New Liverpool training college will create world’s next master chefs
Two Liverpool schools will host a new cooking college designed to create world-leading chefs.
City students will also work with the globe’s finest cooks in Italy, because the new facility for 14 to 19-year-olds will be linked to and endorsed by Parma’s world-famous Alma school.
The school trains chefs from around the world to become masters of Italian cuisine and wine experts, but also trains teenagers in a dedicated cooking college in Salsomaggiore, Parma.
From September, Catholic boys’ secondary Cardinal Heenan and neighbouring Catholic girls’ school Broughton Hall, in West Derby, will be the base for the new cooking and hospitality industry training centre.
The following year, it will move to a purpose-built centre, including a training kitchen in a sixth form the two schools will share as part of a £37m modernisation.
The college will not only offer diplomas to 14 to 16-year-olds at Broughton Hall and Cardinal Heenan, but will offer catering and hospitality diplomas to 16 to 19-year-olds across the city.
The facility is the culmination of three years of talks between Cllr Flo Clucas, Liverpool’s executive member for Europe, the Honorary Italian consul in Merseyside, Nunzia Bertali, and officials in Parma.
The unique partnership will see teaching experts from the college in Parma visit the schools to help design the Liverpool programme.
Once up and running, it is planned students and teachers from both colleges will engage in exchanges, meaning Liverpool cooking trainees will get the chance to work alongside the world’s best chefs in Italy.
It is hoped the deal will promote the merits of healthy eating but mark the first step towards setting up an Alma international cooking school in the city.
Dave Forshaw, head teacher at Cardinal Heenan, said the “ultimate ambition” would be for students to go on to the Alma school.
He said Liverpool’s catering and hospitality industry would be the main winner, because “we will have the skilled workforce it needs”.
Broughton Hall head teacher Gerard Murphy said the college complemented the schools’ desire for students to “work and be trained alongside experts, getting real experience”.
Cllr Clucas said: “I am convinced we will create world-leading chefs thanks to students having access to that level of expertise.”
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