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Why Become A Chef In The UK?

The UK is famous for its international culture, bringing new and exciting flavours to the table. There are many jobs involved in the hospitality industry here in the UK.

What is exciting is that the industry is growing at a rapid rate, offering fantastic opportunities for foreign workers to develop a successful career in England.

Just to give you an idea of the size of it, in 2020, The House of Commons Library announced a report that there were currently 223,045 hospitality businesses running. As you can see it is a valuable sector to the UK economy. In 2019, its contribution totalled £59.3 billion in Gross Value Added, around 3.0% of total UK economic output.

We recommend the quickest and best way to get started as a professional chef in the UK is to take part in a culinary course. At Chef Academy London, we offer our students the chance to learn all the skills you need to be ready to start in a live kitchen with a team of professional chefs. The next stage is then to train in a real-life scenario where you take part in live training within one of our partnering restaurants. The experience is gold dust and very valuable to any chef’s resume.

To find out more about our professional culinary courses, click the link here: Cooking Courses

Are International Chefs In Demand?

Are you aspiring to be the next top chef?  Currently the UK is experiencing 200,000 work shortages based in the hospitality industry. As the country has implemented new Brexit regulations, now is the time to regenerate the industry, welcoming the best talent from all over the world.

We keep in touch with all the top restaurants in London and have been told that owners are applying for sponsorship licences through the government to make it simple for businesses to employ chefs from across the seas.

All students are expected to apply for a visa which will offer them the right to work in the UK. If you want to find out more information on how to apply to the UK to develop a professional career chef, click the link here: How to become a British citizen and start a career in the UK

Is Being A Chef A Good Career In The UK?

There are many fantastic career opportunities that are connected to becoming a professional chef. It presents a chance to become passionate about food! With the ability to achieve top job satisfaction, this is an environment where you can progress a long-term career.

If you have talent and are willing to work hard, being a chef is a rewarding and exciting job and one that is in demand. With rising numbers of chef jobs in London, the industry is continuously growing. 

London can offer a professional chef an incredible lifestyle. London is home to some of the most luxurious restaurants, with over 60 Michelin star restaurants.

Wouldn't you like to be a part of that?

Much of the Michelin star history was established in Chelsea, where you will find Bibendum, the Michelin HQ. The Grade II building was built in 1911 on Fulham Road. It is registered on the National Heritage List for England and now home to top chef Claude Bosi who relocated there in 2007.

If you are new to the Michelin star experience, watch out for the star rating given to each restaurant. Award one, two or three stars, represents very good, exceptional, or exquisite cuisine.

In addition, you may find that there is a particular food industry or cultural flavours you want to specialise in. The hospitality industry can offer you the chance to innovate within your favourite catering sector.

Being a professional chef comes with the joy of making other people happy. There is a lot of excitement in the kitchen. The more passionate you become about your food; the more others will love it! Make your customers smile with your delicious recipes and embrace the job satisfaction!

Lastly, the chef lifestyle is something which can be adjusted to suit your own needs. If you are a morning riser, there are many jobs delivering breakfasts and brunches. Alternatively, there are night owl opportunities too which allow you to chef afternoon to dine experiencing in the very best restaurants in London. Look at the variety of restaurants which are only open at night, others during the day. Catering companies work shifts and corporate catering will see you working 9 to 5 hrs. Set your hours depending on your lifestyle!

How Do You Become A Chef In England?

Most chefs are extremely passionate about what they do and many of them choose to branch out on their own to set up their own restaurant. Take a look at Chef Academy London’s course on Hospitality Management and Food Science.

See course here: Hospitality Management and Advanced Food Science (600 hours)

Here we guide you into new opportunities to create and develop top standard culinary skills. We admire the fact chefs come into the kitchen with a creative desire to develop new and exciting dishes that have never been tried before. The role offers an opportunity to experiment with food which can tickle the taste buds. This is very helpful for those moments when you will be asked to formulate new menus and add exciting special dishes to the restaurant’s menus on a weekly basis.

How to become a British citizen and start a career in the UK

Britain can offer an exciting opportunity to migrant workers who are looking to build a successful career as a professional chef. The UK has always welcomed populations from all over the world to bring their own favourite delicacies and skills to the country. Due to this, the UK has a diverse pallet for new cuisines and flavours.

Here is a guide on how you can become a British citizen and benefit from the growing industry to start your journey in hospitality.

How can I become a UK citizen?

The process to becoming a British citizen involves naturalisation. Naturalisation is the legal process by which a person changes their nationality. Successful applicants are granted the same legal rights and status to live in the UK as a natural-born British citizen.

Here are the basic requirements to apply for British citizenship:

  • Be over 18 years old.
  • Be of “good character”
  • Currently living in the UK.
  • Meet the English language requirements.
  • Pass the “Life in the UK” test.

There are many benefits to becoming a British citizen, including being able to live permanently in the UK which will allow you to develop a career in a prosperous industry. In addition, you can access world-class medical care for free and travel the world with a British passport. What is there not to like about being a British citizen?

Do you need British citizenship to work in the UK?

You do not need to be a British citizen to work in the UK. Foreign employees are able to apply for a work visa which will allow them to visit the UK for a longer period of time whilst having the right to work here. Currently many employers now have a Sponsorship Licence certificate which will allow them to hire staff from overseas in a simple way, especially in the hospitality industry. 

What types of visas are available for hospitality employees?

Since Brexit, the UK has now introduced a new points-based immigration system, its aim is to attract skilled workers who can contribute to the UK’s economy. There are two visas most common for internationals looking to start work in the UK.

Here are some of the visas you may be eligible to apply for:

  1. Skilled worker visa – This visa has replaced the Tier 2 (General) work visa. In order to apply for this visa you must work for a Home Office approved employer, have a ‘certificate of sponsorship’ from your employer, and do a job that’s on the list of eligible employers.
  2. Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange visa (Tier 5). This visa is used if you want to come to the UK for a short time for work experience or to do training. To find out more, see the link here:

Can you automatically become a British citizen?

You do not automatically get British citizenship if you were born in the UK. It depends on when you were born and your parents' circumstances. You may be eligible to apply for citizenship if you were born in the UK and are not automatically a British citizen.

It is worth noting that there are different types of British nationality, take a look here: Types of British nationality: British citizenship - GOV.UK

How long do you have to live in Britain to become a British citizen?

You need to live in the UK for 5 years to become a British citizen.

How Do Foreign Workers Start A Career In The Hospitality Industry In The UK?

We recommend enrolling into a professional culinary course which will give you the experience and training to start your career in the UK hospitality industry. Here at Chef Academy London, we offer a range of courses which are bespoke, practical and are supported by experienced chefs who have been in the business for years.

To see more about our courses, visit the website here: Cooking Courses In London.

In order to enrol, we require our students to apply for a short-term student visa. This will allow you to complete your culinary chef course and to develop valuable experience in top restaurants in London. Once you have finished training, there are many opportunities to apply for a work visa at a restaurant which has a sponsorship licence to employ migrants.

If you have any further questions, we are always happy to discuss the options with you.

Chef Academy London LTD

Registered Office: 17 Hanover Square, Mayfair - London - W1S 1BN

Phone: +44 -0- 208 087 2501

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Frequently Asked Questions: Molecular Gastronomy

Molecular Gastronomy allows chefs to bring a wow factor to their work! This food science requires the right tools, techniques and recipes to create the most unique meals you have even seen. Here is everything you need to know about Molecular Gastronomy.

What Does Molecular Mean In Cooking?

Molecular gastronomy is a type of food science that is associated with the food phenomena of culinary transformations. It involves bringing together scientific principles of chemistry and physics into modern cuisine.

There are many branches of food science that study different aspects of food, such as safety, microbiology, preservation, chemistry, engineering and physics. Until recently, there was no aspect of science dedicated to studying the chemical processes of cooking in the home and in restaurants.

Who Discovered Molecular Gastronomy?

In 1988, the Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti and French chemist Hervé This brought these two sciences together with the element of food. Together they discovered the term "molecular gastronomy”. They knew that the natural food of cooking had been investigated for years, but this was the first time it had its own discipline as a food science. The subject was to be used originally for large scale food processing and developed the practice.

Later on, during the early 2000s, Molecular Gastronomy had started to be recognised as a new style of cooking in which some chefs began to explore in the kitchen. They did this by embracing science, research and technological advances in equipment. There has been some recent chefs who have brought these techniques into their work, including Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz, Ferran Adrià, José Andrés, Marcel Vigneron, Homaro Cantu, Michael Carlson, Wylie Dufresne, and Adam Melonas.

By studying the science behind different culinary processes or commonly used methods, chefs and scientists can understand why certain flavours and textures are produced. It is the most appropriate subject to allow techniques and theories to be tested amongst shared social experiences using the best culinary innovation. This is how the best creations are made!

How Do You Cook Molecular Gastronomy?

Here are some well known molecular gastronomy techniques:

Spherification

At its most basic, Spherification is the process that creates a sphere of flavours that can look like pearls.

Gelification

By working with chimical agents, this process allows liquids and liquified foods to be transformed into gels.

Smoking

By using a smoke gun, you can add this delicious flavour to a number of foods. The process of flavouring food by exposing it to smoke from burning flavoured wood.

Cryo cooking

Liquid nitrogen is a liquefied gas characterized by a temperature of -320ºF.

In cooking, liquid nitrogen is like deep frying but using extreme cold instead of heat, which means that everything it touches "freezes" instantly.

How Do I Learn More About Molecular Gastronomy?

It is recommended to go on a specialist culinary course for food science to learn all the unique methods. There are only a few schools in Europe that teach these impressive skills. Here at Chef Academy London, we have developed our own course doing just that!

It's time to play with your food! We will show you how to get creative with new techniques. Our students get to experience high quality training using the following methods: quick freeze techniques, smoking techniques, rotary vacuum evaporation, foam techniques, spherification techniques, food dehydration techniques, anti-oxidation techniques and much more!

This course will prepare you to enter a professional environment and enable you to start your career at a senior level or if you are thinking of opening your own business, this is the course for you!

To find out more about the course, visit the website here: Hospitality Management and Advanced Food Science (600 hours)

Hospitality Workforce Shortage In The UK

Recently, Brexit and the pandemic have presented the UK hospitality industry with a high shortage of staff in 2021. Restaurants and hotels are currently reporting a shortfall of around 200,000 workers, with a particular shortage in front-of-house staff and chefs. 

Since the hospitality industry has reopened, there has been a huge demand in rehiring staff, with many vacancies being offered at once. 

With years of experience running Chef Academy London, we know that our students come with a breadth of different experiences and knowledge from all around the world. They come to our culinary school to experience the British culinary culture and have a fantastic opportunity to develop a career here in the UK. 

Working closely with the local hospitality industry, we are aware of the changes that restaurants and hotels are making to accommodate staff from overseas to work within their businesses. Recently many organisations have applied for a Sponsor Licence which allows them to recruit professional chefs from outside the UK. Therefore, here is everything you need to know when moving to the UK to start your career with Chef Academy London. 

Key Changes Of Sponsorships In The British Hospitality Industry 

One aspect which hasn't changed is that employers must hold a Sponsor Licence before being able to offer sponsorship to migrant workers. This includes those who don't hold a visa in another category such as the EU Settlement Scheme or as the dependent of a migrant worker. 

From 1 January 2021, new Brexit rules have stopped EU nationals travelling to the UK under the freedom of movement regulations. This means that any EU nationals who were not already in the UK by 31 December 2020 will now need to be sponsored, just like any other non-EU national.

The new rules do not require chefs to be ‘highly skilled’ anymore. By reducing the minimum pay rate for chefs to enter the industry, overseas employees are now able to access the industry in an easier way. There are more opportunities for workers to develop a strong career in hospitality. A popular pathway is to take up a Chef Academy London professional chef course first. With the chance to work in our partner restaurants, we have a high success rate of students who have been offered a job at the end of the course.  

On the plus side, sponsorships for chefs are now a realistic option for many more businesses. Chefs are categorised as a ‘Skilled Worker’ by the British government.

This allows employers to hire staff who are:

  • Eligible for a working visa
  • Work for a UK employer who have been approved by the Home Office 
  • Are paid at least a minimum salary.

What Impact Does This Have On Our Chef Academy Students?

It has been a promising start for hospitality since restrictions have lifted in the UK, with a quick bounce back for the industry. The Office for National Statistics recently reported that in May 2021, the turnover for the UK industry was £3.4 billion. This rose further to £6.9 billion by May 2021 after the pandemic restrictions were partially eased, the highest figure since August 2020. 

Furthermore, on top of this, there were 102,000 new vacancies in the sector from April to June 2021. This is on the rise of 12.1%, compared with the 91,000 figures for the same period in 2019. This is set to continue to grow. 

We Can Help You Start A Career In Hospitality!

The UK government is working with the sector to understand the impact on job shortages due to Brexit and the Covid pandemic. 

As there has been a rise in skill shortages, it is now down to businesses to develop better training programs. At Chef Academy, we believe it is vital to train chefs and hospitality staff in a real working environment, with strong mentors and supportive chefs. Our staff are always on hand to put our students at ease whilst providing years of expert experience and knowledge. 

If you would like to see a testimonial from a past student about their experience, follow the link here: How To Apply

Do you want to become a professional chef? 

We offer courses for advanced chefs as well as chefs who may be at the beginning of their career. If you would like to enrol in one of Chef Academy London’s courses, Download Application Form and submit it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. along with a copy of your passport and proof of the deposit payment. 

If you would like further information, you can book an appointment with our sales team today. They are available to answer any questions you might have and discuss your specific needs. We encourage candidates that wish to enrol to schedule a meeting or telephone interview prior to enrolling.

Alternatively, you can apply online today here Online Application Form.

Upon receipt of the application form, we will assess the application and determine if the applicant meets all the entry requirements and check availability for the date you have requested.

Contact Us Today

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Phone: +44 -0- 208 087 2501

 

Do you want to work as a chef? In London they wait for you

Find a job in London

Surely, many times you have planned to leave your country, learn to speak English and live a new experience in your life. The truth is that we have very good news if this is your case. Stop shame and fear. Life is an adventure that you have to put forward to live it. You only live once.

The reality is that the United Kingdom is a country of opportunities and finding a job is easier than in other European countries. For example, in London there is a boom in the creation of new restaurants that need staff to work, especially chefs.

What do you need to work in London as a chef?

A medium English level

"You'll have to put yourself into the English if you want a good job." Let's see, let's not fool ourselves, when we are not in London, we think to have a good english level, when arriving in UK and we see that we do not understand even half of what they say, you realize that it is rather low, very low.

Nor are we going to scare you, since to get a job of anything with understanding English fairly is enough. But if you want a good job, you will have to put your effort into the English learning, because today there is a lot of competition and it is not easy to get a job in good condition.

If you really want to take the step of working in London, we advise you to start giving English a taste like you have never done before: consume movies in original version - you will discover that the actors are much more than an image and a gesture -, read your Favorite books in English, whatever you can think of to practice, will be good. You can also sign up for classes but, if you want to save, you can prepare yourself, buy support books or watch a course online and spend at least a couple of hours a day, buy support books or watch a course online and spend at least a couple of hours a day.

Updated documentation

To work in London it is very important to have the documentation in order. Check and make sure that you have all the documents in order and that there are none about to expire so that no problem arises when you go flying. To go to London with the DNI is enough, but we recommend that you also get your  passport because there they use it a lot for different formalities. On the other hand, we also advise you to apply for the European Health Card (TSE)  as it is a free procedure, in which you will only waste a little time, and make sure you are covered until you start working in London and get your number of Social Security in the United Kingdom (NiN).

Once you are established in London, look for your nearest GP center and register to be assigned a GP (General Practitioner). To do this, you will need proof of residency - for example, a letter from the bank that has reached your name at your London address - and proof of identity.

English mobile number

«There are a lot of companies to get an English mobile number». Having an English mobile number is very important because it is necessary to perform any management, from looking for a flat or job to getting your NiN. So it is advisable to be one of the first steps you take when you arrive to work in London.

In any store like The Phone House or similar, you can get a SIM card with “pay as you go” , instead of a contract, which is much more comfortable since you only have to recharge when you need it. And if there is a month that you are going on a trip there is no problem, you do not pay it and go!

Accommodation in London

"Finding a flat in London is not easy and there are many scams." To live in London, it is best to share a flat, since it is the most economical and is what the vast majority can afford. If your budget is still very limited, you can also share a room, even if this means sacrificing your privacy. In any case, do not even think about renting anything from outside UK since there is a lot of Internet scam.

This is a job you should do when you are already in London. So it is better to  look for a cheap hostel for the first days, while moving and looking for a flat.

Searching for a flat will be one of your first priorities, since it is quite stressful and until you have no address you cannot do many of the necessary procedures.

