Turin Chefs' Association

As the very first Italian capital, Turin also boasts the very first Italian association of chefs, cooks and kitchen professionals, from the HTM/cooking students to the restaurant owners. Founded in 1722, Associazone Cuochi Torino (ACT) is even older than the national Italian Cooks Federation (F.I.C.) (Italy got united into a whole kingdom in 1861) and back then, it already included women!
In the past centuries, wealthy families, especially the aristocrats, used to hire their own chefs/cooks and dine in their palazzos while restaurants, as we know them today, were not fashionable yet and cooking was a different profession.

For any respectable foodie and culinary professional, Associazione Cuochi Torino represents a living and breathing piece of history as it is still the actual reference point for all the restaurants and catering businesses in Piedmont. The headquarters are still in Via Bogino 17, where the original association was founded and original historical banners ares still displayed like the red velvet flag that states that the "Turin cooks association is under the protection of Pasquale Baylon" - who apparently gave the name to zabajone, the famous italian custard :P 

courtesy of ACT

Nowadays, the association is directed by a board, whose president is Chef Lamberto Guerrer, a strong Turin Epicurean Capital supporter and a very experienced chef, restaurant owner, culinary professor, with a wide teaching in many countries, from Costa Rica to Japan!

All the board members are chefs and have a long experience in the culinary world making of the culinary classes an added value. In fact, with the masterchef frenzy, many regular professionals choose to follow their cooking passion and enroll in the Associazione courses.
The boldest ones even quit their regular jobs upon the completion of their diploma and open their own restaurant or catering service.

Besides their cooking passion, the ACT students of all ages also share a certainty of professional success. In fact, the school receives hiring requests on a daily basis, from everywhere in the world! 

As cooking is a skill we also learn through direct experience, ACT offers real cooking classes, mimicking the real restaurant kitchen dynamics, including the group meal. As Chef Guerrer never tires to repeat "the ultimate purpose of our classes is the meal, where everybody sits down at the table and personally judges his/her own work and the one of the team".

Skill, perception and experience make a full rounded chef and the ACT course catalog is rather large and diverse, ranging from the traditional Italian and international cuisine, to baking, pastry, chocolate making and other themed classes.

Amateur or professional, a cooking class at Associazione Cuochi Torino makes it for the ultimate Italian, Turinese and Piedmontese foodie experience :D