KeTala Chefs Academy

KeTala Chefs Academy

KeTala Chefs Academy is truly the gem of the industry. This prestigious culinary school is ideally situated on a smallholding in the East of Pretoria, combining nature with an exceptional farm-like experience and bringing a holistic environment into the kitchen and training centre.
More and more students are choosing to attend one of the very few farm-like Academies located around the world where students receive training in additional vital skills, such as irrigation, composting and soil management. Our students work the soil, grow vegetables, harvest fruits, nuts and herbs and are actively involved in cultivating our go green conscious campus. The seed-to-table philosophy provides our students with a unique opportunity to gain experience which will set them apart from their fellow city Chefs.
Our Chefs will have the added benefit of growing and nurturing their own produce as we follow the trend of the market to Go Green! KeTala, which translates to “It’s Green” in Northern Sotho, with its abundance of fruit trees, herb and spice garden, in-season vegetables and animals, will continue to care for the Earth in its training curriculum.
Organic gardening: herbs, vegetables and fruits, including micro greens, provides our students with unrivalled experience in producing and maintaining – the best possible produce. Our students watch over their seedlings like concerned parents and visit the vegetable garden daily.
Our 5-star training programme, (a 5 star- hotel grading requires everything to be produced in the kitchen and no condiment is bought from outside), equip our Chefs with the required knowledge and necessary ability, to step into any kitchen. Working with whole-spices you will even learn to make your own curry powder.
The founders, with more than 40 years of training and industry experience, have combined their knowledge to establish the best training facility for Chefs in South Africa.

The Culinary Academy

Outside the city, where a slower pace than those of shopping malls and office blocks reigns, KeTala Chefs Academy provides a tranquil and aesthetically pleasing environment. KeTala provides so much more than a mere educational environment, the campus offers a farm-like experience which cannot be compared to any other institution.

 
Our fully equipped training kitchen will ensure valuable practical training. We work with Industrial equipment, induction cookers, gas and electric stoves, convection ovens and to round up the list, Babette our 1930 Coal stove. It is here where our students learn and ultimately form the foundation of their culinary repertoire.
Student Library: we encourage our students to read and research as we believe that it inspires ideas and reinforce knowledge. We do have recipe books and publications from all over the world and do themed cooking, for example, Mexico with a Mexican recipe book, cooking and even playing their music. Ole! Nothing more colourful or spicier than a culinary trip to Mexico! This enables our students to keep abreast of food trends around the globe.
Our animals are part of the KeTala family and students sometimes for the first time interact with different animals. The fresh air and being able to see the sunrise and sunset daily is truly phenomenal and food for the soul.

How to choose the right training institution

Want to become a Chef? To make a choice as to which institution suits your training needs best, one has to consider your own personal needs against your future vision and seek a Chef’s Academy you can relate to. Compare duration of the same courses offered by different institutions on the same City & Guilds Diploma qualification. It is vital that you visit the Chefs Academy – more than once if need be – and ask yourself if the environment is conducive to quality training. On your visit ask questions to current students and compare the answers to the Prospectus.

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