Jan. 6, 2002 - Casa de Campo was the perfect place to bake in the sun, but could the cooks really cook? The vistas from the bars were staggering, but did the bartenders mix killer drinks? Did the waiters make people wait? Were the housekeepers keeping proper house? 

Claudio Silvestri, the resort's CEO, wasn't sure. So he hired a big gun -- Johnson & Wales University -- to help him out. The culinary and hospitality specialists will open a school at the Dominican resort this week. 

The program is to be helmed by the university's 10-year-old North Miami campus, marking J&W's second, and, it hopes, more successful, Caribbean foray. 

Casa de Campo is a lush, 7,000-acre golf and leisure resort that sits on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic. Silvestri takes pride in the haven, its replica of a 16th century Mediterranean village, and the friendliness of the Dominican people. 

But his guests, 70 percent of them American or European, proved exacting, expecting top-notch service that wasn't always delivered. 

"We have been training in house, but it didn't have the formality of a school," said Silvestri, who recently toasted the school at a ribbon-cutting ceremony that drew the Dominican Republic's president and Casa de Campo's proprietors, the Palm Beach sugar-baron brothers, Alfie and Pepe Fanjul. 

The powerful men were also feting Casa de Campo's new port, dredged especially for cruise ships. 

"We have a very demanding clientele," Silvestri said, "and wanted to be sure that our employees were meeting the expectations of our guests." 

Service levels at Caribbean resorts are famously erratic, and Casa de Campo is no exception. Its visitors are quick to rave about the PGA-quality golf courses, the 13 clay tennis courts and the price -- about half that of most Caribbean spots. 

Adulation falters, though, when it comes to guest care. 

"When we first got there, we needed a crib, and we were given `Yes, it's coming, yes, it's coming' for about four hours," said Brian Hazen, a doctor from Arlington, Va., who vacationed at the resort with his family last February. "If you're patient and mellow, who cares? If you're a snotty American with high demands, you're going to hate it." 

Caribbean destinations have been striving of late to bring hospitality workers up to snuff. The Culinary Institute of America ran courses in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the mid-1990s. And Jamaica's University of the West Indies now offers degrees in hospitality and tourism management. 

Casa de Campo, for its part, had previously flown in Johnson & Wales instructors to train its staff. Silvestri wanted a permanent presence, but Johnson & Wales' administrators were wary. They had pulled out of their St. Maarten campus in the early '90s because students, after enrolling, transferred en masse to schools in the States. 

"The young people on the island wanted to get off the rock," said Jim Lyle, executive director of professional advancement at Johnson & Wales' North Miami campus. "It was very difficult to get students to stay on the island." 

Silvestri, however, was content to have a school that put workers through two- or three-week courses. In-house training had become ungainly: At any given time, Casa de Campo has on site more than 7,000 workers, some 4,000 of them tending to the villa owners and about 3,200 running the resort. 

One of Casa's partners, Carnival's Italian line, Costa Cruises, also was itching to back a school. The line wanted 4,000 new workers, specifically Spanish speakers, for its expanded fleet. Forty percent of Costa's clients are Italians. 

Securing a job on board a cruise ship would be a dream come true for some in the Dominican Republic, where the unemployment rate sits at 15 percent, a quarter of the population lives in poverty and the per-capita income is $1,600. A job as a waiter aboard a Costa ship starts at $2,500 a month. 

Thirteen months ago, talks between the resort, the cruise line and Johnson & Wales culminated in a deal. Costa put $600,000 toward converting a building into a school, called the Casa de Campo Preparatory Institute by Johnson & Wales. 

Inside are life-size replicas of a hotel room, a bar, a restaurant and a cruise-ship stateroom and kitchen. Johnson & Wales will train housekeepers, bartenders, waiters and cooks. And, further down the road, it hopes to open the school to the general public and to workers from other resorts. 

Hospitality watchers praise the move and predict that demand for the school's services will be strong throughout the island country. 

"There's no getting around that service levels, not just in the Caribbean, are very inconsistent from destination to destination and property to property," Scott Berman, an analyst with PricewaterhosueCoopers, said. "Having this setup gives them one of the most impressive laboratories in the Caribbean." 

And Johnson & Wales says it's up to the task. 

"Casa de Campo wants to become the number-one tourist destination in the country," said Lyle, who oversaw the development of the new program. 

"Giving employees the bigger picture of why they're necessary is very important," he added, "because the competition is so fierce for guests. Sunshine and the beach and all that are available just about anywhere." 

AT A GLANCE 

--Johnson & Wales University was founded in 1914 in Providence, R.I. 

--School of Culinary Arts opens in 1973. A hospitality degree is later added. 

--Current enrollment: 13,500 

--North Miami Campus opened in 1992. Current enrollment is 2,000. President: Donald G. McGregor 

--Other campuses: Charleston, S.C.; Norfolk, Va.; Gothenburg, Sweden; Denver, Colo.; Vail, Colo.; Gothenburg, Sweden. A school in Charlotte. N.C., is planned for 2004. A school offering nondegree programs is to open in Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic, this month. 

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(c) 2003, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.