Help looking for accelarated cooking class [Cooking]

2013 Nov 28

Hi everyone,

i am not new on the forum but this is my first post. I know there is a lot of experts here so I thought it will be the best place to get an answer to my question. My mum is in town for about 2 months and she is relatively good cook. She always had a dream to open her own restaurant in Africa( we are from africa) and she wanted to learn some of the basics of culinary arts in order to boost her skills. She speaks french only and I have been looking in town to see if there was any place where she can learn that. The only place I found was le cordon bleu where they can give an accelerated course in 5 weeks but it is not really cheap. I was wondering if anybody had any good recommendation for me. Montreal might be an option too.

Thanks in advance

2013 Nov 28
Cité Collégiale has a hotellerie program with a culinary session (does start in January). They may have some accelerated courses. Also the school boards do special interest courses, try the 2, public and catholic conseil scolaires. I'm not familiar with the Gatineau side, but the college there may also have a culinary program.

2013 Nov 29
Thanks @Gardener Mom I will look into the 2 suggestions that you gave me and see if I can find something. During my research yesterday , i found this academieculinaire.com located in montreal. Have you ever heard of this?

2013 Dec 1
NU 4265,

Not knowing your mom's budget, I guess the other question is if she needs an accredited program or just to know cooking better and to polish up the skills. Also what type of restaurant is she intersted in?

I have gone to le cordon bleu demos and they are in English so if your Mom is french only, that would not work. Most of the chef instructors speak French and/or are from france but the actual classes are in English. I think LCB are only in French in Paris.

Another option I can think of is that Cuisine and Passion has a chef for the week for $599. I have not done that but have done a demo class there with my mom and the quality was decent. Marc Miron and his wife Chantal have more of a take out business and store than a restaurant per se but they have been working in hotel restaurants around the world so your Mom can pick up some skills and get a better idea how to run a food outlet/restaurant. Both Marc and Chantal speaks French so that works for your Mom I think.





2013 Dec 2
Thanks @FoodTravel
AN accredited program will be great but not necessarybut she mainly want to know how to cook better and polish her skills.
She want to open a restaurant with revisted african dishes. I am not sure if that answer you question of what type of restaurant she is interested in ...
This small program www.lcbottawa.com from le cordon bleue seems to be a good start for her

Since they don't give french classes , it is out of the picture now i guess. I really like your suggestion of Cuisine and passion . It seems to be something for her to try specially because of the price range , the fact that they speak french and the fact that she can probably get some personalized classes and advice. I will give them a call tomorrow but I think they are the best answer to my problem. Thanks again foodtravel for the precious advice :)

2013 Dec 2
lol I think they will actually put her to work as well as a Sous chef in the kitchen.

It is one thing to think of the idea of owning a restaurant versus the reality of working long hours. This is more moderate hours and I think one of the reasons Marc and Chantal came back to Canada with their 2 teen? kids.

If your mom find the hours workable and the lifestyle intersting, I am pretty sure she can also pick the Mirons about some business questions and they might be interesting to help her rework some of African dishes while she is doing Chef for the week type deal providing they could use it for their own takeout / store.


2013 Dec 2
In the other thread cooking classes in Ottawa, someone mentioned c'est bon and checking their website it seems to have something offered in French Thurs evenings now so they might do it in Jan too.

Seems to be 6x 2 hr classes for $100 per class with 6th free. Seems more geared towards instructions for home cooks than training for someone who want to be in the industry.

The cite collegiale Gardener Mom mentioned has info here but seem to be 7-8 months and international students have fees 3x canadian ones but it seem to be in French.
www.collegelacite.ca

I been checking out some cooking classes due to trying to learn enough basics and tricks to deconstruct and adapt recipes for low fat low sodium low sugar options for some family health issues. There seem to be casual classes of short duration or long professional training and very little in between.

2013 Dec 8
Thanks @FoodTravel I was out of town for the entire week and I didn't had access to the internet lol. I have talk about the options you suggested to my mom and she seems to really like Marc and Chantal . I am back in town so we are planning to go visit them this week but It looks very promessing to me. I will like them to event put her at work so she realize the amount of effort she will need to put when she owns her restaurant :) I will let you know how things will turn out.