Richemont-Masterbaker Centre for Excellence in Baking and Pastry has opened its doors in Dubai, with the objective of elevating the skill level of chefs specialising in pastry, bakery and chocolate in the Middle East.
Established through a partnership between UAE-founded Masterbaker Marketing and Richemont Centre of Excellence in Switzerland, the school is located in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers.
It is authorised by Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority and all courses are certified by Richemont Centre of Excellence in Switzerland.
Ronnie Khajotia, director, Richemont-Masterbaker Centre for Excellence in Baking and Pastry told Catering News: “In many parts of the world, you get good bakery and pastry education, but it’s not as evolved as in the West. It’s about bringing the level of chefs in this region to that of the Europeans.
“I think it’s good for the skill level in the industry to go up. It’s good for everyone; certainly, it’s good for Masterbaker. All of the senior chefs are very happy that something like this is happening here.”
The school offers courses in bakery, and chocolate & pastry, with entry-level, intermediate and advanced modules available.
Each five-day course costs AED 5,500 and is conducted by Richemont Centre of Excellence-certified trainers. An introductory offer of AED 4,500 per course is currently available.
While the facility is owned fully by Masterbaker Marketing, it is an independent entity. Khajotia commented: “It will stand on its own feet in terms of profitability and it will work with anyone, not just with the ingredients from Masterbaker.”
At the helm of the pastry & chocolate department is Chef Christiane Trilck, who trained in Culinary at the RBZ University in Germany for three years as a Masterchef and was previously a key pastry trainer for Hilton Hotels, Waldorf and Conrad Hotels across the Arabian Peninsula.
Supporting Trilck as assistant chef instructors of the pastry & chocolate programme are Bhupendra Singh who has spent seven years in pastry operations in five-star hotels; and Honorine Reach, who has 10 years of pastry experience in Michelin-starred restaurants in France and five-star hotels.
Assistant chef instructor of the bread & baking programme is Uwe Maienschein, who worked as a bakery chef in Germany for 27 years.
The school was engineered and designed by architecture company Dimx, and features equipment from Miwe, Rondo, Victorinox, Ginox Swiss Kitchen, Coldline and TSSC.
Richemont-Masterbaker Centre for Excellence held its first class on 26 March and currently Khajotia and the team are working on raising awareness of the facility and developing a wider range of courses.
From September 2017 the institute will offer weekend and evening courses to the public and will bring in celebrity chefs to offer special courses.
“We’re just getting started and seeing how the response is and what we can do next,” said Khajotia.
