International Diploma Patisserie & Baking

South African Academy of Culinary Arts is a Professional and Internationally fully accredited Culinary & Pastry Academy.

My name is Ralph Gottschalk. I am the chef, owner and principal of SAACA, South African Academy of Culinary Arts, here in the beautiful and friendly city of Port Elizabeth in South Africa.

You have landed here on our new homepage because you are interested in studying Culinary and/or Pastry Arts here with us or you may even have already applied for next year’s intake. 

At SAACA we make sure that all of our lecturers have sufficient experience to teach you what you need to know to succeed once you have completed your studies with us. I have seen schools where they have lecturers that have 3 years’ experience, meaning that if they would teach you all they know, you will get 3 years of experience. Trust me, you will need more than that.

In addition to our head lecturer, we have also engaged the service of other leading chefs as guest lecturers for the coming year. Chefs which are employed elsewhere but because they are my friends and also care about you, the chef of tomorrow, will come and teach specialized subjects at SAACA.

We will have the honor to welcome Chef Jonathan, the Executive chef at the St Francis Links, to SAACA. He has varied extensive experience and has worked under Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck in the UK.

We also have plans to include Asian specialty chefs for sushi and Japanese, Indian chefs and more. The more you learn from experienced chefs, the better.