In zone 1 it is quite difficult to find some “bargain”, so people usually live in zone 2 - which can cost you between £ 350 and £ 900, depending on the neighborhood and the house -, or in zone 3, where prices are cheaper but you pay more for the transportation.

Normally, prices are usually given per week "pw" (per week) or per month "pm" (per month). When they come per week, to calculate how much it costs you per month what you have to do is multiply the amount by 52 and then divide it by 12 . And remember that, when you find an apartment, it is normal to be asked for a month in advance as a deposit plus the month in which you are, although this price will sometimes be more expensive than others, depending on who rents it or the landlord.

The more you move away from the center, the cheaper the rent will be, but do not go over because what is later expensive is the transport. The subway is quite expensive depending on the area, but buses are cheaper and do not discriminate by zones. So look at everything well, because you can live further, but if you have a good bus combination, transport may not be expensive.

Finally, we recommend that you do not keep the first house or apartment you see, compare at least five before deciding. Anyway, do not worry too much because it is likely that you will later change your home for work or other causes.

National Insurance Number (NiN)

The NiN is very important if you live and work in London. If you want to work in London, you will need a NiN (National Insurance Number) that is like the English Social Security number. Getting it is very easy, since you just have to call the phone number that appears on theirwebsite and make an appointment. You can only make an appointment by phone and you need to be in the UK.

From your call they will give you an appointment in 2 or 3 weeks - the information about the appointment will arrive by letter to your address. You will have a very simple interview, for which you will need to provide all the documents you have that can identify you - such as passport, driving license, ID - and proof of residence - such as a letter that has reached you at the address of London where you live, or the floor contract.

As it is a long process, we advise you to call as soon as you get to work in London. And while they give you an appointment, you can fix the rest of the things.

Bank account

"One of the first steps to work in London will be to open a bank account." If you still do not have a job, you may have enough hits when opening a bank account, although there is everything. If you go without a job, make sure you tell them that you want to live in London indefinitely and that you have enough savings to live in London until you find a job.

The most flexible banks are Barclays and Lloyds TSB , so we recommend that you try these first, as well as always be very well dressed, because the image is taken into account in this country. The best thing about opening a bank account is that they immediately send you letters to your London address, which serves as proof of address.

And if you need to transfer money from your Italian account to your English account, don't let both banks rob you, use Transferwise.

Transport

"Unlike some countries, public transport in London is crucial." The first thing you have to do is buy an Oyster Card, which is a wallet card that allows you to pay for any public transport in London. In addition, with the Osyter Card you will get better rates for your trips . In the subway stations there are machines to recharge your Oyster Card. If you use the subway more than 10 times a week, a weekly or monthly bonus may be convenient for you, if you travel less than that, simply reload "pay as you go" (or topups) as many pounds as you want.

As we have said before, the bus is much cheaper than the subway and does not discriminate by areas like this, so if you can organize to travel by bus, you can save a lot of money. Another option that has been becoming fashionable in recent years is traveling by bike, which minimizes the cost of transport considerably despite the fact that, when it rains, it feels like little.

London culture

Enjoy your stay in London as much as you can. One of the first things you will appreciate when living in London is that there is a great diversity of people, of all cultures and colors, with stories of the most varied, which will enrich your personal experience. There are even times when, even if it seems a lie, it is  hard to find English!

In general, people are quite open and willing to talk, but keep in mind that the English are not as direct as we are in Spain, the "British" often sweeten the phrases to soften them. At first it will seem silly, but in the end you realize that, using this method, you receive better service and attention.

Also keep in mind that the English usually shake hands when you first meet them, so don't throw yourself in both kisses if you don't want to "get paid" while they look at you with a dumbfounded face.

The English also take into account the issue of punctuality, so as you arrive 5 minutes late from nothing, be prepared to be angry or, at least, faces of disapproval.

«Going out in London is more expensive than in Italy or other european countries, so you have to manage it». To party in East London is the best and most authentic - the area where native English people usually go out of bars -, in the center you can also find party places but they are usually more expensive and full of tourists. Beware of the cubatas, which here you put a bottle of alcohol that tastes like nothing and they charge you a gold price.

You can always ask for doubles, but if you come from Italy or other european countries it will seem to you that they are robbing you of an armed hand. So we advise you to go to beer or cider. And whenever you go out, be cautious and look first for the night buses that will take you back home, since the subway usually runs until midnight, more or less, and then there are only night buses.

Another thing you will have to get used to is the carpet. Yes! How do you hear it! Here they put carpet on all sides and, although it seems to you the most unhygienic thing in the world, it is a thing that you cannot run away from when you rent a flat. Anyway, nobody has died for that (so far), so I guess nothing will happen to you.

After you have solved all these matters you can find your job and work as a chef in London.

Come Join Us

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Study in an Italian Chef Academy

Gastronomy is one of the areas with the greatest sustainable growth in recent years, bringing with it immense potential for the country's economic development.

Today the generation of jobs and income of the gastronomic sector come not only from restaurants, but also from the increase in the demand for native products and inputs of high nutritional value. Here we will tell you why this career gives you great job opportunities.

Lots of work possibilities

The Culinary Art career has a very diverse work field, and that is that gastronomy gives you the possibility to make a career line and grow professionally. 

Studying this profession gives you the opportunity to develop in several areas, you can be Chef or Manager of Restaurants, Hotels, Bars, Cruises, Clubs and catering services. What's more, if you like to teach, you can also dabble by being a professor of gastronomic schools and even working as a menu designer chef for magazines or newspapers.

It's amazing what you can achieve with gastronomy, can you imagine if you  studied a foreign cuisine, such as French? Your success would be superior.

2.     You will work faster

One of the benefits of studying gastronomy is that this technical career lasts less than the others. While most students finish their profession in 5 years or more, it will only take you less than one year.

Moreover, if you want to have a greater specialization, you can complement your studies with other course later. The important thing here is that you choose a good gastronomic school that will provide you with good agreements, internships, work practices and, above all, quality education.  

3.     The investment is quickly recovered

Gastronomy has an advantage over other careers that it is impossible not to mention, and it allows you to quickly recover the investment you have made, since the average salaries that would be achieved with it are high.

To this add that your professional practices can be exercised from the first cycles of learning, and gain experience. 

  1. More jobs

The gastronomic category is one of the sectors with the highest dynamic growth in the world. If you want to enrol at Chef Academy London, you will be able to choose between different courses, we in fact propose the cooking courses:

  • Hospitality Management and Advanced Food Science (600 hours);
  • Advanced Professional Chef Course (550 hours);
  • Michelin Starred Chef Course (300 Hours);
  • Professional Chef Course (325 Hours);
  • Kosher Professional Chef Course (400 Hours);
  • Halal Advanced Professional Chef Course (550 Hours);
  • Professional Chef Course - Italian cuisine (325 hours);
  • Professional Patisserie and Confectionery Course (840 Hours);
  • Introduction to the Professional Chef Course (80 hours);
  • Advanced Cooking Techniques (80 hours);
  • Intensive Professional Pastry Programme (80 Hours).
  1. Greater opportunity to become independent

The Culinary Art, unlike the other professional careers, gives you the possibility to become independent more quickly, since you can open your own restaurant or catering company and form a successful future. 

Do you want to enrol in our Italian Chef Academy in London?

Come Join Us

For further information, click our webpage: https://www.chefacademyoflondon.com/en/

Also, please don’t forget to visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChefAcademyLondon/

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Reasons to take a pastry course

The pastry and confectionery industry is associated with the world of sweet gastronomic preparations. This art allows to let the imagination fly, be creative and offer new sensations for the palate.

This item can be taken in a professional or amateur way. If you dedicate yourself to the art of cooking or have studied the professional career of gastronomy it is important that you constantly update yourself with the latest trends, especially in pastry, if instead you want to learn how to prepare sweet delicacies there is a wide variety of Pastry, Bakery and Confectionery Courses.

Constant training in Gastronomy

To get involved in this activity, either professionally or amateurly, it is necessary to study a gastronomy career or take specific courses in pastry. There is a wide variety of courses and workshops but what we recommend is that you first study the gastronomy career and then specialize in pastry.

In case you only want to learn as an amateur there are also daily courses that you can follow a tour Chef Academy in London. These mini courses do not require you to have any previous knowledge. Whenever you go to train you it is important that you analyze the educational offer and compare the different options to choose the most complete one and that you include in your program everything you want to learn.  

Why take a pastry course?

These are the reasons why if you are interested in gastronomy you should specialize in Pastry:

Profitability: dedicating yourself to this profession can open many doors and offer you a lot of business opportunities, whether you do it as a personal venture or you hold a position in a company. In these times there are many people who are looking for trusted professionals for their catering or celebration companies.

Prestige: This profession is undoubtedly an area that has become over time a possibility of placing you as a qualified and renowned professional due to the fame that was given to this activity in recent years.

Employability: this specialty will allow you to have a constant job due to the high demand of specialists to fill positions of this type. In turn as an entrepreneur you will surely find many opportunities to grow your personal business if you wish.

Satisfaction: this activity will give you great satisfaction because if you do it correctly, there will be no way to go wrong. Remember to constantly acquire new skills that help you to continue growing in the business, with this I not only refer to skills in gastronomy but also to skills for the administration of your own project.

Creativity: If you excel at being creative and devising new recipes that impact and that generates praise, without a doubt this is the area to which you should devote yourself. In pastry, pastry and bakery there are a variety of recipes, but there are always new things to discover and this may be your opportunity to make yourself known, author cuisine is a trend that can serve to differentiate you from the rest.

If you want to take a Pastry course, do not forget to visit our site to find out about our entire educational offer.

Come Join Us

For further information, click our webpage: https://www.chefacademyoflondon.com/en/

Also, please don’t forget to visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChefAcademyLondon/

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Kosher or Halal course in London?

Are you thinking of enrolling on a Kosher or Halal course?

When reviewing the quality seals of the products that are regularly consumed in the market, on several occasions we have been able to notice the existence of the Kosher or Halal seal. But do you know the nature of these stamps and the process involved in their certification? In this article we will explain it.

Kosher

Kosher, Casher's Yiddish pronunciation, כָּשֵׁר, is that which meets the requirements of the Hebrew kashrut כַּשְׁרוּת, which designates that "correct" or "appropriate" to be consumed; hence the foods that are suitable for the consumption of the Jewish community are defined. It does not refer to a specific type of food, but to a food review system according to the Jewish ritual and whose meaning is determined by a set of religious criteria prewritten in the Torah (Pentateuch). These laws seek to establish a regime that benefits the body and soul, to achieve both physical and mental balance. It is based on the biblical precepts of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

There are several local and international agencies that issue the Kosher certificate, it can also be granted by any rabbi authorized to issue it. The degree of acceptance and recognition of it will depend on the recognition and prestige with which the rabbi enjoys or the authority that issues it. It is worth mentioning the importance of investigating this, since there are few who enjoy unanimous recognition and acceptance.

To obtain this certificate it is necessary to follow a process, dictated by the Rabbinate. In which, the request for the certificate, initial inspection and evaluation by the Rabbinate, the “Kosher” contract, re-inspection and issuance of the Certification is made.

Classification of Kosher Products

Dairy products: Milk and its derived products (cheese, butter cream etc). These products cannot be mixed with meat.

Meat: All animals suitable for consumption according to kosher standards must be ruminant and have split hooves. Kosher is beef, sheep, goat, and certain birds such as chicken, turkey, duck and goose.

Parva or Neutral: Named this way because they contain neither meat nor dairy ingredients. Fruits, grains and vegetables are in their natural state, eggs and fish that do not have scales or fins.

There is also a specific category called Passover (the eighth day that commemorates the exodus of the Jewish population since slavery in Egypt), which respects unique laws on food. Some grains and their derivatives cannot be consumed in Passover even if they are kosher the rest of the year.

Halal

The term halal (in Arabic حلال, also transliterated ḥalāl or halaal) refers to the set of practices allowed by the Muslim religion. The term itself encompasses all kinds of practices but is commonly associated with acceptable foods according to Sharia, or Islamic law. The opposite term, which expresses prohibited practices, is haram.

For a food to be considered Halal, it must conform to the regulations contained in the Qur'an, in the traditions of the Prophet, and in the teachings of Islamic jurists. Religion governs many of the daily activities of Muslims.

The Quran orders Muslims a strict diet and lists the foods that Muslims can bring to their table. Halal products not only consider the ingredients that were used to make the product, they also have certain requirements in the manufacturing process.

To obtain the certificate it is necessary to approach a Halal Institution. The following operate in Mexico: Viva Halal AC and the Islamic Cultural Centre of Mexico, who support companies in obtaining this seal.

The steps to obtain the certificate are application, prior evaluation, preliminary visit, inspection program, inspection evaluation, issuance of the license and certificate of conformity, notification, revision of the notification, monitoring and renewal of records.

Taking into account what we mean in general with each of these certifications, defining which of them to handle depends on purely commercial factors, since the market is very specific, with very particular requirements, it is also increasing and with globalization the request for this type of stamps is common.

However, it is necessary to have a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the market in which the product will be handled, as it is what will determine the type of certification to be obtained or the decision to be taken in this matter, since both are and go to sectors completely different whose values ​​and norms are derived from idiosyncrasy, govern their daily behaviour, so knowledge, respect and compliance with them will provide commercial advantages and / or added value to the product that is sought to be marketed.

These are the main differences between kosher and halal.

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Michelin stars cooking with canned food

Chef Jesus Sanchez Sainz is in love with the products of the sea. It could not be otherwise for this Navarre of Cradle and Cantabrian heart.  For 25 years, his cuisine has been sincere, simple, direct and respectful of the product. With two Michelin stars and three Repsol Suns that he has under his belt, he is one of the best Chefs in Cantabria.

Chef Jesus Sanchez Sainz travelled to Madrid for a few hours to share some of his best kept secrets with a group of gastronomic journalists. Jesus teaches us how to cook as a two Michelin star Chef with canned food, salted anchovy, northern bonito and tuna belly, three very heavy products in his kitchen.

Canning is a culinary resource that we have on hand, from the housewife to the professional, through the amateur kitchens, foodie and much more. We use canning to preserve food, but giving it a “little twist” we can create surprising new flavours and textures and in a very simple way, Jesús Sánchez tells us.

With these words Jesus begins his presentation and he has already won us. He anticipates that he will cook, just as he would do at home, three dishes that he prepares and serves in his restaurant. Sharpen all the senses and make sure we learn the lesson well so that we can transfer it to our kitchens.

Anchovy with Panna Cotta and Chicory

The show starts with the anchovy, this fish is one of the most underappreciated delicacies of our kitchen. You can find the anchovy’s along the Cantabrian coast and has two seasons of capture. The coastal anchovy from March to May. Plus, the return anchovy from June to the end of September.

The coastal anchovy is the highest quality and the one most sort after for the production of salted anchovies.

It is the first, salted anchovy, which Jesus uses to make Anchovy with Panna Cotta and Chicory. A combination that could sound strange to us and that hides an endearing story. Sanchez tells us that the idea came as a tribute to the workers, working with anchovies in the factory that each morning took a snack based on chicory with milk, bread and anchovy.

To prepare this version, it is necessary to wash the anchovy in water three times to remove the salt. Between washing, gently scrape with a lace to remove the silver (or skin), the edges are trimmed, finally after drying well with absorbent paper, it is opened to remove the central spine. Each spine is scraped off to remove the bones.

The anchovy is placed on a slice of toasted brioche and is completed with two dots of pepper cream and two more dots of cream cheese with nori seaweed. It is accompanied by a chicory with panna cotta (which simulates a coffee with milk) adorned with a touch of chicory reduction. A dish that is enjoyed in two bites and evokes the flavours of their breakfast.

Tips from the Chef to not waste anything

  1. Anchovy clippings can be dried and used to make a flavoured butter.
  2. The spine is very tender so it can be fried and eaten.
  3. If the loins are not going to be consumed, they can be preserved in a mild oil (which does not spoil their flavour) and at the time of serving they are drained and sprinkled with a splash of good extra virgin olive oil.

Northern Fritter

After this demonstration of power and to show us that cooking with preserves at home has a long way to go, Jesus changes the product and passes to the northern bonito in oil to prepare a beautiful sea fritter. Appropriate for the Lenten season. An exquisite snack whose dough is halfway between croquettes and donut dough.

After draining the northern bonito well and crumbling it, Sánchez and his team prepare a thick bechamel that starts with onion finely chopped. Cooked over a low heat, so that it releases the sugars and becomes transparent with no colour. To the onions, add flour and let it cook for a few minutes before incorporating flaked potatoes and the bonito of the crumbled north. Let it cook until it thickens.

