ALMOST AT THE SUMMIT
- Alumni
- Beyond
For 30 years, the Institute of Culinary Arts has pursued a simple goal: to train excellent chefs to the highest possible standard and prepare them to succeed in a global culinary industry.
Over the years, that commitment has been recognised by some of the most respected organisations in culinary education and the hospitality industry.
The ICA was the first South African culinary school to receive the International City & Guilds Centre of Excellence Award, and in 2017 was recognised as one of only three chef schools worldwide to meet the organisation’s highest criteria for excellence. The ICA was named the Centre of Excellence for Africa after thousands of training facilities globally were externally evaluated.
The school has also received the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award of Excellence, the Old Mutual Business of the Year Award, City & Guilds International Gold Medal for Excellence and, in 2021, became the first South African culinary school to receive the World Culinary Awards’ Best Culinary Training Institution in Africa title.
In 2025, the ICA was again recognised nationally when it received the Academy of Excellence title at the Africa’s Greatest Bakers Awards – South Africa Edition.
These accolades matter to us not because a trophy defines an institution, but because of how that recognition was earned.
Recognition of the people behind the ICA
Recognition is not only relevant to the school. It is also relevant to the people who have helped to shape it.
Founder and Principal Letitia Prinsloo received the Eat Out Lannice Snyman Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 in recognition of her lifelong contribution to culinary excellence and education. She remains the only chef-school founder and principal to have received this honour.
Head of Faculty and Senior Pâtisserie Lecturer Merizle Mitrovich received the City & Guilds Medal for Excellence as Tutor of the Year – an international recognition of her contribution to culinary education and her commitment to the ICA’s training ethos.
These are not popularity awards. They are recognitions bestowed on individuals whose careers, expertise and contributions to the industry have been appraised by respected organisations and experts within their fields.
Recognition of ICA graduates
Ultimately, however, the most meaningful measure of a chef school is what happens when its students leave its campus and make their mark in the global culinary world.
ICA graduates have gone on to work in some of the world’s most demanding kitchens and to build restaurants that have received international recognition.
Peter Tempelhoff (ICA Class of 1997) earned recognition on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list five times, with his restaurant FYN reaching No. 37 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2025. In the same year, he also became the first SA chef to be awarded Three Knives at the global Best Chef Awards. FYN was awarded the title of Eat Out Restaurant of the Year in 2026, and Peter is still the only Relais & Châteaux Grande Chef in South Africa. Kobus van der Merwe (ICA Class of 2000) was named the Nederburg Rising Star early in his career (2004), followed by the Eat Out Chef of the Year Award in 2008. His bespoke Strandveld eatery, Wolfgat, was named Restaurant of the Year AND Best Off-Map Destination in the World in 2019 and reached No. 50 on the World’s Best Restaurant list in 2021. Hylton Espey (ICA Class of 2003) became the first South African-trained chef to receive a Michelin Green Star for his work at Culture in Cornwall. Other graduates, including Callan Austin (ICA Class of 2017) and Michelin-guide-listed Angelo Scirocco (ICA Class of 2012), have also received international recognition through prestigious competitions and industry awards. This is to name only a few of the many awards and accolades bestowed on ICA-trained chefs.
These achievements naturally belong to the chefs themselves. But they also tell a story about the education and foundations that helped prepare them for the industry.
The same narrative can be seen closer to home. ICA-trained chefs have consistently featured prominently in South Africa’s most respected culinary awards, while industry demand for ICA graduates continues to reinforce the reputation built over three decades.
Small by design, measured by outcomes
The ICA has never tried to be the biggest chef school.
Our model is deliberately different: small, personalised groups, intensive practical training and close interaction between lecturers and students. With an average lecturer-to-student ratio of 1:6, students are known individually and their development is closely observed.
That is difficult to capture in a popularity poll. And perhaps that is the point.
Excellence in culinary education should be measured by the quality of the education, the expertise of those delivering it, the standards applied to the students and, ultimately, what those students go on to achieve.
Which brings us back to the word “BEST”.
What does “BEST” really mean?
At the ICA, we are proud of the recognition we have received. We are proud of the people who have earned it and of the graduates whose careers continue to extend the ICA legacy around the world.
We also believe that recognition carries meaning because of the process behind it.
A title determined primarily by how many people an institution can persuade to vote may demonstrate popularity, engagement or the strength of a community. Those things have value, but they do not, on their own, demonstrate the quality of a culinary education.
That is why the ICA has chosen not to campaign for votes to be named the “BEST” chef school. We would rather be evaluated than voted for, scrutinised than promoted, and recognised for what we have achieved consistently over many years of culinary education.
Because the recognition that matters most is not the title on a banner.
It is the standard that remains when the banner comes down.
And that is a standard we intend to keep earning.
