George Brown Chef School: Toronto's public culinary college, its diplomas and The Chefs' House, and what the chefs in my books say about a value education

George Brown Chef School is the culinary school of a public college, which is the first thing to understand about it. It belongs to George Brown Polytechnic in downtown Toronto and awards Ontario’s standard credentials: certificates, two year college diplomas, honours bachelor’s degrees and postgraduate certificates. It is the Canadian school on this site’s overview page and the value option in North America, and its graduates have begun to appear in the Michelin Guide’s first Canadian lists. None of the chefs in my books trained there, or anywhere in Canada, and I say what the honest connections are below.

What the school is

The college’s Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts page places The Chef School inside its faculty of Business, Creative Industries and Culinary Arts and describes it as one of Canada’s top culinary and hospitality environments, which is the school’s own claim. It lists teaching kitchens, pastry labs, bake shops, tasting labs and wine and beverage spaces, says students gain real world experience through events, restaurant service and industry partnerships, and notes that the school is LEAF certified as a sustainable foodservice establishment. The page gives no founding date.

In the field it is the best known culinary school in Canada, in the country’s largest restaurant city, at a public college price. It lacks the brand of Le Cordon Bleu, whose Ottawa school is the other Canadian name students weigh, and no world ranking of culinary schools exists; the Chef’s Pencil Michelin alumni studies cover the United States and France and not Canada. What George Brown has instead is the Ontario public credential, a restaurant on King Street and a city of kitchens to place students in.

Programs and how they are taught

The centre’s page lists the Chef School’s programs. Certificates: Baking and Pastry Foundations, Culinary Skills, Baker and Patissier Apprentice, Cook Apprentice, and Hospitality Services. Diplomas: Culinary Management, Baking and Pastry Arts Management, and Tourism and Hospitality Management. Degrees: an Honours Bachelor of Commerce in Culinary Management and an Honours Bachelor of Food Studies, each with a bridging version for diploma holders. Postgraduate: Culinary Arts Italian, and the Culinary Management program page adds Advanced French Patisserie and Food and Nutrition Management.

The program most students mean by George Brown is the Culinary Management diploma, code H100. It runs two years over four semesters, full time, at the St. James campus in downtown Toronto, and leads to an Ontario College Diploma. The program page describes hands on cooking labs alongside demonstrations and lectures, covering local and sustainable foods, nutrition and international cuisine as well as leadership and business skills, and it says the program provides the complete in school portion of Ontario’s Cook Apprenticeship, so a graduate who then works under a certified cook is on the trade route as well as the college one.

The placement is the heart of the second year. The page says students complete a 14 week industry work integrated learning program, that the college works with employers and industry partners to find placements and that students may also find their own, and it lists the third semester as the co op term. The page does not say whether placements are paid, and I have not found a source that does; the school is the place to ask. It also sets out the ladder upward: diploma graduates can enter the third year of either honours degree with some additional courses, and degree graduates may be granted advanced standing at universities abroad.

Then there is the restaurant. The Chefs’ House at 215 King Street East is the school’s restaurant, which the college describes as a student focused restaurant where students work in a safe environment guided by its instructional team of industry professionals. Its OpenTable listing describes a contemporary Canadian menu with prix fixe lunch and dinner. The college converted it to a grab and go marketplace during the pandemic, and it has since returned to table service. A restaurant open to the public, where students cook and serve under instructors, is one of the tests this site applies to every school it names.

Who it is for and how to get in

The program page does not list entry requirements; it directs Ontario applicants to apply through the provincial college application service and international applicants to the college’s own online application and international admissions pages, and the centre offers a free Entry Advising service to match applicants’ skills and goals to a program. Fees, intake dates and deadlines change each year and the college’s site carries them. International applicants should read the program page’s note on post graduation work permit eligibility carefully, since the page states the current position for this program and it can change.

It suits a student in or coming to Canada who wants a recognized credential at a public college price, a placement in a Toronto kitchen and a path onward to a degree. A student who wants the classical French brigade route, or a name that opens doors in Paris or New York on its own, is looking at a different list.