Jesus uses anchovy essence to add a Pure umami flavour. He then drops it in bite portions in abundant oil, forming perfectly round fritters that crown with a pepper aioli and a touch of chives. The result is so delicious that we would have to hold back from eating half a dozen between us.  But we hold back because something tells us that the best is yet to come.

Crispy Veggies with Ventresca

The third and last course, the raw material changes again and we are delighted with what we are learning. This time the attention is to capture the tuna belly, a preserve that does not need much because it is a delight as it is, but when it is presented in the form of crispy vegetables with ventresque it’s stunning with the textures and flavour.

The preparation starts at the end, with Sanchez showing us some pieces of dried northern bonito, that’s hard and with an unusual appearance that, grated, uses as a termination of various dishes. After draining it well and removing all the oil, you have had them in the dehydrator overnight at 70 °C, but you can do it in a home oven.

The base of this salad is made with borage leaf and glutinous rice flour. when frying in very hot oil (at 170ºC), the leaf suffers and becomes a kind of little boat on which to mount the rest of the elements. Almond Aioli, Romesco Sauce, roasted eggplant, pickled vegetables, artichoke, mini scallion, mini leek, macadamia nut and two ventresca flakes. Finally, chopped chives and textured vinaigrette.

And to think that most humans use canned foods in salads, such as toast or pizza topping, to fill empanadas or dumplings and little else. This thought has accompanied us throughout the show cooking and we have not been able to avoid feeling a bit of grief when thinking about how much we have been missing and a huge joy to see the possibilities offered by canned food and two Michelin star dishes that we can Prepare with them. Something will change from now on. Definitely.

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How to choose a good cooking course?

How to choose a cooking course?

If you dedicate yourself to the hotel and gastronomy sector and want to maintain a safe position, it is important that you train, one of the options to achieve this is by taking a cooking course.  Hotel and gastronomic establishments demand more and more qualified personnel, not only for the preparation of dishes, but also offering the latest trends in their gastronomy sector to the customer.

What should I rely on to choose the right cooking course ?

To find a good cooking course you need to inform yourself and look where you can acquire knowledge according to your level that you with to start at. There are different courses and a great opportunity for different levels, for example: cooking introduction course, professional cooking course, bakery and pastry courses in basic and advanced level. Cocktail course and a wide range of specific short-term cooking courses as well.

To Know and understand what the institute's methodology is and if it is right for you?

Once you define your level and the type of course you want to take, you must consider what is the methodology and learning mode appropriate for you. For example, if you work, how many hours will you spend on learning, studying and putting into practice what you have learned. If you live in a place far from this type of training centres, you should consider whether it would be appropriate to travel to a different area or country for face-to-face courses or if you can take an online course. But as we said before, everything will depend on your level of experience in the kitchen and the commitment you have with this new challenge.

If you take an online cooking course remember that you must have extra time, materials and the equipment necessary to carry out the practices, because we already know that in this type of profession not only the knowledge of the theory is enough. If you decide to take a one on one course, which is recommended for this area, it will be much simpler since you will have the supervision and advice of a professional who will be by your side for the duration of the cooking classes.

The practices in the kitchen?

It is very important that you do the exercises and practices, either in the cooking class or at your work, if you are already dedicating yourself to this item. This will give you more knowledge about the development in the kitchen and teamwork with the rest of your classmates. It is also a good option to start doing a few hours internships to know how the pace is within the workspace and gain experience that will help you on your way to working in a professional kitchen.

The training centres

It is essential that you investigate if they offer you a degree, if they have professional agreements and practices for future job opportunities and in turn enquire about what the students who have already taken classes in the place think. At Chef Academy London we have the endorsement of the ASIC (ACCREDITATION SERVICE for INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS), so we extend official certificates in National and International Cooking Courses. We also have Specialized Short Cooking Courses with a duration of one day, where you learn about a specific area of ​​the kitchen.

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Do not miss this opportunity to become an Executive Chef in London

For several years now, more and more people are understanding and appreciating the importance of good food. We are enjoying more refined dishes and are no longer afraid of trying new things.

Cooking shows and television programs are more popular than ever before and it has become extremely fashionable to not only know the where to find the best places to eat but more people are wanting to fulfil their passion for food and train to make their dreams a reality.

Today studying to become an Executive Chief is one of the professions with the greatest of rewards.

If you would like to be a professional in the kitchen, we at London Chef Academy can provide you with all you need to know to succeed in a profession that does not strop growing Nationally or Internationally.

Responsibilities of an Executive Chef

Firstly, you should not confuse this profession with that of a Kitchen Assistant, although sometimes they can do similiar jobs, an Executive Chef will always have many more responsibilities.

Here are some of the responsibilities of an Executive Chef. They will;

  • Train and motivate employees to meet the expectations of the owner and customers
  • Know the most popular recipes according to the type of restaurant in which they work and look to add value and creativity to existing or new menus
  • Show dedication to the profession and be a role model for the rest of the team
  • Make sure hygiene meets the highest standards and that attention to detail is achieved at all times (this will include personal hygiene, Health & Safety, kitchen cleanliness and above all complete customer satisfaction)
  • Be able to manage all operations within the kitchen from purchasing & ordering to delivering perfectly cooked and presented food to the customer
  • Be able to make decisions and always look to improve the profitability of the business model
  • When necessary, adjust the menu to the tastes, trends and needs of the customer
  • Check that all procedures follow current legislation and that all employees are satisfactorily trained to carry out their work effectively and efficiently
  • Never neglect the treatment given to food; especially during its conservation phases
  • Be able to make weekly and monthly budgets depending on the season (high, low, weekend, working day, etc.)

What do you have to study to be an Executive Chef?

The first thing you should understand is that becoming an Executive Chef is not something that is achieved overnight. It is a profession that requires commitment, determination and extensive training. Although the training can take a long time, the experience that will be gained will be one of the most valuable assets.

Employers looking to recruit an Executive Chef tend to look for professionals with long term service experience and/or a Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary arts or similar. They will also be looking for the successful candidate to demonstrate their ability to:

  • Source quality products that meet budget in local, national and international markets
  • Procure the best food products (meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, etc.) whilst ensure good sanitary conditions
  • Manage the kitchen of a restaurant: suppliers, set a budget, hire employees, prepare a daily and weekend menu, offer different dishes on special occasions, variety of starters and desserts, and have a knowledge of wine pairing
  • Be able to understand the different specialties of the kitchen, such as pastries
  • Train kitchen staff to ensure that they follow all safety standards and avoid workplace accidents
  • Use interpersonal skills and put them into practice with clients and employees alike
  • To follow procedures and protocols
  • Value the importance of working in teams for the good management of the establishment
  • Plan menus according to the style of the restaurant
  • Follow health legislation to meet all the hygiene requirements that are expected to be followed in the kitchen
  • Implement and deliver recipes of National and International cuisine

What are the Benefits of becoming an Executive Chef?

Wherever you are in the world, one thing is certain, people will always be hungry for good food. The Industry is screaming out for professionals with hands-on experience or culinary training. Although being a Chef requires a lot of responsibility and a great deal of dedication and commitment, it can be an extremely rewarding and fulfilling Career.

Where can Chefs work?

  • Hotels/Restuarants
  • Cruise Ships/Private Yachets
  • Chalets
  • Resorts/Bars/Clubs
  • Schools/Colleges
  • Private businesses
  • Prisons
  • Private Homes

Every restaurant in the world needs Executive Chefs who can serve their customers. Although at the beginning this career may seen a long way off, especially if you still do not have experience, with time and perseverance you will see the rewards of your training pay-off.

If you would like to learn more about training to become an Executive Chef in London, contact us now!

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Essential Baking Tools used in our International Pastry Academy

  1. MIXER

A Mixer is an absolute essential for any kitchen. These are available in a number of brands but costs do vary. Mixers generally come with paddle, dough hook and whisk attachments and are a key tool for the kitchen. The mixer is used to help with tasks such as stirring, whisking or beating.

  1. SCALES

One of the most essential baking tools of any kitchen are scales. Ideally the scales should be digital, since it will give you greater accuracy when weighing the ingredients and it is preferable that it has the function “TARE, this includes a button that resets the display to zero on your scales when we put a container on top, ensuring that we only weigh the ingredients that we are going to add. If you do not have this function, we will have to weigh the bowl and then deduct its weight from the total. Another way to measure the ingredients is with cups and spoons.

  1. BOWLS

We can find them of infinite sizes and types, but fundamentally we will need two. One with a diameter of about 25 cm and high walls to prevent splashing, ideal for mixing large amounts of dough or for whipping with electric rods. Another one of a smaller size, about 12 cm, for smaller mixtures and with enough depth. This way, the dough, instead of spreading across the bottom of our mould, will accumulate in height and it will be much easier to beat it.

  1. MOULDS

Another essential in the kitchen and for baking are “moulds”, without them we can't bake! Round, square, rectangular, there are plenty of them, so it’s important you select ones you will make the most use of.  Start by having some “basic” moulds with which you can work comfortably and later you can add more specialist ones to your collection. To start, the ideal would be to have a pair of basic rounds moulds (15cm and 25 cm) and a mould with cavities for cupcakes, this will already solve most of the recipes you want to make. But above all, my advice is to buy some moulds of very good quality, take care of them correctly, so they will be an investment for a lifetime.

  1. SIEVE

In baking it is essential to sieve the flour in almost all recipes, so we must have a sieve or strainer through which to pass the flour to eliminate possible lumps and impurities. Ideally, the mesh type of medium size, so that the flour is well aerated, separated and without lumps.

  1. PASTRY SLEEVE AND NOZZLES

If you want to go further into the world of cupcakes, cakes and decorated cookies, these will be another essential baking tool that you will need. The pastry sleeves will help us to fill, cover or glaze the items we want to decorate.

For your convenience, we recommend disposable pastry sleeves for when we have creams of different flavours or colours. These sleeves are plastic triangles to which we only have to cut the tip, add the required nozzle and fill them with cream to decorate, without having to worry about cleaning them after use.

Cake piping nozzles are cake decorating tools used in adding designs and decoration to cakes/biscuits. Some of the most common nozzles are the # 1M and the # 2D of the Wilton brand but we recommend that you also select some smaller nozzles so you are able to create the required effect/design you want.

  1. COOLING RACK

There are different shapes and sizes available. The “rack” allows air to circulate all around the dough, avoiding moisture concentrations at the base of biscuits or cakes (with its consequent "softening"). Stackable racks are very useful, especially for cookies, cupcakes or small pastas, which help you save space in the kitchen.

  1. SILICONE SPATULAS

Spatulas help to remove or scrape all the pastry mix from the side of the bowl to minimize waste. Since when fully coupled to the walls of the bowl they make it very easy for us to move the dough into the same container or even incorporate them into a new one, or when mixing ingredients more homogeneously.

There are many types available which have different levels of hardness. For example, the harder ones are better for lowering dense doughs (biscuit type) from the walls of the bowls and, the softer ones, are better for flocking the bowls as they better conform to the rounded shape of the container. The latter will also be especially good for smoothing creams on the surface of our cakes when we want to give a more casual finish.

  1. ROLLING PIN

For those people who want to get into the world of cookies or fondant decoration, the rolling pin will be one of their best friends since it is essential to smooth the doughs with a uniform thickness.

 For best results, many rollers incorporate levelling rings this will enable you to keep an even level of thickness throughout.

  1. BAKING PAPER

Baking paper is a necessity for baking, lining moulds and even to make homemade capsules for cupcakes and muffins. Luckily, this product is readily available on-line and supermarkets.

 

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Best Halal Course

Want to learn more about Halal Food?

What is Halal Food?

Like Kosher foods, Halal food is guided by religious criteria that affect the entire food chain, from how animals intended to be consumed are fed and raised, to the way in which they are slaughtered and prepared for consumption.

Is Halal food healthier than conventional food?

According to Muslim criteria in Dietetics and Nutrition, a group of members of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics confirms that Halal food can never contain pork or products such as jellies and butter and no alcohol. Rasheed Ahmed, founder and president of the Muslim Consumption Group (MCG), which certifies both Halal foods and educates Muslims about the status of different Halal foods, says that to be truly Halal, one must take into account how the animals are raised, they must be fed vegetarian diets, which means that many chickens and cows raised on US farms, for example, would not work. Halal animals can also not be treated with antibiotics or growth hormones, since hormones can contain pork-based ingredients.

Ahmed admits that his certification criteria are much stricter than others worldwide. For example, MCG does not certify those fish that are farmed in fish farms, since it is not clear if the fish are fed with animal by-products. Only fish caught in the wild are Halal, certified by MCG standards.

While some people believe that these criteria make Halal food healthier, Carol O'Neil, professor of nutrition and food sciences at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Centre, says “there are simply no studies proving that Be a universal truth”. "It's hard to know if there are any kind of nutritional differences," says O'Neil. "Certainly, there are no studies comparing people who consume Halal meat to see if their cholesterol levels, or other indicators, are different. We just don't know."

O'Neil points out, however, that Halal practices are much more “human” for the animal, than non-Halal practices, so this can be a differential factor for some people. "Our religion does not allow us to put any pressure on animals," says Ahmed. "So, we treat them as humanly possible."

Some examples of Non-Halal foods

  • Alcoholic drinks
  • Intoxicants
  • Non-Halal Animal Fat
  • Enzymes* (Microbial Enzymes are permissible)
  • Gelatine* – from non-Halal source (fish gelatine is Halal)
  • L-cysteine
  • Lard
  • Lipase* (only animal lipase need be avoided)
  • Non-Halal Animal Shortening
  • Pork, Bacon / Ham and anything from pigs
  • Unspecified Meat Broth
  • Rennet* (All forms should be avoided except for plant / microbial /synthetic – rennet obtained from halal slaughtered animal is permissible).
  • Stock* (a blend of mix species broth or meat stock)
  • Tallow* (non-Halal species)
  • Foods contaminated with any of the above products

(*May be consumed if derived from Halal animals)

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What to study to become a Chef?

Chefs are responsible for creating the menu and directing the food service in restaurants and in most culinary establishments. Chefs are responsible for the activity in their kitchen and usually hire Sous Chefs, Cooks and other kitchen employees. In addition to sourcing the ingredients for their menus, a Chef typically specialises in one or more types of cooking and must master many cooking techniques and tools. Many Chefs also keep an eye on the current culinary trends and use their creativity to constantly evolve and create new ideas and dishes in the kitchen.

Being a Chef can be physically demanding and sometimes dangerous. Cook’s work with heat and sharp tools and spend most of their time on their feet working in a fast-paced and high-pressured environment, usually working long hours at night, weekends and holidays.

What kind of training is required to become a Chef?

Many trainees receive their training, education and experience at work under the supervision of senior kitchen staff where they will usually start as kitchen helpers, moving onto Line Chefs and Sous Chefs. Whilst working in kitchens, future Chefs learn how to prepare different types of food, learn how to keep their tools and work area clean and disinfected. From the beginning you should learn the basic knife skills and different types of cooking techniques. Chefs also learn to recognize the flavours in food and successfully combine those flavours in their dishes. Savouring and adjusting the seasoning of the dishes is an important skill for chefs.

Although not strictly necessary, many Chefs undergo training in a Culinary Cooking School. Culinary School programs can lead to a Certificate, Associate Degree, or Bachelor's Degree in culinary arts. Students in these programs learn many of the skills they need to become successful Chefs. Through practical learning and with the mentoring of experienced Chefs, students develop their palate, knife skills, and work skills with different kitchens and cooking techniques. Culinary programs can last for several months to four years to complete and usually include one or more internship or external experience in restaurants, hotels and catering services.

Even those who graduate from culinary arts or science programs often have experience working as Chefs before they start to move up the ladder.

Are there any certification or license requirements?

It is not necessary to have a certificate or degree to work as a Chef but having a Diploma issued from Chef Academy of London demonstrates that you have trained to an internationally recognised standard.

How long does it take to become a Chef?

It can take several years of training and experience before Chefs can start working as Sous Chefs in fine restaurants. Typically, Sous Chefs gain years of experience in their positions before becoming Executive Chefs or Chefs, but following one of our courses, you will become a good Chef very early on.

How much does a Chef earn?

The average annual payment for Chefs and Sous Chefs in the United States is up to $60,000. In the UK the average is up to £40,000.

What are the prospects of getting a job?

The Bureau of Labour Statistics projects that the employment of Chefs and Cooks will grow only 5 percent between 2012 and 2020, slower than the average growth of all occupations. Because few new jobs are expected to be created over the next few years, competition for work in high-level establishments must be strong, favouring candidates with more experience and training.

What are the long-term career prospects for Chefs?

With experience, most trainees can become Chefs or Executive Chefs. Some Chefs open their own restaurants or other types of food service establishments. Having a successful business requires another skill set, however Chefs who want to open their own restaurants must have knowledge in management, marketing and accounting.

How can I find a job as a Chef?

