Our modern state of the art Culinary Academy offers you not only the largest training kitchen but also the best facilities available in South Africa. These include spacious, modern kitchens with individual workstations, the TCA Food Theatre, air conditioned lecture rooms, a research library and computer room, a recreational student lounge, an outside patio area, an interactive dining room, beautiful gardens and TCA House, all with breathtaking views of the winelands. We also offer access to wine tasting rooms, top local wine cellars, local cheese makers and chocolatiers as well as olive farms.

The Culinary Academy offers its students the opportunity to pursue their passion right in the heart of the winelands, located on the award winning Backsberg Wine Estate, just 10-minutes from Paarl, 15-minutes from the Southern Hemisphere’s food capital, Franschhoek, 15-minutes from Stellenbosch and 35-minutes from Cape Town.

Living and studying on one of the world’s leading wine estates, stimulates and enhances the creativity and practical instruction that TCA is renowned for. This unique partnership between TCA & Backsberg offers our students the chance to study in a modern, yet heart of the country environment where safe and secure accommodation is also offered and where the distractions of city life are few.

TCA students not only study on the Estate, but are also actively involved in harvesting, tasting and understanding the wine making process, planting and watching their own vegetables grow - knowing that their dishes contain the freshest produce and are made in the healthiest environment. Backsberg has after all recently become the first wine producer in South Africa and one of only three in the world to gain Carbon Neutral status by sequestrating its carbon emissions.

If cooking is your passion imagine being able to step out of the classroom to help with the wine harvest. Or pick vegetables fresh from the ground to produce the crispest salad. To have everything that a good cook needs - right on your doorstep!

TCA House presents our student’s with a unique opportunity to work and live at Backsberg, one of the world’s leading Wine Estates.

With a capacity for 18 students, TCA House is an exciting mix of old and new. The building was one of the first to be erected on the estate and today offers our students a comfortable home-away-from-home.