Culinary Chef School
The Prue Leith Chefs’ Academy is a culinary chef school with a difference. Why? Because this is the only culinary chef school in South Africa that boasts it own restaurant – in the college grounds! Once known as the Prue Leith College of Wine and Food, this excellent chef school is situated in the spacious grounds of the old Lyttleton Manor House just a couple of kilometres off the N1 highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria. This culinary academy was originally founded in 1997 to meet the demands of the catering industry, which was then experiencing a dearth of well-motivated and expert culinary staff. Two Johannesburg businessmen who had been made aware of the situation in the industry founded the original academy in the Centurion suburb of Hennopspark.
The patron of this culinary chef school, Prue Leith, who grew up in Cape Town and emigrated to London, where she created a renowned food empire. For her services to the catering industry in the United Kingdom she was awarded the Order of the British Empire. Together with several top chefs, Prue now sits on an advisory panel that ensures that the high standards of the academy are maintained and exceeded. It was under Prue’s watchful eye that the school’s extremely comprehensive curriculum was developed. The curriculum is based on classical French methods and ensures that all students get an excellent cross section of culinary knowledge.
In order to gain admittance to the school students have to have passed their Matric exam with a minimum of a standard grade pass and to have reached the age of eighteen. They must also sit and pass a board interview at the school. The Prue Leith Diploma course lasts for eighteen months and starts twice a year, in January and July. The course is divided up into three semesters of six months each, and covers all of the usual disciplines of the culinary industry as well as several extra modules that students will find extremely useful once they have graduated.
From very early in their very first semester students are put to work in the Prue Leith restaurant in the school grounds. The restaurant is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday evenings. Students gain valuable practical experience in the restaurant, working in all positions in turn. They prepare and cook menu items, take orders and serve meals, meet and seat diners as they arrive, and act as Maître d’Hotel and wine steward. All this is done under the watchful eye of a professional restaurant manager. This is not the only practical experience that they get though. All students spend eight-week periods during the second and third semesters working at selected five star culinary establishments. Most of these establishments are in South Africa, though they can be as far afield as Dubai, England and Ireland. Students are usually so well thought of that they are offered permanent positions at the establishments they have experience with after they graduate from the academy. Academy graduates have also worked with world class chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. The Prue Leith Chefs’ Academy is a culinary chef school second to none.