Many Chefs start in lower level jobs in kitchens and work their way up. Even if your goal is to become a Chef, taking a less prestigious position in a high-quality and well-established restaurant can be beneficial for your career due to the ability to learn from talented and experienced co-workers. As you gain experience, you should also create a network of contacts in the culinary community in your area, and this network should be a valuable resource when you are looking for your next job.

Not all Chefs work in restaurants, so you can try to expand your job search to hotel positions and other catering services. Becoming a Personal Chef can be an option too.

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Why choose a Kosher Professional Chef course

What is Kosher or Kashrut?

Before you enrol to the best Kosher Professional Chef Course in the world, you need to know something about it.

Let's start with the basics, the kashrut ( kosher noun ) are all laws regarding what is allowed to eat and not eat within Jewish law. It is very simple, in the Pentateuch many passages appear where you are told “of such food you will not eat” or “you will not cook such with such”. All those foods that the Torah prohibits we do not eat and call them taref (forbidden). In addition, there is another group of food and culinary practices that are not explicitly prohibited in the Torah, but are prohibited in the Talmud, or whose prohibition is deduced from certain passages, we do not eat those foods either and also fall into the category of taref .

As for everything we can eat, it is called kosher, which in Hebrew is an adjective that means "appropriate," that is, that it complies with all the thoracic and Talmudic laws.
The separate kashrut includes all the philosophy that has been developed around Jewish cooking practices. It is a way of connecting with God through the sanctification of food, dedicating to Him the joy of eating. For many Jews it is one of the most important practices they carry out in their daily lives, it helps them feel protected and surrounded by Gd and Judaism.
The rules that comprise kashrut are extensive and quite specific about; They are found in different Talmudic treaties. Understanding and fulfilling them fully requires several years of work and study, there are several rabbis who specialize in that subject and advise who has not been able to do so. However, the most basic and necessary laws to maintain a house with kosher food are simple and popular knowledge among Jews. Below we show you rules within four fundamental areas of kashrut that you can try to follow whenever you want. They are the following:

1. Pets allowed and animals prohibited
As for mammals and land animals, you can only eat ruminant animals (with more than one stomach) and have a split hoof, so that the animal is kosher it must have both characteristics, if one is missing it is taref. For example, the cow is kosher (it can be eaten) because it has a broken hoof and more than one stomach. While the pig is taref because although he has a broken hoof, he only has one stomach. In the case of the rabbit and the horse for example, although they are ruminants they do not have the broken hoof, so they cannot be eaten.
As for birds, almost all of them can be eaten with the exception of 21 species listed in the Talmud, which are very rare, wild and difficult to obtain as scavengers.
As for marine animals, you can only eat animals that have fins and scales , that is, almost all fish. However, you cannot eat shellfish, manta rays, or sharks, among other animals.

You can't eat amphibians, reptiles, worms, or insects (with the exception of four specific types of lobster).
Nor can you eat a product that derives from these animals. That is, you can not eat the milk of non-kosher animals , or their egg, or their fat, or anything that comes from them for more processes to the product. The only exception is the bee, of which if we can eat the honey it produces since it is assumed that the pollen with which it takes the flowers.

2. Kosher Meat
So that your food is kosher, not only does the animal that you choose to eat matter, but also the process that takes place in cooking, the preparation of it and obviously the death that the animal receives
. A cow for example, the animal itself is suitable for eating, but if the meat that is sold did not carry out a certain process, it is not kosher and cannot be eaten. The most common rules to know if the final product is kosher are the following:
a) You cannot eat all parts of animals, for example, the sciatic nerve, the fats that surround vital organs such as the liver and blood cannot be eaten.
b) You cannot eat the part of a live animal.
In some countries of the East, such as China, Taiwan and Japan it is very common to eat live animals. In other countries it is customary to take a leg off the animal and leave it alive so that it can produce other products, which the animal produces in its daily life, such as milk for example. That is completely prohibited for Torah. Before eating any meat you have to make sure that the animal from which you are eating its meat has been killed before that meat was taken.
c) The animal from which you take the meat cannot be sick. Before killing the animal you should check 18 vital points that are indicative of its health.
d) You must kill him with justice and mercy causing him as little pain as possible. This is the most famous premise of kosher meat in almost the entire world.
For the meat to be kosher the cow must be made shejita at the time of killing her. This is a cut in the throat that prevents your suffering. It should be done by a person who has studied and prepared for it, which we call shojet. The knives that are used are properly sharpened so that the cut is fast and clean and does not unnecessarily hurt the animal. It is forbidden to cause suffering at the time of his death and before starting, the shojet must make the blessings due, so that the act is sacred and really the life of the cow is elevated through its sacrifice. It is also he who checks the vital signs of the cow and who separates the parts that cannot be eaten.

3. You cannot mix milk and meat
If you enter a house or a restaurant attended by Orthodox Jews you probably notice that there are two sponges, two dishes of different colors, cabinets with colored marks or signs that say “milk”, “meat” or “parvé” what does this mean ? That we don't mix milk and meat in the food.
This is a very strong ban on Torah, so it is carried out in the strictest way. So that your food is kosher, no milk derivative can touch the meat you eat and vice versa. That is, you cannot eat a cheeseburger, a yogurt sauce with chicken, or an onion soup with consommé and a piece of parmesan. It does not matter that the final product has a very small amount of either, however tiny it may be, you cannot eat it with the other.
This applies equally to kitchen utensils and food. The dishes, the pots, the cutlery we use absorb the ingredients and the taste of the food we handle with them. Therefore, if a dish was used to eat meat or chicken you cannot use it again to eat dairy products if it has not carried out a kasherization process. That is the reason why observant families have two to three dishes and various sets of utensils, separated with colors and cabinets.

4. What is Parve?
Parve are all ingredients that are not derived from either milk or meat
. That is vegetables, fruits, fish, cereals, eggs, among others. The wonder of these foods is that they can be combined with meat or milk as the person prefers, so they are extremely useful.
Surely if you enter a store of kosher products you will find signs that say “chicken consommé parve” or “milk parve”, what is not a contradiction? Completely, it is a way to call products that have that flavor, but do not have a pinch of meat or milk in total, such as soy meat, for example. "Parvé milk" is usually made with almond or oatmeal and the "chicken parve consommé" of vegetables and salts that produce a similar flavor.

5. The kosher should not be contaminated from the Taref
Just as meat should not be mixed with milk so that it is appropriate to eat it, kosher food should not be mixed with food that is not kosher , because that makes it taref (not kosher), just like utensils.

6. Enjoy it
The most important of all the rules is that you learn to know yourself through them and that they help you find God. What kosher is a tremendous opportunity to learn from the strength, self - control and challenge. Finally, you know how far you want to take it and how to relate to this concept. There are many more things that can be said about him and have been said, that you can explore. We really hope this information works for you.

 

 

Characteristics of the best cooking academy in the world

Are you passionate about gastronomy?
Do you want to study haute cuisine?

Great, then you will love becoming a professional chef because all chef’s love what they do and love food too. However, you need to make sure you choose the right place to study the course.

Here we will emphases, how to choose the best cooking academy in the world.

1. The Academy - It is true that the academy does not make the student but there are factors that may influence your study, and how you perform.

2. The Teaching Experience - This element of the training is of utmost importance as ‘you become what you learn’. A prestigious and experienced chef will be able to convey his skills and culinary secrets. At the same time, teach you how to lead so that you can manage a kitchen but also the entire team.

‘A good mentor will leave you with lifelong lessons”.

3. Culinary Techniques - The best cooking academy will teach you both local and international culinary techniques so that you have a solid background and, in the future, create or influence different cuisines.

4. Broaden Your Mind - The best cooking academy will care about your training and will aim to develop your culinary skills by teaching you dishes from other parts of the world so that you can create and experiment the fusion of various dishes.

5. Open Doors - The best cooking academy teachers will give you the right tools to navigate around the kitchen and explore by yourself. If your course is in the English language which is widely communicated around the world you will find it will open doors to the rest of the world. A good academy will have the option of the course taken in the English language since gastronomy is an international career par excellence.

6. Curriculum Mesh – The best cooking academy will not only teach you about gastronomy but techniques used in the academy and also current techniques used around. A good academy will also teach you courses that will complement you and result in you becoming a full trained professional chef. Having said that other skills that you may benefit from are administration, personal marketing, event organisation, technology and development of interpersonal skills.

7. Correctly Implemented - The best cooking academy classrooms must be properly implemented with the necessary learning materials so that their students can benefit from the teachings. These materials can be tools to collaborate in learning such as ovens and blast chillers. The latest technology and the best quality even better.

8. Great Opportunities - The best cooking academy teachers will give you wings to explore and encourage development. A good academy will offer you the best opportunities from the very beginning. They will give you the opportunity to study the international ways and may organise internship trips. Furthermore, they will have partnerships with the best restaurants and hotels in order to give you the best training and give you the opportunity to learn from the best.

9. Prestige & Experience – The best cooking academy must have several years of experience because you want to learn from experienced teachers. At the beginning you may not notice this but when you are looking for employment you will notice that the best cooking academy students are taken up quickly and you will get recommendations.

In other words, you need to learn from the best cooking academy in the world with the best cooking academy teachers. The academy and teachers will give you the tools to develop but also the prestige and experience.

Do you want to become a chef?
Are you looking for the best cooking academy in the world?
Then contact us.

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How to become the best chef in the world with Chef Academy?

Do you enjoy cooking? Do you love spending time in the kitchen and cooking for others? Then, look no further because our courses will give you the skills and the training to kick start your career. Furthermore, our diploma issued by ASIC (Accreditation Service for International Colleges) will open doors to restaurants you would normally not have access to for training and job vacancies.

One point we need to clarify that a chef’s job is not as glamourized, as portraited on the television. In fact, a chef works very hard, long works and in simple words ‘his work, is his home’ but it is a rewarding job.

You also, need to bear that knowing how to cook is not enough, you need to be passionate and dedicated in order pursue this as a career. In order to pursue a career, technical skills must be acquired, in dept knowledge of raw materials, able to deal with and handle stress, love and respect raw materials and kitchen tools, happy to roll up your sleeves, reliable, determined to succeed, happy to listen to senior colleagues with the aim to learn and eager to discover.

The other thing that will help, the wiliness to purchase cook books or watch various media platform related to chefs in order to experiment in your own time and space at home. These programmes may increase your awareness of raw materials and also, the different techniques used by various chefs.

One of the best ways to gain experience is to work in a professional kitchen, in order to understand the importance of your role in the kitchen. You will understand, how much you are required to sacrifice and why you need to work as a team member. In order to achieve in this role, you will need to set goals and aim to achieve them, never be satisfied with the skills acquired but willing to learn and be prepared to receive criticism, especially at the beginning as this period will either make or break you and for sure decide whether this is really for you.

The roles in a kitchen setting

A professional kitchen may have an Executive Chef, Head Chef, Sous Chef, Chef de Partie, Commis Chef, Kitchen Porter and Dishwasher. They each have a role to play in a professional kitchen but they work together in order to achieve their daily task of preparation, plating, serving, cooking or cleaning. Having said that the Executive Chef or Head Chef is in charge of the kitchen.

A chef must have full knowledge of the menu within the professional kitchen and able to create all the dishes unless you are allocated within one section during the shift or the employment but majority of kitchens will expect you to be able to run each section.

How much does a chef earn?

To begin with the salary may be lower than expected but a chef position is one of the most sought-after roles, hence the salary will increase with experience, location and restaurant employed by. The media may have played a part in the increase of this industry as new restaurants keep opening up and in turn new chefs cropping up. These days a restaurant or its food, if it’s worth taking about on the media platform, then the chef working within that restaurant is already considered an icon.

The demand of increase maybe also contributed by the constant turnover due to growth and the search for the next Gordon Ramsay.

To begin with a chef’s salary may vary in the region of £2,000-£4,000 a month depending on experience and training. The figures are different for chefs who are considered in the icon category, they are earning astronomical amount.

The best academy recommends the following courses:

Chef Academy London makes it possible for you to acquire a job within a professional kitchen after completing a 3- or 6-month courses. Depending on the course you choose to do, the diploma issued will be either for a Professional Chef Course or Advanced Chef Course. You will obtain this diploma once you have completed your classroom training, restaurant training and passed your test.

Having said that you will need to bear that the first role within the kitchen may be a junior position, however with time, knowledge and skills you may be able to obtain your dream role but it is a long journey.

Chef Academy London can schedule your restaurant training according to your day to day life. We understand some people may have time restrictions, financial obligations, family commitments or due to age unable to commit full time so we give you the ‘right to choose’.

Chef Academy London runs various courses, browse the link below. The Professional Chef Course, you are fully trained in a professional kitchen. The Advanced Chef Course, you are fully trained in a professional and Michelin kitchen.

Our course programmes are available online and you can also request a copy via email.

We are happy to recommend courses according to your needs, your desire and career prospects.

If you want to become the best chef in UK, contact us, we will be ready to answer all your questions

Hospitality courses in London

The hospitality turns out to be a basic factor in the satisfaction of the tourist customer, in short, it is to do business serving the best possible to your guest.

The term hospitality comes from the Romans deriving from the Latin "hopitium" and defining itself as the virtue that is exercised by giving due assistance to the needs or the good reception and reception that is made to foreigners or visitors.

The hospitality process begins from the decision to make a trip until the tourist returns to their habitual residence, in this process a series of entities are involved that will provide the visitor with all the necessary services to make their stay an experience unforgettable.

People have always traveled for different reasons; for commerce, religion, family issues, immigration, education ... so he has needed to stay in other parts of the world. The first hotels were private houses open to the public, in fact some were sold with a bad reputation without any hint of hospitality, today it is not known with certainty what was the first place to offer hospitality as a form of service.

Nowadays, the tendency to provide experiences to consumers is growing , mainly in the services sector, and therefore in the hotel sector. The fact that customers seek new experiences has prompted hotels to create new concepts of services and new products, highlighting the stimuli that these products can produce in their consumption.

Features that show hospitality within a Hotel Project

Making a client feel good is not only the responsibility of a person, but of a whole team. Therefore, aspects related to good treatment, courtesy and respect must be taken into account since the messages are addressed to human beings, so this will raise our reputation and increase the flow of customers. There are words that reflect hospitality at any stage of the tourism process, some of them are:

Kindness: Look into the eyes of our client, welcome words and have details in a timely manner.

Friendship: We must consider the client as a friend whom we value, respect and give the best of ourselves.

Personalized and individualized attention: Each client requires different needs, so we must always be there to offer help, and provide it with professionalism and kindness.

Efficiency and efficiency: Availability and speed to solve problems.

Loyalty and familiarity: Being faithful to customers as they place trust in us, making them feel at home.

Patience: Solve customer doubts without overwhelming and maintaining patience.

Professionalism: Training, attitude and know-how before clients.

Gratitude: Thank you for choosing us, and be grateful before, during and after your stay.

Security: Inspire security from the first moment to our clients, tranquility and trust.

Receptivity: Always a good disposition for customer requests or suggestions.

Sympathy: Express words that reflect an affectionate and respectful attitude, along with cordiality using a jovial tone that makes communication easier.

Therefore, in order to be able to talk about a good hotel project, it is necessary to talk about hospitality in a broad sense, with the intention of guaranteeing and ensuring that guests experience a satisfactory feeling during their stay, thus increasing the accommodation offer of people of various origins, regardless of their social status. Not only is it enough to offer the basic needs, but it is also good to customize the service in a way that marks them forever and serves as an incentive to return on another occasion.

We start from the basis that hospitality applies to both customers and employees, thus creating a motivation to remain faithful to the work and the hotel's own reputation. The prosperity and success of a hotel project depends on individual goodwill, positive influence within the team, its ethics, and tolerance for all people.

In short, hospitality speaks more than the structure and popularity of a hotel, so it is important to consider hospitality in an integral way and beyond pure accommodation, where you can offer maximum attention to customers in duty as host s.

If you want to become a director of a hotel, you can choose our Hospitality Management and Advanced Food Science course, that is a course of 600 hours aiming to give to the students all the skills and knowledge required to successfully and efficiently manage a kitchen.

Would you like to book an hospitality course? Contact us, we will be ready to answer all your questions

Hospitality Management and Advanced Food Science Course

What is the Hospitality Management and Advanced Food Science Course course about?

We feel sometimes it’s the simple words that explain things better so here goes our informal approach of breaking down the title and explaining each aspect.

Hospitality

The term hospitality means “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guest, visitors or strangers”.

The hospitality process in a restaurant begins from the moment you walk through the door as this is a cooking course, we will elaborate on that aspect. The hospitality provided by the chefs may not be visible but what they produce is.

The aim of hospitality in this instance is to provide food that is exceptional, food that you never forget the experience and, as a result, you return.

