Culinary colleges in Kenya are witnessing a surge in students enrolling for pastry chef courses, driven by growing opportunities abroad and a shortage of skilled professionals locally.
A few years ago, hotels started reporting a shortage of pastry chefs as workers made an exodus for international jobs paying better. Now, students are paying as high as Sh518,000 to be admitted into the few culinary schools in Kenya to learn baking and patisserie.
Benard Amaya, the acting deputy director for admissions at Kenya Utalii College, told the BDLife that rising demand for culinary training has led the college to expand its facilities.
“We’ve had to build a new stove training kitchen to accommodate 80 students, double the capacity of the old kitchen, which held 40 students. The older kitchen, meanwhile, continues to support 64 students who are solely studying pastry and bakery,” he said.
Mr Amaya said Utalii College, which churns out a majority of hospitality students, used to teach pastry before but stopped because the demand was low.
“In 2023, the course wasn’t attracting numbers,” he said. “But in stopping it, we created a shortage.”
Also, pastry was once sidelined in Kenya's hospitality training, as focus was on food and beverage service and food production. In 2024, Utalii reintroduced the pastry course.
“We realised hotels were asking specifically for pastry chefs, and there were very few,” he said.
Due to the high demand, the college has had to do two intakes. “There’s one main intake in October with about 64 students enrolling for the pastry course, followed by a smaller intake of 32 students in April,” Mr Amaya said.
The high demand for pastry arts or patisserie is also being driven by self-employment opportunities.
Many trained chefs, Mr Amaya observed, are no longer confined to hotel kitchens.
After formal work hours, some run their own confectionery businesses, operate eateries, or take on outside catering over weekends. Others are increasingly working as private chefs, serving homes rather than hotels.
Which gender dominates patisserie courses in these culinary colleges?
Mr Amaya said more women graduate from culinary programmes, but few advance to professional kitchens, particularly at senior levels.
Hotel kitchens remain largely male-dominated due to long working hours and physically demanding shifts, which many women find difficult to sustain alongside family commitments.
Harvest Restaurant's chocolate fudge by pastry chef Catherine Kariuki. January 21, 2020
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“At the lower levels, the ratios can be equal or even slightly have more women. Women make up 72 percent (of enrolments), compared to 28 percent men but you’ll find more men in the hotel kitchens,” he says.
Do pastry chefs earn more money? He says salaries vary, but doing a culinary course gives one a better chance of growing into the role of an executive chef, who is the overall manager of the kitchen.
Besides cruise ships and luxury resorts, pastry chefs are also being sought out in diplomatic residences and private homes. With an entry grade of C-, those seeking a short pastry and baking course at Utalii for one month pay Sh65, 000.
The shift is not unique to Utalii College.
At Boma International Hospitality College, Samuel Irungu, the school administrator, said students were increasingly changing careers to enrol in pastry and bakery courses at both diploma and certificate levels.
“Locally, there is a clear gap in the market,” Mr Irungu said. “Most pastry students are absorbed into the establishments [hotels] where they intern.”
The global outlook is equally compelling. “The earnings are very attractive,” he added. “And as professionals grow in the industry, it only gets better.”
The training itself has evolved. Where European, American and Indian cuisines once dominated the curriculum, African cuisine has since been introduced in these schools.
“When we did that, we realised there is a market that is not fully tapped,” said Mr Irungu.
Boma College charges between Sh437,000 and Sh518,000, depending on whether students enrol in a certificate or diploma course in baking and patisserie, with admissions done thrice a year.