Alumni and what the record documents

The school’s own page names two alumni, Mark McEwan and Jamie Kennedy, both Toronto chefs. The more recent record is better documented. In September 2024 the college announced that graduates Jeremy and Cassie Austin had earned a Michelin star for The Pine in Creemore, Ontario, one of only four stars awarded to Canadian restaurants that year; Jeremy Austin took the postgraduate Culinary Arts Italian program and Cassie Austin the Food and Beverage Management program, and the couple worked in Italy, Wuxi, Hong Kong and Shanghai after graduating. The trade magazine Foodservice and Hospitality reported the same star, quoting Jeremy Austin that attending the college was the most important thing he had done. A college feature on alumni abroad follows Kevin Buck, a graduate of both the Culinary Management and Italian programs, from the three star Frantzén in Sweden to Above at HIDE in London and the British Culinary Federation’s Chef of the Year award in 2023, and Darryl Shotlander and Allen Huynh into Italian kitchens including Massimo Bottura’s in Modena. The Culinary Management page adds Aakash Dhall, winner of a season of Food Network’s Fire Masters.

Read as a whole, the documented record is of graduates earning places in good kitchens in Toronto and abroad, with one Michelin star in Canada so far. That is a fair return for a public college diploma.

What the chefs in my books say

No chef in my books trained at George Brown or anywhere in Canada; Nicholas Yarnell, a hotelier, lists Toronto among the cities of his childhood, and that is the whole of it. The honest connection is the route itself, and several North American chefs in my books describe taking a college route and what they did with it. Sean Gray, who ran Momofuku Ko in New York, was pointed toward school by a teacher.

“She encouraged me to go to culinary school and signed me up for the Culinary Institute of America mailing list. I was eager to learn more and I’m glad that I was encouraged to follow that path.” Sean Gray, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

Aaron Silverman of Rose’s Luxury in Washington discovered cooking in a stage during a college break.

“I torched tomatoes, picked herbs from their garden and learned to slice smoked salmon, and after the experience I was so excited about cooking that I finished college a year early just to enroll in culinary school.” Aaron Silverman, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

Rodolfo Guzmán of Boragó in Santiago came to school late, after a dishwashing job in South Carolina had turned into cooking the pastry.

“I needed to earn an income so I was hired as a dishwasher at John’s Island café. Ultimately, I ended up cooking all the pastry, which tells you I really wanted to learn, grow and create.” Rodolfo Guzmán, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

And Anthony Bourdain, whom I interviewed in 2016, said what every student at a public college should hear before enrolling anywhere.

“Let’s face it, if you’re rolling out of culinary school and your highest aspiration is to be on TV, or you think you’re ready to make the big bucks, good luck with that because your prospects are not good.” Anthony Bourdain, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

A two year public diploma with a placement in a working kitchen is, on Bourdain’s terms, the sane version of culinary school: it costs less, it puts you in a kitchen in the second year, and it leaves you with a trade credential whether or not the degree follows.

How to decide

Decide on the placement and the restaurant. Ask the school where last year’s Culinary Management students did their 14 weeks, whether the placements were paid, and how many were hired afterward. Eat at The Chefs’ House and watch how the students are corrected. Weigh the Ontario credential against what the employers you want will recognize, and if you are coming from abroad, settle the work permit question before you settle anything else. Then remember what the school is for. The Austins’ star came from years in Italy and China after the diploma; Buck’s award came from Frantzén and London. The college opened the door. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about the years on the other side of it. The Luxury of Attention (2026), Chapter 2

Sources

• George Brown Polytechnic, Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts / The Chef School
• George Brown Polytechnic, Culinary Management Program (H100)
• George Brown Polytechnic, The Chefs’ House student restaurant transforms into grab and go market (15 September 2020)
• OpenTable, The Chefs’ House, George Brown College
• George Brown Polytechnic, Michelin Star shines on George Brown graduates (24 September 2024)
• Foodservice and Hospitality, GBC alumni celebrate Michelin star for The Pine restaurant
• George Brown Polytechnic, From George Brown to Michelin stardom: how alumni foster culinary success worldwide