Management

The term management means “the process of dealing with or controlling things or people”.

A restaurant is managed from all aspects whether its front of house (restaurant floor) or back of house (kitchen).

In this course, we will cover the back of house (kitchen) because chefs have a responsibility of managing costs within the kitchen. We will only cover the food costs.

Advanced Food Science

The term advanced food science, also known as molecular gastronomy means “an approach to cooking in which a chef’s knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology allows him or her to experiment with unusual flavour combinations and cooking techniques”. In other words, you learn to use scientific equipment or techniques to create extraordinary dishes.
We are different to other schools in the sense that we don’t offer classroom style teaching, we believe and it has been proven that live training in a kitchen is the best way to learn, thus this course is spilt in three aspects:

School training

You will receive 2 weeks fine dining training and also, 2 weeks Michelin training.

We are the best cooking academy in London so the training you will receive in the school will prepare you to enter a restaurant kitchen.

Live training

The first training will be conducted in a fine dining restaurant which will be allocated according to your location/preference of cuisine but subject to availability of restaurant. In a fine dining restaurant, you will need to complete 200 hours which can be spread over 6-8 weeks depending on your commitments.

The second training will be conducted in a Michelin restaurant which will be allocated according to your location/preference of cuisine but subject to availability of restaurant. In a Michelin restaurant, you will need to complete 200 hours which can be spread over 6-8 weeks depending on your commitments.

Whilst training in the restaurant you will get the opportunity to work in some of the best restaurants London city has to offer.

Most importantly you get the opportunity work along with some of the best chefs.

“As I’ve always said, cooking is a philosophy it’s not a recipe – unless it’s a pastry and then it’s chemistry – so therefore it’s not just teaching them how to cook, it’s sharing philosophy and your vision with them. It’s as simple as that. A good chef is a pied piper, they follow him”. Quote by Marco Pierre White

Management training

This training is carried out in the best culinary academy school and covering food costings.

In simple words, the best culinary academy in London aims to teach and give you the skills to create gastronomical food, manage the costs in the kitchen and also, learn how modern cooking apply advanced scientific techniques to food preparation.

What you learn from this course, that the chef is not just responsible for creating beautiful food but also, managing his or her kitchen. This course is for anyone think of running his or her own business, working towards a senior position in the kitchen, or already in a business but it’s not doing so well and want to improve things or you have never done this before and want to learn all aspects.

How to choose the best cooking academy for you?

Do you want to become a chef? But confused how to go about it or what to do.

Well help is here, we will guide you step by step, what to look out for and what to avoid.

Most cooking academies are privately funded so you need to consider affordability, the fees are in the thousands but due to number of academies you can find one to suit your budget.

Then you need to consider location, within UK or outside. If English is not your first language then you many need to consider a gastronomic course in a different language or region.

When choosing the course, consider what cuisine do you want to work with? Will the course, get you into the restaurant you want to work in? If you are planning to work in an Italian restaurant, then you should consider to do a course related to Italian food. Having said that, if you don’t have any skills whatsoever then you may need to consider do a course that will give you skills such as a Professional Chef Course. To do this course you can enquire at Chef Academy London. 

Please check the content of the program because some classes are classroom based, practical or both combined. Classroom based classes have limitations as you could spend long periods listening or writing and, as a result occasionally repeating context. Practical class benefits all as the teacher is interacting with each student, you learn how to cook and one way to explore the raw material.

Please do not sign up on the course without booking an appointment with the academy team. In this meeting you can ask any questions, clarify the content of the course, and book a visit to the cooking academy.

Are you searching for the best cooking academy?

Why is it important to book a visit to the cooking academy?

  • To make sure you have chosen the right academy.
  • To make sure the cooking academy looks like what it has been described in the brochure or the website.
  • See the kitchen layout.
  • The content described in the course booklet is setup and available in the classroom.
  • Some academies have a single cooking area which is reserved for the teacher and this in turn means you are a spectator student and the knowledge you receive is only demonstrative, is this the case? These kinds of classes are similar to those that are setup on a television program.
  • The area allocated for each student; do you have sufficient space? If you are sharing, do you have space to move around without bumping into each other?
  • Health and Safety.

Whilst researching, you may also consider to look up the academy online. The internet is inundated with all kinds of information about academies whether reviews, pictures, new offers etc on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The information available is useful as these days the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ are available for all to read and then decide. But we would say, read but don’t make any judgements until you have seen it for yourselves as bad news travels fast.

We feel you should be ready to book that course but if you are still ensure, then why not get in touch with our team at Chef Academy London via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or why not visit us

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Beginners guide to best cooking courses

These days anything related to gastronomy has become omnipresent because there isn’t a television network without its own version of a cookery programme. These programmes range from amateurs up to professional level and the aim of these programmes is to promote gastronomy and at the same time to produce the next Gordon Ramsay.

The advantage of these programmes that the industry that was once a hidden secret is open to all. However, now everybody thinks they can cook and perhaps that’s why they say ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’.

This in turn has meant that they are many cooking schools opening up and the internet inundated with cookery programmes, courses, famous chefs and food pictures along with recipes.

Each cooking school offers various lengths of courses whether its couple of hours up to yearly courses depending on the demand. Depending on the school your training might be carried out in classroom, restaurant or shop. Furthermore, if you have purchased a course overseas then you get to explore the culture and food of that region.

With so much choice sometimes, it can be overwhelming but we feel that you should choose our school for the following reasons:

Why choose Chef Academy London?

Chef Academy London was founded in Italy, we are a prestigious school and internationally recognised. Also, our school is internationally recognised by ASIC (Accreditation Service for International Colleges).

When it comes to choosing a course if you are looking for a Michelin star level training, we are the only school offering. Our courses range from professional up to Michelin level.

You have the option from day courses up to six months depending on what you aim to get out of it whether it’s a career or desire to whisk gourmet meals at home.

We run courses throughout the year which means you can join us when it suits you. Furthermore, we schedule your live training according to your day to day life because ‘we believe you don’t need to change your lifestyle just because you are learning’.

Chef Academy London is a great place for learning because our students tell us they enjoy the warmth and friendly atmosphere. Furthermore, our students return and also, recommend us.

Chef Academy London students learn the art of cooking at a professional level in order to gain experience in this field. We offer bespoke and practical courses; these courses teach you the cooking techniques and also at the same time you get to experience the life of a chef in a restaurant.

Chef Academy students in their live training are given the opportunity to train alongside some of the best chefs London city has to offer whether it’s fine dining or Michelin level.

As these courses are classroom and restaurant based, once you complete your training you will have the practical and theoretical skills to kick start a career in this industry.

We believe we are one of the best cooking school around, whether it comes to training, flexibility and our competitive rates.

Chef Academy offers the best cooking courses, see the list below:

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How to get a star in the Michelin Guide

A true Saint Graal for the chefs, the first star in the Michelin Guide rewards years of service behind the stove, know-how in the art of the table but also in the art of entertaining. Thus, every year since 1900, anonymous inspectors travel more than 20,000 kilometers across UK, staying in 160 hotels and tasting nearly 250 meals in search of the restaurants of tomorrow. This year, 42 restaurants received their first star, up from 37 last year.

How to get a star in the Michelin Guide

The attribution of the stars

To attract the attention of these mysterious inspectors, the restaurant must meet five criteria of appreciation, identical in the 24 countries where the Michelin Guide is present. Each restaurant is noted on the quality of products, the mastery of cooking and flavors, the personality of the chef in his dishes and cuisine, the value for money and finally, the consistency of the service over time. If the inspector judges that his dining experience meets all of these criteria, he will then defend the restaurant in question during so-called " star sessions", a meeting that brings together the director of the guide and forty inspectors who crisscross UK and Europe throughout the year. In this exchange, members discuss the returns of inspectors and decide together the star ratings: a star is a very good cuisine, two stars with excellent cuisine worth a detour and three stars with outstanding cuisine that is worth the trip. These macaroons, awarded since 1926, literally change give greater visibility and a seal of quality, few are those privileged since the starred restaurants represent only 10% of the selection of the famous Red Guide.

The 2016 winners

The Michelin Guide 2016 has a total of 600 starred restaurants (compared to 609 in 2015) out of the 4,347 establishments that were scrutinized this year by Red Guide inspectors. Among them, 42 tables have won their very first star, among which are young chefs, like Angelo Ferrigno from La Maison des Cariatides in Dijon, the youngest of the selection at 23, or Jean-Baptiste Lavergne -Morazzani, 24-year-old chef at La Table du 11, Versailles.

In Île-de-France, six new restaurants received their first macaroon: Saturn (Paris 2nd), Nakatani (Paris 7th), Lucas Carton (Paris 8th), Snow of summer (Paris 15th), Hexagone (Paris 16th) and Pages (Paris 16th). On the side of the old Parisian addresses, Hélène Darroze (Paris 6th), The Violin of Ingres (Paris 7th), The Fifteenth of Cyril Lignac (Paris 15th), The Jules Verne on the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower (Paris 7th) or The Fables de la Fontaine (Paris 7th) - headed by Julia Sedefdjian, who, at 21, becomes the youngest starred chef in France - keep their first star. Finally, note that on the Island of Beauty, the table I Salti in Belgodère is the only starred restaurant in Corsica this year.

Michelin Guide: a new distinction in 2016

This year, the Bible of high gastronomy has a new look. Indeed, a new distinction has appeared in the famous guide: it is " The plate ", which rewards all the restaurants present in the 2016 version of the Guide. This distinction meets the following criteria: " Quality of products and chef's hand: a good meal simply"and does not take into account the stars and the Bib Gourmand (awarded to restaurants offering a full menu for up to 32 euros in the province and 36 euros in Paris). The great revolution this year remains nevertheless the appearance of photos of These establishments will be listed for the first time in the red Bible, and the restaurants will also be sorted, according to their number of stars, starting with the three stars. their youthfulness, with an inverted presentation: the type of cuisine tables will go before the addresses of establishments to value the meal more than the night.What to find more in this guide well provided.

Now you know How to get a star in the Michelin Guide, do your best if you want to have one.

How to get a Michelin star

The Michelin Guide was created in the early 20th century and is one of the oldest and most famous gastronomic guides in the world. Each year it awards "Michelin stars" that reward the best establishments for any style of cuisine combined.

Be spotted
The first step in getting a Michelin star is to be spotted by the guide. How could the guide's team think of including you in the book if you are unknown to them?

To be recognised it is essential that a large amount of people speak about your Restaurant.

The best way to achieve this would be:

-Word of mouth from your guests.

- Articles in blogs.

- Positive comments from food and drink critics.

-Written reviews of your Restaurant

Inspector visits
Once the Michelin guide is aware of your existence, inspectors are sent to your restaurant. These professionals working for Michelin carry out anonymous visits to restaurant owners in order to evaluate the quality of their cuisine and their service in all objectivity.

Most of the Michelin inspectors come from the hotel and restaurant industry. Their greatest qualities are that they have a very good palate and are incorruptible.

How to get a Michelin star

Criteria
During these anonymous visits, they will judge your dishes according to the following five criteria:

- The quality of the products. This criterion takes into account the respect of hygiene and the authenticity of the dish served.

- Creativity. The personality and originality of the kitchen are tested to judge the particularity of the establishment.

- The mastery of cooking and flavours, to prove the chef's culinary skills.

- The quality / price ratio for the more commercial side of the evaluation.

- The consistency of the dishes, to ensure the constant quality of the restaurant's cuisine.

Assigning a star
Decisions are made during the "star sessions", which bring together the director of the Michelin guide and all of the inspectors. It is very important to remember that the decision to award stars in the Michelin guide is a collegiate decision. This is only done once all the inspectors who have visited an establishment have given their opinion and they are in agreement. They decide whether or not the restaurant deserves a star.

The repercussions
Knowing the reputation and strong sales of the book worldwide, it is wise to think that the Michelin Guide is very influential. That's why getting a Michelin star means a significant increase in the customer base of your restaurant. But it can also mean more pressure because the customer will expect a service at the height of this star.

Now you know How to get a Michelin star, keep trying your best until you achieve one.

How to win a Michelin star?

The Michelin guide makes and breaks the reputations of restaurants. But on what criterion and with what method?

Since 1904, the ritual is immutable: the Michelin guide awards its famous stars every winter to the greatest chefs. The "red guide" is a reference in France, but also in New York, England, Germany or Japan. When the verdict falls in February, it is always accompanied by lot of joys, disappointments and small (or big) polemics. For chefs, obtaining a michelin star is a very important thing. The 503 "one star" restaurants in France and the Principality of Monaco drain a local clientele that until now has not crossed the threshold of their door. When an establishment picks up a second macaroon (there are 80 in France), it becomes the goal of a trip, the subject of a weekend, the opportunity to afford an exceptional moment. The 26 three-star restaurants have immediate international renown and are guaranteed to fill their rooms almost at any price ...

How to win a Michelin star?

Who are the Michelin inspectors?
In the opinion of professionals, it is almost impossible to spot them. However, they are the ones who judge the restaurants and select the rare pearls that will have their head in the stars ... The inspectors of the Michelin guide go anonymously in the establishments to gauge the places and the proposed cuisine. Mostly from the hotel and restaurant sector, there are many to visit the institutions so that their judgment is as objective as possible.

What are their criteria?
First, Michelin inspectors are very attentive to the quality, freshness and authenticity of the products. Of course, the respect of hygiene is also taken into account. Then, they focus on distinguishing dishes with originality. The way vegetables, meats and fish are cooked is scrutinized. They seek above all the audacity and creativity of a dish or the personality of a kitchen. The decoration of the room, the comfort, the service and the clarity of the menu (are the advertised dishes understandable?) Are also taken into account. The price-quality ratio is also studied, as is the coherence of the menus and the complementarity between the dishes.

How do they render their verdicts?
Regularly, inspectors and directors of the Michelin guide find themselves in "star sessions". There, they confront their notes and their opinions in order to agree on a common verdict. In case of doubt or conflicting opinions, a third party will visit the restaurant for the last time to refine the final score and report. The lucky ones receive a few days before the publication of the "red guide" a telephone call announcing good (or bad) news. What to switch many careers!

How to book with ease?
This is not a scoop: to book a starred restaurant, you must be patient. Yet, a little tip can save you a lot of time! American Express offers holders of the Platinum Card to reserve a table for the evening. This service, Fine Dining, works equally well for renowned restaurants in Paris as well as for the most prestigious establishments in the provinces and abroad. To get a table the same evening, just call before 10 am the concierge of AmEx and the biggest tables will have no secret for you!

Now you know How to win a Michelin star, do your best if you want to have one.

How Michelin stars are awarded

How do you get the Michelin stars? What are the requirements? Who decides? A guide like the red one, with so much importance and repercussion, scrupulously takes care of the concession of its symbol, the stars, and to obtain one is not easy.

If there are some gastronomic awards especially appreciated by the critics, the public and the winners themselves, those are undoubtedly the stars of the most popular gastronomic guide, the stars of the Michelin guide. Since they were used in the publication as synonymous with the quality of the kitchen of a restaurant back in 1926, five years later the current classification system of one, two and three stars has adopted, the emblem of the red guide has not ceased to be an object of desire.

Because this universal gastronomic symbol is part responsible for the success or failure of many gastronomic projects. Obtain one, two, and we no longer speak of three stars, it means becoming a pole of attraction, assuring the clientele that a kitchen of proven quality is offered, ensuring that the media will speak of one. In the end, the Michelin stars are the closest thing that exists to an international classification of restaurants.

And once briefly reviewed the background and the importance of these badges, it is natural that a doubt arises ... how are Michelin stars awarded?

This is how it works
The red guide awards its Michelin stars according to the evaluations made by independent professional inspectors who visit restaurants around the world without ever revealing their identity.

The inspectors
The different teams available to the company are mainly constituted by personnel trained in catering schools or with experience in the sector for at least five years who, before reaching the status of inspector, must pass a training period lasting six months.

This instruction, in which you will learn everything that a plate must have so that the restaurant that serves it deserves one, two or three stars, will end if everything goes well with the allocation of a country. In the European case, a new inspector will be waiting around 30,000 kilometers to travel and about 250 visits to restaurants to perform.

In these visits, anonymous as we said at the beginning, the inspector, like any other client, will make the appropriate reservation, eat as one more and pay his invoice in full. That complete anonymity is what ensures that Michelin professionals do not receive any kind of pressure or better service and access the dishes as they are served on a regular basis.

The criteria for obtaining stars
And is that the stars only judge the quality of the kitchen of the restaurants, as they say the people responsible for the guide, "the stars are on the plate and only on the plate . " Neither decoration, nor service, nor level of comfort, nor environment of the premises are taken into account when granting them.

And what is taken into account to value a dish? Basically, as explained by Michelin, five fundamental criteria: the selection of products, creativity, mastery of the cooking point and flavors, the quality-price ratio and regularity.

