Ecole Ferrandi, the talent factory

It's at 28, rue de l'Abbé Grégoire, in the heart of Paris's 6ᵉ arrondissement, that the École Ferrandi has nestled since 1958. From the outside, a plush but discreet facade hints at nothing of what unfolds inside.

In fact, the school covers an area of 25,000 square meters, taking up an entire city block. Once past the entrance, the building opens onto a vast rectangular courtyard surrounded by multi-storey buildings. Already, the smell of pastry tickles the nostrils. They emanate from a laboratorywhere, on this particular afternoon, a small group of international students are practicing makingthe great classics of French pastry.Drawn from the four corners of the globe - China, South Korea, Taiwan and Latin America - to learn French gastronomic savoir-faire, these students are following a year-long intensive program in the capital, taught in English.

Further on, in another laboratory, this time in the kitchen, a small group from AgroParisTech's IPCI master's program (Ingénierie de Produits à l'interface Cuisine-Industrie) are behind the stoves for a practical course on the functioning of materials. Their neighbors are students on the CAP Post Bac program, taking additional training to complement their diploma, and practicing the delicate art of making sauces. " Ferrandi is the only school to offer training for all professions in pastry-making, baking, cooking and hotel management, and above all, for all publics," explains Audrey Janet, the school's Communications and Press Relations Manager.

How did Ferrandi Paris come into being?

Founded in 1920 on the initiative of the Paris CCI (Chamber of Commerce and Industry), which wanted to set up workshop-schools, the school has since trained many generations of chefs and professionals, contributing to its international renown and reputation for excellence. Here, teaching is simple," explains Richard Ginioux, Director of Ferrandi Paris. Where elsewhere, students watch and sometimes practice, here, they practice all the time and over and over again. The training we offer makes our students immediately operational, and at the highest level. 99% of our students pass their exams, and the seven-month professional integration rate is 94%.

A talent factory

Today, Ferrandi has 5 campuses spread across France in Paris, Saint-Gratien, Dijon, Bordeaux and Rennes, with a total of 2,500 students, as well as 300 international students representing 40 countries.international students representing some forty different nationalities, and almost 2000 adults undergoing professional retraining or continuing professional development.

The Parisian establishment boasts 40 fully-equipped professional laboratories for baking, pastry-making and cooking, as well as two application restaurants, "Le Premier" with seating for up to 70 people, and "Le Petit", which serves as a training ground for apprentices (CAP).application for apprenticeship students (CAP, Bac Pro, BTS) with a bistronomic positioning, and the more gastronomic "28", where students in the Bachelor's program in hotel and catering management are trained. Our aim is to embrace all professions in the industry, at all levels, in all positions, with one single standard: excellence," explains Richard Ginioux. Over the last fifteen years or so, we've been repositioning ourselves in other areas such as sommellerie and event management, as well as in management, which is a major area of development.

In the 1980s, the Ferrandi school launched a graduate program to train chefs and business leaders. The Bachelor of Culinary Arts & Entrepreneurship with a cuisine or patisserie option was officially created in 2011. A Master's program was launched seven years ago.

In 2023, Ferrandi joins the Conférence des Grandes Écoles as a hotel school, the only one with the Institut Paul Bocuse to be part of this prestigious educational group. We were the first school to gain recognition from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, obtaining the Bac +3 Visa for our bachelor's degrees," explains Richard Ginioux. We're moving from transmitting knowledge to building it up, an ambitious stage, but we can count on the economic power of the school and its anchorage in a network of excellence to meet the challenge successfully ". The École Ferrandi will continue to make its mark in the world of gastronomy and culinary arts, both in France and abroad.