ALMA - The International School of Italian Cuisine

THE WORLD’S LEADING CENTER FOR TRAINING IN ITALIAN CUISINE

ALMA - The International School of Italian Cuisine is hosted in the magnificent Ducal Palace of Colorno, located in a beautiful Italian-style garden. The school is 10 km from Parma, the heart of the Italian Food Valley, and awarded by UNESCO as the Creative City of Gastronomy, where also EFSA - the European Food Safety Authority is located.
This outstanding historical location is equipped with the latest teaching and cooking facilities. It covers over 7.000 MQ with: a conference room and an agora room with kitchens, 7 training classrooms, 4 demo classrooms, 2 pastry labs and 1 sommellerie room fully equipped with A/V system, a 17th century wine cellar, 1 sensory analysis lab, 1 R&D kitchen, 1 library with 13.000 culinary books, newspapers and DVD collections, a central kitchen, 1 restaurant seating 180 guests and 1 Fine Dining Restaurant seating 40 guests.
Since 2004, ALMA has educated in this location chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers and F&B managers from all over the world with training programs performed at the highest level by the most awarded teachers.
ALMA’s dean was Maestro Gualtiero Marchesi, the most authoritative Italian chef and cooking teacher all over the world. Moreover, the school collaborates with more than 700 among the most renowned Italian restaurants to place internships for ALMA students, also relying on high-qualified teaching staff.

One of the reasons for this success is ALMA Alumni’s high employment rate. Out of statistics, 90% of them find a job within 6 months after their diploma and ALMA helps them accessing employment thanks to ALMAlink, a dedicated portal www.almalink.it allowing restaurants, hotel, and companies of the catering industry get into contact with ALMA graduates.

ALMA TEACHING OFFER

Language: Italian

• ADVANCED COURSE IN ITALIAN CUISINE
• ADVANCED COURSE IN PASTRY
• ADVANCED COURSE IN BAKING
• CUISINE TECHNIQUES COURSE
• PASTRY TECHNIQUES COURSE
• ASSISTANT RESTAURANT&BAR MANAGER
• MASTER SOMMELIER ALMA-AIS
• F&B MANAGER COURSE

Language: English

• Long Program: INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM OF ITALIAN CUISINE
• Long Program: INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM OF MODERN PASTRY
• Short Program: A TASTE OF ITALY
• JOINT PROGRAMS WITH PARTNER SCHOOLS

ALMA INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

ALMA has a strong international vocation and this is the reason why it has developed a strong network of the top Culinary Schools all over the world. In collaboration with its partner schools, ALMA organizes special Italian cooking courses and trains foreign chefs to become ambassadors of Italian cuisine and Italian products in their home country.

AFRICA

1.Prue Leith Chef Academy - Centurion, Pretoria (South Africa)

AMERICA

2.Mausi Sebes - Buenos Aires (Argentina)

3.Senac - Centro Universitário - São Paulo (Brazil)

4.Senac - Departamento Nacional – Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

5.George Brown College Chef School – Toronto (Canada)

6.ITHQ - Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Quebec – Montréal (Canada)

7.Cessa Universidad - Mexico City (Mexico)

ASIA

8.VTC - Vocational Training Council - Hong Kong (China)

9.Tourism College of Zhejiang - Hangzhou (China)

10.AIMS Institute – Bangalore (India)

11.KDU University College - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

12.Il Cuoco - Italian Culinary Institute – Seoul (South Korea)

13.Hungkuang University, Taichung (Taiwan)

14.Ecole d’Art Culinaire de Miyagi – Sendai (Japan)

EUROPE

15.KULIN d.o.o. – Sisak (Croatia)

16.Galileo Global Education Germany GmbH – Munich (Germany)

17.MSA – Culinary Arts Academy – Istanbul (Turkey)

18.ALMA, The International School of Italian Cuisine - Parma (Italy)

19.BIC Vocationale Ljubljana College – Ljubljana (Slovenia)

20.Westminster Kingsway College – London (UK)

ALMA PARTNERS

Some of the school’s main partners are Parma Chamber of Commerce, the majority shareholder, together with Provincia di Parma, which set the premises with Colorno Castle. Other partners are: Unione Industriali and Ascom Parma, Cariparma Crédit Agricole, FIPE, several Consortiums for the Protection of Typical Foods and Wines (Parmigiano-Reggiano, Lambrusco di Modena, Olio Toscano, Prosciutto di Parma, Vini Reggiani, Salumi Tipici Piacentini, Vini DOC Colli Piacentini, Vini Colli di Parma, Produttori di Aceto Balsamico, Vini Colli Bolognesi), APACOOP, ASSICA, Confcooperative Emilia-Romagna, Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano, Federalimentare, Assolatte and Federdoc.
ALMA also signed protocol agreements with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), and with the Italian National Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE). It also has entered into agreements and collaborations with SDA Bocconi in Milan and Parma University. ALMA is accredited by Emilia Romagna Region education system and is ISO 9001-2008 certified.
In 2011 it signed a cooperation agreement with EXPO 2015 for a series of education and promotion activities during the EXPO under the subject of “Feeding the planet – Energy for life”, which will also involve its international network.