With all these rules taken into account, the inspectors, the editor of the publication and the director of the Michelin guide meet twice a year to decide, collegially, the coveted stars. In these meetings the reports of each one of the inspectors are evaluated, they are submitted to debate and, finally, an agreement is reached by consensus on the new stars that must be granted, those that must be maintained and those that must be withdrawn.

Now that you know how Michelin stars are awarded, be careful, your restaurant could be one of the next to have a visit from an inspector.

How to get the Michelin star?

Since 1926 the prestigious Michelin Guide gives this awards to the best restaurants with its famous "Michelin Stars", the most important prize for all the world's chefs. The stars are a symbol of gastronomic world recognition and they can depend on the success or failure of a restaurant, as they attract a lot of customers, give prestige and raise prices.

Each restaurant can obtain from one to three stars, and the guide itself designate them as follows:

1 star * = very good kitchen

2 stars ** = excellent cuisine, it's worth deviating

3 stars *** = exceptional cuisine, table that justifies the trip

In this article we explain how to get the Michelin star.

To grant them, the guide has 85 inspectors around the world. The inspectors are professionals who have trained in catering schools and have a minimum professional experience in the sector, having worked in this field for a time that goes from 5 to 10 years. Later they are trained by the organization itself, being accompanied by another experienced inspector during the 6 months that the training lasts. In this period they will learn the different criteria to attribute the stars, the comfort categories and to evaluate other services and qualities.

Each year, an inspector travels more than 30,000 kilometers to visit an average of 800 establishments, including 250 meals in restaurants and around 150 nights in hotels. They remain anonymous and pay all bills to ensure that owners of restaurants and hotels can not influence their judgments and the more than 1100 reports they produce annually after visiting each establishment. They are inflexible and incorruptible.

Basically what the inspector values ​​when granting a star is the quality of the product, the mastery of the cooking point, the flavors, the regularity, the quality / price ratio and the creativity of the chef. If there is harmony in all that, they grant the star. According to the guide: "The stars correspond to what is on the plate and are not given in terms of comfort and decoration". For comfort, the guide designates and classifies restaurants with cutlery and hotels with pavilions.

Before a restaurant receives its first star it is visited four times by the inspectors. If they choose or have 2 stars they receive ten visits. If the restaurant chooses or has 3 stars the thing gets more difficult, since apart from the visits of the English inspectors are also visited by French inspectors, and if they are not all agree to grant the third star, it is not granted.

It must be pointed out that the stars are always received by the restaurant and not by the chef. If a restaurant changes its chef, it receives more visits and more exhaustive controls to verify that it maintains the same quality. If you do not keep it you can lose one, two or even the three stars.

At the end of everything. How to get the Michelin star? It is not easy.

This is happening


Sustainability, green market, fairtrade, hyper-local, what are we talking about? It seems like we are working so hard to merely go back to the basics.
“Food Security can be defined as a condition where all people, at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” according to the World Food Security during the World Food Summit Plan of Action in Rome in 1996. Nowadays, its definition has not been changed yet and we see more and more self-sufficiency initiatives from professionals and individuals.


Auto-production is the new motto! Some professional chefs and restaurants have been getting into the new trend in order to get independence from the big food industry to ensure fresh and quality products are available on a daily basis.
Hyper-local trend have existed for many years and restaurant owners have learnt how to appreciate by stocking up from neighbouring kitchen gardens. But it has been a fact that just big restaurants can benefit from those advantages. Smaller business are being discriminated... That was true until now!
Nowadays we see several restaurants which chose to face this issue and grow their own vegetables garden at the very heart of the restaurant. This is visible worldwide like in France with Bloempot, Florent Layden's restaurant, at De Kas restaurant, in Amsterdam and close to London, in Richmond with the Petersham Nurseries restaurant.
This new green trend, plus urban vertical agriculture democratisation is a solution different from over-production and ensure truth to professional chefs about traceability, nature and quality of the products used in recipes.


There is no good recipe without good products. Here at Chef Academy we teach our students in professional cooking programmes, how important it is to pick up the right ingredients to realize a recipe with success.
Don't hesitate to contact us for any enquiry about our professional cooking classes.

Tiramisu please

This is a call for all coffee lovers! Until Sunday the 8th November, you can discover the London coffee festival. Created for and by coffee lovers, this is a new immersive coffee experience that takes its visitors in a multi-sensory journey through five themed galleries: Coffee origins, Roasting and cupping, Brewing, Coffee and finally food pairing and Understanding taste.

Today at Chef Academy of London, we want to talk about the most famous coffee dessert around the world: Tiramisu!

It is not necessary to say that the history of tiramisu is disputed. Regions are merely fighting to get the acknowledgement of having created this succulent dessert. Never the less, there are two predominant legends, between Tuscany and Veneto.

The first part of the story talks about the city Siena in Tuscany, back to the 17th century. For the pleasure of the famous Duke Cosimo III de Medici, an important vain and gourmet figure of the time, pastry chefs had created what they originally called “The Soup of the Duke”, with sugar, eggs, sponge fingers, coffee and cocoa. The mascarpone and the liquor have been added to the recipe later on.

The Duke loved the recipe and carried it with him to Firenze where intellectuals and artists of his court were fond of the soup! The recipe has been spread all over Italy and was known as an aphrodisiac. Tiramisu literally means “Pull me on” and was eaten before any romantic encounter.

The first time we heard the term “tiramisu” was in the late 60's of the previous century. A pastry chef known as “Loly”, Roberto Linguanotto, he is supposed to be the creator of the tiramisu from Veneto. This man had worked in Germany where they used to give children some egg yolk with sugar (called sbatudin). Loly aimed to respect this tradition and tried to create a dessert to match this old flavour.

The gastronomic expert Giuseppe Maffioli wrote in 1981 in the magazine “Vin Veneto: rivista trimestrale di vino, grappa, gastronomia e varia umanità del Veneto (Veneto wine: three-month magazine about wine, grappa, gastronomy and mankind in Veneto) that the Tiramisu has been invented in the restaurant “Alle Bicchiere” in Trevise. That was the first time we saw the appearance of tiramisu in a public and official publication.

Italian common heritage, every family has their own tiramisu recipe. The secret is passed down from generation to generation and changed with suggestions from beloved friends or according to personal taste.

Pastry is an art... If you have a passion for pastry take a look at our professional pastry programs here at Chef Academy of London and you too may take our professional pastry courses to become maybe the next best pastry chef and create your own desserts.

Keep your head on your shoulders

Is molecular science the future cuisine of choice? We have noticed lately this new trend called “molecular gastronomy”. We can see unusual and surprising food shapes, which play with and confuse our brains. A new invention recently appeared fooling our intellect and putting in question our perception of what we are drinking.

We first saw the expression “molecular gastronomy” in 1988 with the physician Nicholas Kurtis and the French chemist Hervé This. The expression itself was strongly refused when it first appeared by some chefs who associated themselves with it preferred to call it “modern cuisine”, “culinary physics”, or “experimental cuisine”.

The molecular gastronomy is a food science sub discipline implicating physic and chemical reactions food in the cooking process. Food science has been developed with food production industrialization and has led to artistic and social consequences through technical methods. “The discipline of molecular gastronomy could change the way we eat” according to the chemist Hervé This. Indeed, it could be possible in the way that we take advantage of chemical reactions during the cooking process and play with the interpretation on our brain has on what we use to see in our plates! In fact, because of our alimentary habits, our digestive mechanism is disrupted by these innovations. This is what plays with this new invention “The Right Cup”. Thanks to the aromas incorporated in the material used for the cup fabrication, we feel like we are having a sweet drink while we are just drinking water. Our brain is fooled and our habits turned upside down. However, this is a good alternative for people who need lots of sweet and don't drink enough water.

Always in search of progress, this is also what we are developing at our culinary school here at Chef Academy of London. Synonym for future and progress, we offer an Advanced Food Science programme for anyone who aim to improve food production methods. Please have a look to our culinary courses and don't hesitate to contact us for any information.

Some food beneficial for your eyes !

A doctor from Loyola university in Chicago in United States has studied food benefits on our eyes health. Here in London at our culinary school Chef Academy, we are always curious about world food research. Indeed, as our other organs do, our eyes have their favourite food, and not only from a visual point of view, but also for their nutritional benefits.


Eating a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables makes a colourful plate, especially with greens and blues , according to James McDonnell, pediatric ophthalmologist from Health System in Loyola university. Here is the list he's made for a good eyes health.
Wild seaweed and salmon are rich in astaxathin, a super-nutrient which protects eyes from developing cataracts, macular degeneration, and blindness.
Other fish such as tuna, sardines or herring prevent against eye dryness thanks to their high omega 3 rate. Eating fish once a week reduce macular degeneration. They also carry vitamin D3 which improves eyesight and reduces retina inflammation.

Now let us take a look at the green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach or cabbage. They contain Zeaxantine, a nutriment that decreases the risk of age-related macular degeneration. Our grandmothers were right to tell us to eat all this under-valued vegetables when we were children!
Beta-carotene contained in carrots, sweet potatoes or butternut squash brings vitamin A to the eye and prevents against eye dryness.
The nutriment called luteine from bio eggs for example improve eye acuity.
Finally, the last healthy category food for our eyes are red berries! Blueberries, bilberries and especially black currants contain high amounts of anthocyanins and help to maintain the health of the cornea and blood vessels in every part of the eye. We can also find them in citrus juice, wine or teas.

You should watch your eye diet now! This might help you to avoid a repairing laser session and will also help to stabilise your nutritional balance. Another good news that we will teach to our future professional chefs in order for them to assimilate food effects with tastes and health benefits.
Don't hesitate to contact a member of staff for any information required on our professional cooking courses.

Our dear Jack

It is getting close to Halloween time; we can see strange pumpkin faces popping up around us. This is not a new thing that we done, people have always been using what nature gave us, and often excessively, in order to help our everyday life. However, where does the expression “Jack- o'lantern” come from and since when are we cutting those scary faces out of pumpkins?

The Stingy Jack myth was said to be born in the Irish countryside a few centuries ago. The story goes like this; once upon a time, the Devil had decided to visit Stingy Jack, they both wanted to have a drink but, as usually, Jack didn't want to pay. He suggested to the Devil to use his powers to transform himself into a coin that Jack would be able to use to pay for their drinks. The Devil accepted and Jack decided to not leave the Devil free by putting the coin into his pocket close to a silver coin. He gave him freedom in exchange of tranquillity for a year. Next year, Jack tricked the Devil and ensure himself 10 years non-claiming for his soul.

A few years later, Jack died. Nevertheless, God didn't allow him to Heaven and neither did the Devil to Hell. He sent Jack on Earth with nothing except a mere burning coal that Jack placed in a carved-out turnip to light his way with ever since. This is a sad story for Jack but this carved-out idea is even older as we find in Maori civilization, the use of turnips for lanterns have been used for over 700 years. On Irish islands and in Ireland, people were using this method since the 19th century according to the historian Ronald Hulton. We found an account from a local Irish pub holding a carved gourd competition and presenting a prize to “The Best Nowadays, we can see the Orient cutting trend for watermelon, orange or even carrots.

At Chef Academy, we teach several cutting techniques required to enter into a professional kitchen. Have a look at our professional culinary courses and you might discover your own dream. Do not hesitate to contact a member of staff here at Chef Academy of London for any further information. Anyone would be delighted to answer to your questions.

 

“Please Sir, can I have some more?”

Chocolate, is a dear friend of the gourmands.

Its sweet taste has always been coveted by palates, and not only the sweetest ones. Chocolate Is often the centre of our attention, for example, this week in London we celebrate the week of chocolate until Sunday 18th of October. Travelling back in time, we assimilate the first use of chocolate which dates back to 1900 BC.

Indeed, back in this time in Meso-America, Aztecs grew this fruit and were using it in order to give strength to the one who was drinking it during rituals, according to their believers it was also used as a currency and aphrodisiac. It was served as a frothy liquid, with a bitter taste, usually mixed with Shall we explain this desire that chocolate has always been aroused by his intricate life conditions? Yes we should. The cocoa plant doesn’t just grow in any region but only on each side of the equator. It comes out at an altitude of 400 up to 700 meters in semi-obscurity. Trees begin to flower after around 2 and 5 years. They reach their maturity at 12 years old and keep blooming for up to 30 years. Out of 50 000/100 000 flowers trees, just 1% of these will be fertilised and become a cocoa pod. The pod can reach 25 centimetres and we find beneath a tough skin, the cocoa grain.

From now on, we can understand why a cocoa tree produces 1 kilograms or 1 and half kilograms of To honour this long effort, London has decided to dedicate a whole week to chocolate. Several chocolatiers and restaurants are collaborating for the Chocolate week, happening in Olympia National Hall until Sunday. You can enjoy different tastings in several restaurants and chocolatiers of At Chef Academy, we teach to our student’s food history. We think it has to be part of theirprofessional cooking trainings to talk about this topic in order to make them realize how important

the origins of the products they choose, and use are, their story and also the different techniques to Would you like to know how to do a chocolate icing or to temper the chocolate? Have a look to our pastry trainings  and get ready for becoming a pastry chef. 

The bell has rang!

Two weeks have passed since we have cheerfully opened our professional laboratory kitchen to our new eager to learn cooking students.

Our Chefs Raffaello and Maurizio, have intensively mentored them, helping them to achieve many great things in the kitchen: bread making, pasty, cutting techniques, fresh and traditional pasta making, and food selection. Many topics have been covered to allow are students to progress to the next stage.

The two Chefs trainers made sure our budding Chefs would get all the skills and knowledge required to make the transition into one of our Michelin starred or fine-dining restaurant partners.

The advantage of that second step of our professional Chef training program is that entering a professional fully functioning kitchen, our students train and develop themselves in the kitchen, that will eventually be relevant as to what to expect in the working life of a chef – no hidden surprises!. Therefore, they are going to experience several situations that one would experience working in the kitchen on a daily basis.

We are the only culinary school here in London to offer trainings directly in a professional environment from a beginner level all the way up to Michelin star level. That means that we accept any level of background, whether you are just crazy about cooking, whether you want to become a professional Chef, or whether you are dreaming about opening your own establishment in a close future.

We believe in learning by practice. That is the reason why we have developed that immersion concept with our restaurants partners, in order to ensure our students, a unique experience.

How to become a Chef? Don't hesitate to contact us here at Chef Academy and one of our student coordinators will be delighted to put you on the path of gastronomy.

 

Taste of London, winter 2015

As the nights draw in, Taste of London is soon opening its door at Tobacco Dock from the 19 to the 22nd of November.

As we did in previous years, some of our culinary school Chef Academy students are joining the professionals, volunteering to present during those days, focused on gastronomy. For each session, Taste of London brings together a range of professionals from the catering and hospitality industry to share together this passion for food, for beverage, in other terms, for gastronomy. You would be able to discover the wonderful venue of Tobacco Dock. One of London's most historical venue, initially built for the important tobacco industry in 1811. Taste of London is the occasion to see incredible dishes from some of the best world's chefs, but also the opportunity to discover over 200 food and drinks brands through interactive workshops, demonstrations, or tastings you can get involved in during the days of the festival. 

Since 2001, Taste of London has been closely working with the international humanitarian association ACTION AGAINST HUNGER. This is also where we get involved. Between their courses for chefs, some of our students are volunteers to join the ACTION AGAINST HUNGER team. For over more than 30 years, this charity is fighting against malnutrition and the non-access to safe and drinking water in more than 45 countries and beneficial for 7 million of people each year. By joining that event, we hope we would help to raise funds to fight against malnutrition. Note that only £1 is enough to feed a child per day and £10 to provide safe clean and drinking water to 500 people.

What a programme: masterclasses, degustation’s, tastings or mere curiosity, don't hesitate! Go to the world's greatest restaurant festival and you would maybe have the chance to meet one of our current chefs school student, Chef Academy. If you would like further information on Chef Academy please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Chef Academy student wins at Wimbledon!

Here at Chef Academy London we send our congratulations to one of our students, Alessandro Colli, for hitting the headlines and winning an award at Wimbledon!
Alessandro, the 27 year old from Italy, studied the Professional Chef Course at Chef Academy of London last year. Following the course, he started as a private chef for luxury events, specializing in meat and fish. His highlights include cooking at the AC DC concert at the Wembley Stadium and for the football matches of Arsenal, Tottenham and Fulham.

The award was not won on the tennis courts, but behind the stoves in kitchen! Alessandro (pictured with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London) is working full time in London to cook for the professionals of the famous tournament. He is working around 15 hours each day with another 20 people to satisfy up to 2500 people.

