Cream of Culinary Schools

Although the terms are used interchangeably nowadays, there is a subtle but important difference between cookery schools and the cookery courses they offer, and culinary schools that offer culinary programmes focused on culinary arts. If you are looking for a school at which to study one or both of these creative disciplines, you need look no further than the Prue Leith Chefs Academy in Centurion. Its central location is also easily accessible to students from Johannesburg.

Culinary vs Cookery Schools

Prue Leith Chefs Academy has built its reputation in the professional restaurant and hospitality industry over many years of operation, since first opening our doors to our first class of culinary students in 1997. We have become leaders in our industry – the training and education of professional chefs who are recognised and accredited nationally and internationally on a professional level in the culinary arts.

However, we stay abreast of new trends and innovations to ensure that we remain at the top of our game and at the forefront of the South African culinary field. As a result, Prue Leith’s school now also offers a host of short and part-time cookery courses that are perfect for complete novices as well as experienced home cooks who want to expand their skills and repertoire in the home kitchen.

Our professional, specialised, career-orientated culinary expertise for which our diploma-qualified graduates are so sought-after have been well-known since the late-’90s. Our school’s name – Prue Leith Chefs Academy – was selected after obtaining permission from the famous, respected Prue, who is still actively involved in important aspects of our top culinary school that bears her illustrious name.

These are our professional, full-time culinary courses:

  • Occupational Certificate: Chef – 3 years full-time. This course has its foundation in our original Grande Diploma programme, with the addition of extended external practical work and advanced subjects.
  • ALMA “Professional Chef of Italian Cuisine” – 19 months full-time. Similarly, a 10-month ALMA course that excludes foundational training is on offer for qualified chefs.
  • Introduction to Professional Cookery – 1 year full-time.
  • Professional Patisserie – 18 months full-time for new students and runs concurrently with Occupational Certificate: Cook for 1 year, followed by 6 months’ specialisation in patisserie.
  • Professional Patisserie – 6 months full-time for existing, qualified chefs who wish to specialise in patisserie. As such, this programme is also one of our postgraduate culinary courses.

Prue Leith’s culinary school became South Africa’s first official Chef Trade Test Centre and the first Occupational Certificate: Chef graduates – who represented various countrywide culinary institutions – completed this curriculum through the RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) process in October 2018. These graduates will become the first RPL Chef Trade Tests assessors in the country.

The reasons why Prue Leith Chefs Academy is South Africa’s top culinary training centre are many and varied, so start your training with the cream of culinary schools. Enrolments for our July 2019 intake are open, so avail yourself of these professional career opportunities now. Furthermore, open days are scheduled to take place on 6 April, 4 May, 1 June, and 6 July 2019, plus an open evening on 28 March 2019.

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