Culinary school · Gauteng · Since 2001
The Chef School is a culinary school in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, training chefs through a twelve-month International Diploma in food preparation and culinary arts, taught hands-on in a professional kitchen.
01 · The flagship programme
Food Preparation & Culinary Arts
One year at the bench, three mornings a week. You learn the classical foundations professional kitchens expect, from stocks and sauces to pastry, costing and menu planning, and finish with practical exams and an international exam.
02 · Why The Chef School
Every module is cooked, not just read. You prepare, taste, fix and plate with a chef beside you at the bench.
Whites, knives, mise en place and timing. You work to the standards and habits of a professional kitchen from the first week.
Leave with an internationally recognised diploma and the confidence to join a kitchen brigade, cater, or start your own food business.
03 · The culinary journey
The diploma moves from the fundamentals every chef relies on to the business skills that keep a kitchen running.
01Knife skills, mise en place, kitchen language and the core cooking methods.
Stocks, soups and the classic sauces that underpin professional cooking.
Egg cookery, yeast doughs and breads.
Vegetables, pulses and grains as dishes in their own right.
Cuts, preparation and cooking methods for meat and poultry.
Selecting, filleting and cooking fish with care.
07Fresh pasta, risotto and grain cookery.
08Pastry, desserts, jams, ice cream and sorbet.
Hygiene, safe food handling and kitchen safety.
Balanced cooking and catering for dietary needs.
Recipe costing, portion control and pricing.
12How professional kitchens are planned for flow and safety.
Building balanced menus that work in real service.
04 · International recognition
City & Guilds is one of the world's best-known vocational awarding bodies. Diploma students sit an international exam, so the skills you build in Krugersdorp are recognised well beyond it.
How City & Guilds qualifications work
05 · The School
For twenty-five years The Chef School has turned keen cooks into working chefs from its home in Oatlands. Copper pans overhead, pressed-tin panels on the walls, a cookbook library in the lounge and a garden outside the window: it feels like a real kitchen because it is one.
Discover The School06 · Short courses
Four-hour, hands-on classes for home cooks, food lovers and teams, all made with Ancient Grains instead of ordinary flour. Ideal for team building and small group celebrations.
Mix, knead and roll fresh pasta by hand with Ancient Grains, then bake a golden focaccia to take home.
View Course
Laminate a yeast pastry made with Ancient Grains and Pastrex, then shape it into Danish pastries, croissants and more.
View Course
Bake with Ancient Grains, no wheat: from a yeast loaf to apple tartlets, learn yeast baking and shortcrust pastry in one class.
View Course07 · A signature experience
Silver cake stands, fine pastry and gilded porcelain, served by the school's own kitchen. An afternoon for birthdays, engagements, baby and bridal showers, and any celebration worth dressing up for.
Discover the Red Carpet High Tea
08 · Inside the school
Talk to us about the next intake, the fees and what to expect in your first week in the kitchen.