Alessandro spoke of his experience on Radio Gold News. He said “I came to London two years ago and I attended Chef Academy of London. It’s a good experience, although very hard. I wake up at 5.15 am and begin work at 7.00 am and work until 22.30. The menu is buffet, we cannot do things to sought after as we cook for 2500 people a day. Working with 20 other cooks, everyone has their own tasks. To make you understand, it’s like what you see on Hell’s Kitchen, the level of organization is repeated like every restaurant in London. I never regret what I did, London is very difficult and not for everyone, but for me it was worth it, it has offered me the opportunities that Italy could not.” Read the article

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Taste of London 2015

Taste of London returned to Regent Park last weekend 17th-21st June 2015. Thousands of culinary enthusiasts, tourists and foodies gathered to see what this year’s event had in store for them.

Yet again we are proud to say that Chef Academy Of London’s students have participated in Taste of London. In collaboration with the charity "Action Against Hunger", our students have actively taken part in raising funds for the organization. They've been involved in the preparation of excellent dishes and street food in the pop up restaurant.

Taste Festivals is a company that runs a variety of food festivals across the globe. The events feature mini-kitchens from different restaurants and live demonstrations from chefs. The restaurants featured include Michelin Star establishments. The Best in Taste award is awarded to the restaurant who serves the best dish at the festival.

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Development Training

For the first two weeks of any of our culinary courses here at Chef Academy of London, students undertake the core Development Training. This is held in our development kitchen with our Executive Chef, Raffaello Amadio.

During the first few days of the Development Training, students will start from the very beginning and basics of the culinary industry. Students will be introduced to the professional kitchen and the machinery/equipment that occupy all professional kitchens in the culinary world. Students will be shown the different sections of a professional kitchen and explained what the purpose of each of them is. A very important factor of the training is the introduction to Health and Safety in the professional kitchen, showing risks and hazards, precautions to take and procedures that must be followed. Students learn how to use a knife safely and how to carry out different cutting techniques and styles of cuts. Other things covered our measurements, symbols, conversions, butter clarification, infusions of oil, labelling and many other aspects of the professional kitchen.

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Massimo Bottura’s three Michelin star restaurant coming to Mayfair!

Massimo Bottura is an Italian restaurateur, culinary genius and chef patron of the three Michelin star restaurant, Osteria Francescana, based in Modena, Italy. It has been listed in the top 5 at The Worlds 50 Best Restaurant Awards since 2010. After being ranked at 3rd Best Restaurant in 2013, this year at the 2015 awards, Osteria Francescana won 2nd place. Osteria Francescana has also received top ratings from ESPRESSO, the Touring Club Guides and Gambero Rosso.

The exciting news for the culinary sector in London is that, fresh from having been crowned the 2nd best restaurant in the world at the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants Awards, Massimo’s three Michelin star restaurant is coming to Mayfair. The pop up version of the restaurant will run in the capital for three days only at Southeby’s Auction House from the 27th to the 29th of June. It will be serving a seven course tasting menu of Buttura’s classic culinary creations and will set customers back £250 per head with a further charge of £95 for wine pairings.

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Learn the Italian way with Chef Academy London

With most foods in Italian cuisine being made up of only a few ingredients, it is no wonder that many are delighted and fascinated by these foods. For them nothing matters more than quality of ingredients. After all everyone knows how Italy is famous all over the word for the very best ingredients: wine, extravirgin olive extravirgin olive oil, Modena's balsamic vinegar, cheese (Parmigiano Regiano DOP, buffalo mozzarella DOP,...), Parma Ham, etc. It is with emphasis on the importance of each ingredient and the need to prepare quality meals that all students who enrol in the school are taught the basics as well as the expertise skills of handling a real Italian kitchen. Whether it is preparing more articulate dishes as well as the simplest, at our Italian culinary school, you will learn it all. We are among the most sought-after chef institutions in London. But why is this so and why should you consider enrolling in our Italian culinary academy?

Cooking is not all about satisfying the needs of the stomach, is much, much more! Those of other aspects of life need to be addressed too. What better way to achieve this than to become a professional in an area you enjoy so much? We will equip you with knowledge to transform you from an amateur to not only an expert cook but also an expert in running a business.

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Become the best pastry chef with Chef Academy London!

The art of bakingDo you love the smell of a freshly baked loaf of bread coming out the oven? Or the feeling of a croissant melting in your mouth?

Pastry is a colourful world of smells and tastes, it has many sweet and savoury recipes with its own rules!

If you are one of a kind, looking for where to learn all the rules, techniques and secrets about this unique world, Chef Academy is the place to be!

Creams and chocolate sauces, caramels and nougat, macaroons and truffles, eclairs and madeleines, are just some of the many delicious ingredients in the Professional Pastry and Confectionary course training program studied at Chef Academy London.

The course is intensive and focuses on all aspects of pastry, baking and confectionery. The training is held in one of the best equipped laboratory in London and you will be learning next to one of the most knowledgeable and experienced chefs in the pastry business. Not only will you learn what ingredients are vital to succeed in this business but what are essential techniques and equipment.

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Be the next chef of 'Taste of London'

If you haven’t heard about Chef Academy of London, then this is definitely your great opportunity to learn about one of the best cooking schools in London. It has a collection of culinary programmes, powerful courses and live chef training. Chef Academy of London will help you grow and become the professional chef you wish to be.

Chef Academy of London born in 2007 and has since marked its unique place in the cooking industry, leading the way for professional training for pastry chefs, senior chefs and restaurant managers.

Students at Chef Academy of London learn the art of cooking from a professional platform thus building a solid experience in the field, whilst also networking with potential employers.

The Academy offers tailor-made, valuable and effective courses that place emphasis not only on training the best cooks with excellent cooking techniques but also building an understanding of the nature and the feeling of being a chef in a professional kitchen.

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Molecular Gastronomy

Molecular Gastronomy

The term  “Molecular Gastronomy” was devised in 1988 by physicist Nicholas Kurti and French chemist Hervé This. It was originally intended to refer to the investigation of cooking, though it has been adopted and applied to describe a type a cuisine.

Molecular gastronomy is a form of food science that investigates the physical and chemical transformation of ingredients in cooking. Cooking was recognised to have three components, which are social, artistic and technical. Molecular gastronomy is a modern style of cooking, it uses various styles of technical innovations from the scientific methods.

There are many aspects of food science that study different forms of food, such as preservation, chemistry, microbiology, engineering and physics. Until the creation of molecular gastronomy, there was no formal discipline dedicated to studying the chemical processes of cooking in restaurants or from home. Food science  has always been more concerned with the industrial production of food.

Here are some techniques, tools and ingredients of Molecular Gastronomy:

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St. Moritz Gourmet Festival 2015

St Moritz Gourmet festival

On the 26th – 30th January 2015, The St. Moritz Gourmet Festival took place in the Upper Engadin in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It was launched by top chef Reto Mathis in 1994 and established as the first festival of its kind. It is one of the leading gourmet festivals in Europe welcoming around 3,500 guests each year to take part in various events.

Since establishment, the festival has been a creative collaboration of outstanding international master chefs. Each year the master chef from each of the partner hotels invites a guest chef.

This year marked the Great British edition. This comes as Switzerland celebrate 150 years of winter tourism. The country owes this anniversary to the British who were the first to discover St. Moritz as a winter destination. The event held exciting and enjoyable encounters with highly creative master chefs from Great Britain’s top league.

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Culinary Courses

Culinary coursesAlthough it is possible to become a chef by training on the job and not attending any formal culinary courses, it is a very long drawn out process. You have to join the trade at the bottom of the ladder as a kitchen assistant, possibly washing dishes and work your way up. It is therefore always advisable to get formal training, attend reputed culinary courses and learn the basic theory and tricks of the trade.

There are various types of culinary courses available all over the world, both short term and more comprehensive long duration. Professional chefs can work in many different places, including hotels, restaurants, resorts, casinos, hospitals, schools and colleges, corporate office canteens, yachts, food trucks and street stalls and even private homes.There are many culinary courses to prepare you for each path.

There are various areas of operations in the hospitality trade. If you wish to become a chef, depending on your area of interest, you should opt for a certificate, diploma or degree that gears you up for your vision.

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Specialised Professional Culinary Courses

Specialized professional culinary coursesThere are many professional culinary courses that impart training to aspiring chefs. Some of them hone the student’s skills in the stream he or she wishes to specialise.

The professional culinary courses cover topics like:

  • Food preparation.
  • Food science and microbiology.
  • Restaurant business and management.
  • Nutrition.
  • Food preservation and storage.
  • Cultural impact of food.

Our professional culinary courses teach the skills necessary for a range of food service careers and restaurant management. Apart from chefs, graduates of these professional culinary courses can also work as food researchers, food wholesalers and food industry or catering managers. They have the option of starting their own business too.

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MasterChef: The Professionals

MasterChef: The professionalsMasterChef: The Professionals is back on our television screens again! The competitive cooking show is a more recent version of MasterChef but with professional working chefs instead of amateurs.

It televises the hunt for a professional chef who wants to make it to the top of the culinary world.

Each show sees a new group of Professional Chef enter the MasterChef kitchen and compete with each other in a series of challenges and tasks. From advanced cooking techniques to their chosen signature dishes, the professional chefs are really put through their paces.

This series marks the arrival of a new member on the judging team, the famous chef and restaurateur, Marcus Wareing. Marcus earned his first Michelin star at the young age of 25 as head chef at L'Oranger. At present day he is Chef Patron of the two Michelin starred Marcus located at the five star Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge. He then opened The Gilbert Scott at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel and most recently his new restaurant Tredwell's that offers customers a more casual dining experience.

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Types of Chefs

Types of chefsThe legendary French chef George Auguste Escoffier in his book Le Guide Culinaire defined certain theories of kitchen management that have been adopted by professional kitchens all over the world. Among them is the kitchen hierarchy system known as the Brigade de Cuisine which specifies the types of chefs that are a part of a normal kitchen.

According to this Brigade system the types of chefs are as follows:

  • Chef de Cuisine or Executive chef: He or she is the boss in the kitchen. Normally a restaurant or chain has one executive chef. It takes years of training at a culinary academy and decades of experience to reach this topmost level. An executive chef rarely has to cook and their duties are basically administrative wherein they supervise operations, plan out menus and ensure that the kitchen is running smoothly.
  • Sous Chef or Assistant chef: The sous chef is immediately below the executive chef and is the person who is directly responsible for food production. Depending on the size of the kitchen there may be one or more sous chefs who are responsible for all the junior chefs and other kitchen workers.
  • Chef de Partie or Senior chef: This individual is responsible for a particular type of menu that he or she specializes or excels in. It is his or her duty to direct the preparation necessary for his specific menu.
  • Line Chefs or Station chefs: Working directly under the sous chef there are various types of line chefs each responsible for a specific part of a meal.

    • Saucier: It is their duty to prepare the master sauces required in food production. It is a very important role and the sauce chef has to be highly skilled since the sauce is a very vital ingredient especially in French cuisine. Read more ...

Duties of a Chef

Duties of a ChefTo become a chef you do not have to have academic qualifications, but you definitely do have to have a passion for food and cooking, the stamina to take long hours on your feet and the ability to multitask. And of course you have to have creativity and imagination in food presentation. In a large kitchen chefs work as a part of a team each looking after a different part of the preparation or food area like the frying or grilling station or the bread and pastry section, the meat or fish station or the vegetable station. In a smaller kitchen there may be fewer separate stations depending on the menu.

If you join the trade without any culinary qualification your first job in the kitchen will probably be that of an apprentice and you may have to spend hours peeling onions and potatoes. But a graduate with a culinary certificate or diploma joins the trade as a commis chef, the first rung of the ladder.

The job description or duties of a commis chef are:

Primarily learning the various cooking methods. He or she has to rotate in the kitchen from station to station and pick up the skills of each station.

  • Practice the skills they have learnt so that they can master them and move on to the next level.
  • On the job the have to do all the preparation of ingredients for the senior chef at his station
  • They have to carefully and accurately measure dish portions
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Qualities of a chef

Qualities of a chef

There are some essential qualities of a chef, without these one cannot become a successful professional chef.

The fast-paced world of the culinary industry welcomes professionals who are skilled, passionate about the trade and innovative in their creations.

Below are some of the very essential qualities of a chef that will help them achieve success in the trade.

  • Passion: A great chef has to be passionate about food and cooking. They have to genuinely enjoy the whole process of procuring, preparing, cooking and serving food and have to be able to design menus too.
  • Stamina: An essential quality of a true chef is stamina. The commercial kitchen is a hard place to work; long hours on foot exposed to heat, grease, high pressure and odd working hours; a chef needs stamina to remain focused and consistently produce top quality food.
  • Leadership skills: It is the chef who is responsible for the kitchen. They have to be able to give direction to their team and maintain an amicable atmosphere in their kitchen. They need to guide, coach and monitor their juniors so that the operations run smoothly. Read more ...

Becoming a chef

What is a chef? Wikipedia describes a chef as “a person who is a highly skilled professional cook who is proficient in all aspects of food production.” They head a professional kitchen and their duties include kitchen management, menu planning, raw material procurement and of course the production of food along with his team.

The burgeoning hospitality industry the world over has created the need for talented, trained and professional chefs. There are a number of trade schools and culinary institutes across the globe that impart training to aspiring chefs. The duration of the courses vary as do the fees and the certification awarded.

Becoming a chef is not easy

It is a highly stressful career where one has to work while everybody else is on holiday or enjoying themselves be it weekends or Christmas. But then again for the creative person it can be a truly rewarding career option.

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What it means to be a chef

A highly skilled person who is in charge of food production in a commercial kitchen of a restaurant, hotel, resort, hospital or cruise ship is normally referred to as a chef. Their duties are very diverse. Apart from managing the kitchen and overseeing its staff, they have to plan menus, work out the costing of each dish, and manage inventories and raw material procurement.

What is the difference between a professional chef and a cook?

Although very often the two terms chef and cook are used interchangeably to denote an individual producing food in a kitchen, to those in the culinary trade, there is a huge difference between the two. The difference basically lies in the education and experience. In today’s world a person with a degree from a culinary institute who joins a commercial kitchen will be recognized as a sous chef as soon as they complete their training.

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Celebrity Chefs in London

The food business is not only big business today it is also a high profile industry. With burgeoning food shows on television, cookery books, food magazines, culinary classes etc, there is a lot of recognition being accorded to chefs. In recent times chefs have started becoming almost as popular as film stars. Every country has its share of celebrity chefs particularly London, the melting pot of all cultures.

Today we will talk about some of the best known celebrity chefs in London, their food and their restaurants.

  1. Jamie Oliver: Also known as ‘The Naked Chef’ due to his food shows of the same name on BBC, Jamie Oliver was born in 1975. He is a renowned chef, restaurateur, cook book author. He was awarded the MBE  (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his contribution towards promoting healthy eating among Britain’s children in 2003. He believes in using only fresh and organic ingredients in his cuisine. Basically he cooks Italian and British food but with a global influence. His restaurant ‘Jamie’s Italian’ is extremely popular as are his TV shows ‘Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution’ and ‘Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals’. Today he is not just a celebrity chef but also brand with myriad endorsements.
  1. Gordon Ramsay: Recognized the world over for his many TV shows, Gordon Ramsay comes across as one of the most foul mouthed celebrity chefs in London. But he is also London’s most successful restaurateur. At the age of 34 his restaurant earned three Michelin stars which it still holds today. Some of the most high profile restaurants of the city belong to his stable. Since 1996 he has written 21 cookery books and still writes the food column for The Times’ Saturday magazine. ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ are two of his most popular TV series that are broadcast across the world. He has also been a part of Masterchef the reality food show.
  1. Heston Blumenthal: A pioneer in what is today called molecular gastronomy, Heston Blumenthal is often referred to as the ‘mad scientist of haute cuisine’. He loves to experiment with tastes and textures of food and is the creator of unusual dishes like the snail porridge, bacon and egg ice cream etc. To him food is a multi sensory experience and diners at his restaurant can listen to the sound of the sea over headphones while savouring the taste of his delectable seafood. He has appeared on a number of TV shows and written many cook books. In 2013 his restaurant Dinner was voted the 7th best restaurant in the world.
  1. Angela Hartnett: London’s foremost female celebrity chef, Angela Hartnett emerged from Gordon Ramsay’s stable to make a place for herself in London’s culinary scene. Her restaurant ‘Murano’ serves modern cuisine with an Italian accent. She won her 1st Michelin star just five months after starting operations. She has appeared in many food shows on TV including Hell’s Kitchen and written two books on Italian family cooking.
  1. Atul Kochar: The first Indian chef to be awarded the coveted Michelin star, Atul Kochar’s contribution to the London culinary scene is enormous. He has brought South Asian cuisine to the forefront of British dining experience. Author of numerous books on Indian food he has also appeared in several food shows on television including Masterchef Goes Large, Saturday Kitchen and Food Poker.

