In 2019, HEC Paris joined forces with Atelier des Chefs to create an educational offer that enables business school students to obtain a CAP in cooking, pastry or baking. Nicolas Bergerault, co-founder of the Atelier des Chefs, retraces the history of this company which has always maintained a strong link with training.
2019, HEC Paris engages with the Atelier des Chefs to enable students of the Grande Ecole program to pass a CAP in cooking, pastry or baking. Quickly, other business schools, engineering schools and universities followed suit. Today, over 249 students are trained in the restaurant business along with their studies. They are students in major institutions such as ESSEC, Polytechnique, NEOMA, Audencia, Paris-Nanterre University or even MINES ParisTech.
Read also: HEC reveals the contours of its future campus
The origins of the Atelier des Chefs
L’Atelier des Chefs was created in July 2004 by two brothers and a chef. Nicolas Bergerault, himself a graduate of HEC Paris, brought his experience in marketing, while his brother, François, contributed to the project thanks to his knowledge of the business world. They were joined by chef Jean-Sébastien Bompoil.
The love story between Nicolas Bergerault and cooking dates back to his student years at HEC, where he presented the CAP with two friends. They had won the special jury prize, then the show and accompaniment award. After an experience at L’Oréal, then Nestlé, he co-founded the Atelier des Chefs which intends to offer different cooking courses to everyone.
In 2017, the idea emerged to undertake online professional training to prepare for the cuisine of the CAP. Faced with the success of the first promotions, the company is developing to offer pastry and bakery CAPs. Today, the success rate of exam candidates is around 98%. Since 2021, the Atelier des Chefs has also been offering training to prepare for careers in the fields of beauty, personal service and construction.
Read also: Stanislas Niox-Chateau, graduated from HEC Paris and CEO Doctolib
The first collaborations between HEC Paris and the Atelier des Chefs
It was in 2018 that a student from HEC Paris contacted the Atelier des Chefs to support the CAP thanks to the digital training offered by the company. After graduating, he indicates that a group of his friends would also like to go through the Atelier des Chefs to prepare for the cuisine of the CAP and asks if a student rate is possible. “JI said that it was possible to make a student rate, but that I wanted to create a real partnership with HEC Paris. It was then that we went to see, with this student, the direction of the school to develop this system. It only took a few seconds for Eloïck Peyrache to accept. He understood that the new generations wanted to make sense of their careers that it would be a success! “
Since the beginning of the 2019 school year, the Atelier des Chefs has been introduced to students who join HEC Paris during the back-to-school forum and is a real success for Nicolas who manages to sell 40 CAPs. During this academic year 2021-2022, 48 students of HEC Paris are trained thanks to the partnership established between the business school and the Atelier des Chefs.
Read also: Meeting with Salomé Blondeau: HEC student and in the CAP pastry shop
CAP cooking training in a business school
CAP cooking training when you join the best business and engineering schools is now possible with the Atelier des Chefs, which has significantly developed its business in leading French higher education institutions. Today the students of Polytechnique, HEC Paris and ESSEC are the most favorable to this system.
Therefore, students who choose to pass a pastry, cooking or baking CAP at the end of the year, can train at their own pace, thanks to the platform that offers 100% digital training. They only need to register in November to be able to pass their CAP in June.
Practice remains an essential part of the education of students wishing to graduate. If they can practice at home, HEC Paris offers its students to practice cooking at Gustave, the school’s restaurant. In addition, CAP cooking training is an integral part of the electives offered to students of the institution.
However, those who opt for this training do not necessarily intend to open their own restaurant or patisserie. They develop a sensitivity for this universe. Some launch a startup in the food business while others may raise their profile to hope to work at FoodTechs.
Read also: The Franco-German FoodTech Choco becomes a unicorn
The ambitions of the Atelier des Chefs in terms of training
The goal of the Atelier des Chefs? Become the essential platform for digital training on manual or human trade. For several years the company has developed to offer courses for people in retraining, continuous training for companies, training for people looking for work, thanks to the partnership with Pôle Emploi, but also courses for prisoners, with the support of the Ministry of Justice .
Recently, the Atelier des Chefs has set up its own CFA, which allows the company to hire ” a different size. We are becoming a reputable organization and this is a sign of maturity. The peculiarity of this CFA is that it is 100% digital and allows everyone to start their training whenever they want, even if the apprentices will have to respect a certain time frame since the CAP exam is always in June.
However, Nicolas Bergerault imagines, why not, to launch diploma certificates made in the Atelier des Chefs to overcome the constraints of the CAP. ” Today these diplomas are complete in terms of technicality, but sometimes outdated. In the cuisine of the CAP there is no mention of vegan food. The CAP hairstyle test is based on straight and long hair, but a part of the population has curly hair. »The dream of the founder of the Atelier des Chefs? Enable everyone to train with these 3 to 12 month diploma certificates.