Train for as a Patisserie Chef or Pastry Chef
The French language and people, their talents, and their country have had a strong influence on many domains. Notably, some of the most enduring and renowned French achievements include excellence in the culinary arts, wine and wine/food pairing, and French patisserie.
It is no wonder that French culinary terms, food preparation and cooking techniques, and the French kitchen brigade system, today still apply in fine dining kitchens right across the world. For once, nothing has been lost in translation. A patisserie chef is the same as a pastry chef, as far as their professional occupations are concerned; however, students’ level of creative competence will depend on where they received their training, how thorough and extensive the training was, and whether their training and qualification are accredited and internationally recognised.
Professional Patisserie Chef Training
Is there any chef training school in South Africa where an aspiring patisserie chef can receive world-class training in patisserie that will equip the learner to enter the challenging, competitive world of a confident, well-qualified and competent pastry chef? There certainly is, and is known as Prue Leith Chefs Academy, which is situated in Centurion, adjacent to the Prue Leith fine-dining restaurant, where trainee patisserie chefs, amongst others, gain invaluable, hands-on, practical, in-service training. It is important to reassure our patisserie students that our facilities are fully supported and backed up by a generator system. Education, training, practical sessions, lecture rooms, the restaurant, and our training kitchens will continue to operate as usual, even when electricity outages occur.
T2 is our fully equipped patisserie training kitchen, which features ten dedicated pastry stations and is climate-controlled according to the requirements of a professional pastry kitchen – an important element in the art of patisserie. All necessary utensils, equipment, pots, pans, gas hobs, an induction cooker, a portion scale, and a KitchenAid mixer are on hand. The Prue Leith Restaurant kitchen consists of three kitchen subdivisions – the Hot Kitchen, the Cold Kitchen, and its own Pastry Kitchen, the latter supervised, managed, and run by two experienced pastry chefs. We are certainly passionate about patisserie chef training at Prue Leith.
Pastry Chef Courses
We offer two full-time professional patisserie chef training courses. Both have January and July intakes and are based on classic French training with the incorporation of modern techniques:
Patisserie and patisserie chef training, in any language, is a delicate art, one that requires a passion for pastry, creativity, a keen eye for detail and aesthetic appeal, a steady hand, and a wealth of knowledge and training, all of which is taught and learned at Prue Leith Chefs Academy.