The list of celebrity chefs in London is almost endless. The common feature amongst them all is their passion for food and cooking and their fearless innovation.

History of the Michelin guide

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Michelin brothers, Andre and Edouard, owners of the tyre company decided to publish a guide for the car owners of France. It listed the names and locations of petrol stations, garages and tyre mechanics, hotels and restaurants. The first edition of the guide, 35000 copies was distributed free.

The first international copy of the Michelin guide was published in 1904 in Belgium. The first British edition was published in 1911. As the tyre company grew so did its guide and it went commercial in 1920. The story goes that Andre Michelin found a work bench in a garage being supported by several copies of his guide. He realized that “Man only truly respects what he pays for” and decided to charge 7 francs for the guide.

By 1920 the dining section of the Michelin guide became so popular that the company started to appoint anonymous inspectors to visit hotels and restaurants and grade them. The Michelin star system was introduced in 1926. In 1931 the blue cover of the Michelin guide was changed to a distinctive red and remains the same till date. Its star system was expanded to include three star categories:

  • 1 star meant “a very good restaurant in its own category”.
  • 2 stars meant “excellent cooking; worth a detour”.
  • 3 stars meant “exceptional cuisine; worth a special trip”.

In 1944, during the Second World War, the Michelin guide was published in Washington DC with updated detailed city maps and distributed among the Allied forces that landed in Normandy. Most of these guides were either lost or destroyed in bombings, a few were taken back to America. There are very few originals of these war time guides in Europe today.

Today country specific Michelin guides are published across Europe and city specific ones in the US and Japan. Michelin stars are highly coveted by chefs from across the globe and have become benchmarks for cuisine of the highest quality. The anonymous inspectors of Michelin are duty bound to maintain the secrecy of their identity. They are passionate about food and have extremely discerning palates. They visit restaurants as ordinary diners, sometimes several times, before they decide on the number of stars that should be accorded to it. They concentrate on the quality and consistency of the food served and the mastery of techniques of the chef. The décor, table setting and ambiance is not a part of their consideration. Michelin starred restaurants are considered in a class of their own.

Since 1955 the Michelin guides have included another category called the “Bib Gourmand”. This list includes restaurants offering “good food at moderate prices.” The guide has other ratings also like forks and spoons, coins, red and black symbols denoting ‘interesting view’ or ‘magnificent view’, grapes, sake set or cocktail glass indicating establishments serving alcoholic beverages of a certain standard.

There are many establishments across the world, in every continent, that produce food guides and rate restaurants and give awards; but even today the Michelin guide remains the hallmark of fine dining and quality cuisine and the Michelin stars, the most desired recognition.

How to become a Michelin star chef

 

A Michelin star is the most coveted award that any chef aspires for.

Although the Michelin star is awarded to a restaurant the credit for it goes to the chef in charge of the kitchen.

Michelin, the tyre company started their Michelin guide in the year 1904 as a road map to help motorists in France locate repair shops in case of car break downs and places to eat and stay on their journey. Gradually it evolved into a restaurant review benchmark for restaurants across Europe. Today it also rates restaurants in certain cities of America, Japan and of course Great Britain.

Michelin awards a maximum of three stars to the best establishments. A single star means the food served at the restaurant is of excellent quality in its category. Two stars means the food is good enough to take a detour for and three stars means the restaurant serves such excellent food that it deserves a special visit.

So how does someone become a Michelin star chef?

  • Of course the first step is to become a chef. You can either take a course at a reputed culinary school, learn the basics, join the industry and work your way up the ladder; become a Commi 3, Commi 2, Commi 1, working at the different kitchen stations, then moving on to first junior then senior chef de partie. Next step up the ladder is the position of the sous chef and finally you will reach the position of the chef. An amateur has to start their career even lower in the brigade as an assistant in the kitchen, washing dishes and working their way up till they can head the kitchen.
  • Once you become a chef it is your passion and creativity that will speak for you. How you blend flavours, how you present each dish, how clean your kitchen are all important factors that matter to the Michelin inspector.
  • The most important factor that every Michelin inspectors places immense value on is consistency. The inspectors are anonymous and visit the restaurants a number of times before reaching their decision. Each and every time they have to have a flawless experience.
  • The freshness and quality of the ingredients is of prime importance to the Michelin inspectors. That along with the cooking, the presentation of the dish and the harmony of the flavours in the dish decides the worthiness of an establishment.

To qualify for a Michelin star firstly your restaurant has to be located in an area covered by Michelin. If it is, then your journey to the stars begins by your food speaking for itself among the locals, the food bloggers, the food writers and critics. Once a buzz is created the Michelin inspectors will come visiting and you will be completely unaware of it. So your entire concentration should be on producing top class food, using the best and freshest ingredients, consistently. Then if you are lucky you may receive a phone call that says “Bonjour, this is (name) with Le Guide Michelin. We are calling to inform you that you will be included as One Star in the next Michelin guide for (city)”.

Why choose Chef Academy?

Food is a passion for millions across the world. Many of them aspire to become chefs. But a chef’s life is not easy. It requires long hours on your feet slaving behind a stove. It also requires years of rigorous training and dedication.

If you wish to become a chef you can either start as a kitchen assistant at the bottom of the ladder washing dishes, peeling potatoes and onions or you could enrol into a comprehensive course and spend a few years learning everything about the trade or you could take a short intensive course that is tailored to train professionals in the culinary art in a highly practical manner in a professional environment.

Chef Academy of London offers some of the best intensive courses for short durations.

Our effective basic training course enables students to start work immediately on completion and continue training on the job. The certifications and knowledge gained by the student prepare them for the tough reality of an actual work environment.

Chef Academy of London was founded in 2007. Since then we have been dedicated to the training of those interested in the culinary profession; head chefs, pastry chefs, restaurant managers and quality suppliers. The courses offered by Chef Academy of London are normally of 300 plus hours or more. Students have to be above the age of 18 years and have to be able to define their own skills and choose a suitable course. On completion they are awarded a certificate at the discretion of the chef trainer.

After the initial training at the institute’s development kitchen the students are deputed to the kitchens of our partner restaurants. They spend 200/250 hours in the professional kitchen and their role is that of a demi chef de partie. They have to work as a part of the kitchen team and work in any station that may be required be it mise en place, food preparation or service assistance. Their tasks will be determined by the chef tutor depending on their skills and they may be moved from section to section as per the training required by them.  The exposure to a live, professional kitchen is an integral part of the training imparted by Chef Academy of London.

This hands-on professional training requires the students to follow all the rules of the kitchen where they are deputed. They have to maintain time and regular attendance and inform both their chef tutor and the Chef Academy of London in case they need leave for a specific reason. Regular attendance is compulsory to qualify for a certificate from the academy. Although the training is practical, at the end of the course each student has to sit for a written assessment test. The assessment will be based on the skills and techniques learnt during training.

Our tried and tested courses have helped hundreds of people make a career in the culinary industry. There are many institutes that offer training to aspiring chefs, but

Chef Academy of London is one of the leaders in the field.

 

Is this course right for you?

 

The food business today is big business. Millions across the world are looking at the culinary trade as a lucrative career option. But this trade requires dedicated training. So if you wish to become a chef or start your own restaurant, where do you begin? There are many academies and institutes that offer courses for those aspiring to join this trade, so how do you decide if this is the right course for you?

There are many different courses available that are of varying durations and specialize in the various aspects of the culinary trade. The courses can be of a few years that award successful candidates degrees and diplomas and then there are the certificate courses awarded by institutes like Chef Academy of London that are short term and very intensive.

The courses at Chef Academy of London are designed for those interested in starting a career in the restaurant business. If you wish to become a chef or specialize in the pastry department; if you want to learn restaurant management or aspire to win a Michelin star, Chef Academy of London has a course that is just right for you.

Before you select a course you must decide what exactly you wish to achieve in life, where exactly your passion lies and whether you have the tenacity to complete an intensive training. Although the restaurant business apparently seems very glamorous, it is actually very hard work. No matter whether you are a chef slaving behind a stove or a front office manager greeting guests, you have to spend long hours on your feet. There are no short cuts in this trade. Customer satisfaction is of prime importance and it is only thorough knowledge and dedicated service that will get you accolades and success.

Once you have figured out what your aim in life is and you are confident that the restaurant trade is the right one for you, start evaluating all the courses available within your budget. Jot down all the questions that come to mind and never hesitate to clarify all your doubts before you sign up. Evaluate your own skills; most institutes expect that; and then select your course.

While studying the course details ask yourself… ‘Is this the right course for me? Does it fulfill all my needs?’ Apply for the course only when you are sure. It would be a pity if you join a course and realize it is just not right for you.

Chef Academy of London has some excellent courses where you are not only trained at their development kitchen but also get an opportunity to work in a live kitchen in one of their partner restaurants, often one that has a Michelin star. On completion not only will you have learnt the basics about the trade or cooking in general, your exposure to the professional kitchen will have built up your confidence so that you can start your own establishment or land yourself a lucrative job.

What being a chef means

If food is your passion, if you love cooking and aspire to become a chef, stop, take a deep breath and think hard ‘what being a chef means!’ The life of a chef is certainly not a bed of roses. Let us make a list of pros and cons of what being a chef is all about.

First let us enlist the qualities you need to become a chef

  • Passion for food and cooking: This is of primary importance. If you have that then half your battle is won. The long hours on your feet will be of little consequence when you are behind the stove at your creative best.
  • Dedication and tenacity: The culinary trade requires years of training and experience. You will have to begin at the bottom of the ladder and work your way up. There are no short cuts so do not opt for this as a career if you don’t have the tenacity to work long hours on your feet.
  • Interpersonal and leadership skills: A chef’s job is not just cooking but also managing a kitchen. He or she has to be a team player and have the skills to manage the staff and inspire them so that together they can produce food of the highest quality, consistently.
  • Cool balanced temperament: Some famous chefs are well known for their bad temper and the foul language they use. But today such behavior is not acceptable. A successful chef must be able to keep his cool in the high stress environment of a professional kitchen.
  • Multitasking skills: A chef has to be able to do more than one job at a time; handling more than one stove simultaneously is part of the job for any chef.
  • Split second decision making: A very important skill any competent chef must have is the ability to make split second decisions. In the high paced professional kitchen there is no time to wait. And the decisions have to be the right ones; so clarity of thought and judgement is an important quality of a chef.

Now the cons of becoming a chef

  • Be prepared to endure aches, pains, burns and bruises. A chef’s life is a hard life. Long hours on one’s feet, sharp knives that cut, splattering hot oil that blisters; it’s all a part of the job. ‘Grin and bear’ must be the chef’s motto!
  • Be prepared to work the hardest when everyone else is partying. There are no weekends or holidays for a chef.
  • So naturally a chef’s social life is minimal. As a chef you will find yourself interacting with only your colleagues.
  • Obviously it will be difficult for you to have a sustained relationship; your job will always come first.
  • Sleep deprivation will become a constant in your life. Work will fill every waking moment of your life which will be from early morning till the dead of night. And then when you do go to bed, you will be so exhausted that sleep will evade you.
  • After cooking all day your own meals will probably be junk food. You will be fed up of cooking gourmet meals!

But in spite of it all if you are the right kind of person, you will thank your lucky stars that you have become a chef and the pleasure you will get from cooking and feeding others will be immeasurable!

Marcus Wareing

Chef Academy of London is very proud to count the cooking legend Marcus Wareing amongst our partners.

Marcus Wareing Restaurant group consists of Marcus, a two michelin star restaurant in Knightsbridge. The Gilbert Scott located at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, and the recently opened Tredwells in Seven Dials that offers a more casusal fine dining experience. We are thrilled to have all three restaurants as our partners and give our students the opportunity to learn in these famous establishments.

Marcus has just replaced Michel Roux Jr as a judge on the BBC cooking show Masterchef: The Professionals. He joins Gregg Wallace and Monica Galetti on the judging panel for the seventh edition of the programme. He has had many previous appearences on popular television shows such as Great British Menu. He has won chef o fthe year on a number of occasions and has also won restauranteur of the year.

 

Taste of London

 

Yet again we are proud to say that Chef Academy Of London’s students have participated in "Taste of London", a fantastic culinary event that is held in London from 18th June-22nd June 2014. In collaboration with "Action Against Hunger", our students have actively taken part in raising funds for this charity organization. They've been involved in "Taste of London" through the culinary proposals, preparation of excellent dishes and street food, all in the name of multiculturalism and solidarity.

"Taste of London" started 10 years ago with a little show and grew rapidly over the years to become an essential event in London for food lovers, catering business workers, chefs and restaurateurs who want to take part in this fun and unique experience!

This unique festival gives people the opportunity to taste all the specialities from around the world: from the UK, Europe, Asia, The Middle East and Australia "Taste of London" is a culinary paradise, amazing food prepared by world renowned chefs from the greatest restaurants in the city. Food tasting, master classes, interactive cooking lessons and exceptional entertainment, all set in the picturesque scenery of Regent's Park in London.

Visitors can also buy directly from the manufacturers and take part in the master classes or watch London's top chefs in action.

NEW Pastry Course!

At Chef Academy of London we believe that there is no better method of learning than the practical one.
We have been training chefs on a professional level since we opened our school in London. We are proud to say we have 100% employment success rate and all of our students are working in some of London’s finest Restaurants and Hotels.

Due to popular demand, we are now running a Professional Pastry course. If it’s your dream to become a pastry chef, this is the best course for you. This pastry course is held in our laboratory where our chef trainer will train you to the highest standard that will prepare you to work as a pastry chef and give you all the skills and knowledge needed to pursue your career in this fantastic trade.

Live Training Michelin Star

 

If you are already a working professional, you know how your working experience might change dramatically your salary and increase your working possibilities. But you might also know how difficult it can be to enter the kitchens of the top Michelin starred restaurants in a city like London.

At Chef Academy of London we offer you the chance to work under the best chefs inside the best kitchens, like Jason Atherton at Pollen Street Social, or Alyn Williams at the Westbury. Our students will be followed by the chefs, and get a certification after course completion, that will open them to the doors of professional fine cooking.

How to Boost your Chef Career

HOW TO BOOST YOUR CHEF CAREER

Food is booming business across the globe. There is a tremendous need for trained skilled chefs. Once you have gone through the years of grind, worked your way up the ladder and become a chef, how do you boost your chef career?

Experience is what hones a chef’s skill and boosts his or her career. So the effort should start right at the beginning. Whether you are a trained culinary professional or one who has joined the trade as a dish washer, the kitchens you work in show you the path in your career. Choose your place of work carefully. Opt for a kitchen that is well known for its professionalism and the quality of food it produces. It does not necessarily have to be a celebrity kitchen. A large number of aspiring chefs and recent graduates think that the way to a successful career begins in a celebrity kitchen. But high visibility does not always translate into good training ground. There are lots of restaurants that are not in the news or promoted by food critics or the media that are captained by professional chefs who run tight ships and consistently produce excellent food. It is in such locations that you can hone your culinary skills and thus take your steps up the ladder.

During your formative years as a chef here are a few things that you should look out for which will hold you in good stead in your career.

  • Professionalism: In a kitchen this is a term that encompasses various things including the art of cooking, inventory management, safety and cleanliness, staff management, food portioning and storage, accounting and food costing.
  • Demanding and competitive environment: This will not only compel you to use your knowledge to its fullest but also help you challenge yourself to perform better.
  • An exacting boss who will not only criticize but also not hesitate to teach you the right way to do things.
  • A kitchen with a demanding customer base so that again you are compelled to rise to the occasion and get inspired to better yourself.
  • A committed owner and/or chef who work to run a well oiled establishment both inside the kitchen and at the front of the house. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience that you can get from a well managed restaurant.
  • While terms like ‘fusion cuisine’ and ‘molecular gastronomy’ might sound very attractive it is best to look for establishments that will strengthen your basic culinary skills first before looking for training in trending ideas.
  • Look for kitchens that are non static. Kitchens where menus evolve and get periodically upgraded are great places to widen your repertoire.
  • Look for kitchens where the environment is inclusive and without any racial, religious or sexual bias. This will open your mind to the possibilities not only in terms of the food cooked but also the various cultures that work cohesively.
  • Finally there are intensive courses of approximately 300 hours offered by institutes like Chef Academy of London that are designed to hone a working chef’s skills. If you opt for them not only will you gain experience and get a certificate; it is a sure fire way to boost your chef career.

Chef Academy London

Chef Academy London was founded in 2007 and since then has led the way for professional training for head chefs, pastry chefs and restaurant managers. Book an appointment with one of our expert advisors for more information.

Contact Us

The Chef Academy LTD

Registered Office: 17 Hanover Square, Mayfair - London - W1S 1BN

Phone: +44 -0- 208 087 2501

Email: info@chefacademyoflondon.com