphasizes the wide range of career opportunities available to today’s CIA graduates across the evolving food industry.
Joining CIA’s faculty in 1999, von Bargen has taught at CIA’s New York and Singapore campuses as well as in its Continuing Education division. He has played a key role in product research and development through CIA Consulting and helped develop the curriculum for CIA’s ProChef Certification program for foodservice professionals.
His international professional experience includes working as a chef at Hotel Zum Schwarzen Ochsen in Rotenburg, Germany; sous chef at Restaurant Seasons at the Kempinski Hotel Beijing Lufthansa Center in Beijing, China; chef de partie at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hamburg, Germany; chef saucier at the Sun City Cascades Hotel in Bophuthatswana, South Africa; and commis de cuisine and demi chef de cuisine at the SAS Plaza Hotel in Hamburg.
A Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE), von Bargen holds a Master Chef diploma from the Hamburg Hotel Management School in Hamburg, Germany, and completed apprenticeships at Hotel Tietjens Hütte in Osterholz-Scharmbek and Parkhotel Grüner Jäger in Verden Aller, Germany. He is a member of the Research Chefs Association and is the author of Street Foods (John Wiley & Sons, 2015), a CIA cookbook focused on global casual fare. He has been quoted as a culinary expert in national publications and is featured in Culinary Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at The Culinary Institute of America (Wiley, 2006).
Together with his wife Ming von Bargen, he opened and operates two restaurants in San Antonio, TX, featuring contemporary Asian comfort food, including noodle and rice bowls as well as bao buns.
When he’s not in the kitchen or classroom, he enjoys spending time with his family, walking his dogs, cooking for friends and family, and baking bread. He frequently facilitates in-home cooking classes to raise funds for charities.
Q&A with Professor von Bargen
What makes the CIA stand out from other colleges?
As an institution, we embrace diversity and encourage our students to not only absorb as much knowledge as they can, but also to share as much as possible, thereby enhancing the overall learning experience for everybody.
What do you like about being at the Texas campus?
I enjoy teaching in San Antonio because we are a much smaller campus and, by default, we get to know the students much better. It is very likely that I will teach a group on multiple occasions during their time at CIA.
What career opportunities are there for today’s CIA graduate?
The culinary industry has evolved tremendously over the last few decades. In the past, the most common career choice for our alumni would be a fine-dining foodservice operation. Today, however, there are many additional opportunities, in areas such as food manufacturing, food science, culinary journalism, and contract management.