A few minutes from Times Square, there's a restaurant called Chatti, built around clay cooking pots and the toddy-shop cuisine of Kerala. Its founder, Regi Mathew, grew up in Kottayam — the same town this blog is written from. Before New York, he built Kappa Chakka Kandhari into one of India's most celebrated Kerala-cuisine restaurants, with locations in Chennai and Bengaluru. Before that, he was just another student figuring out that the kitchen, not the classroom, was where he wanted to spend his life.

A little further north, in Kollam, another Malayali boy was selling pomelo fruit in a local market to earn pocket money. Decades later, Suresh Pillai — better known simply as Chef Pillai — would go on to work in Michelin-recognised kitchens in London, compete on MasterChef: The Professionals UK, and eventually return home to Kerala as culinary director at The Raviz, only to launch the now-famous ‘Chef Pillai’ restaurant group.

Neither of them started with a formal culinary degree from abroad. Both of them, at some point, went looking for structured training that could take their raw skill somewhere further and faster than an apprenticeship alone. That's the gap a growing number of Kerala students are now filling earlier — and more deliberately.

Why This Is Becoming a Real Conversation, Not a Niche One

For years, culinary and hospitality study abroad barely came up in our counselling conversations at IRS Study Abroad in Kottayam — it sat somewhere behind engineering, nursing, and business as a "maybe, if nothing else works out" option. That's shifting. Global demand for trained chefs and hospitality professionals is strong and consistent — hotel groups, cruise lines, and restaurant chains all recruit internationally, and a recognised diploma travels in a way raw talent alone doesn't. Kerala also has a head start most students don't realise they're sitting on: a home-cooking culture built on genuine technique — coconut, spice, seafood, slow-cooked layering — that translates surprisingly well once it meets formal training.

What's missing for most families is simply knowing where that formal training actually happens, and which of the destinations are the real thing versus a name on a brochure. So here's an honest look at four countries where we work with genuinely established institutions — not just countries that happen to be popular for other courses.

Switzerland: Where Modern Hotel Management Was Basically Invented

If one country gets to claim the origin story of professional hospitality education, it's Switzerland. We work with several of its most recognised names:
César Ritz Colleges, in Lucerne, is named directly after César Ritz — the hotelier behind the Ritz Paris and the entire Ritz-Carlton lineage, and widely credited as the man who defined what luxury hospitality even means. The college is ranked 3rd globally in Hospitality and Leisure Management by the QS World University Rankings.

Swiss Hotel Management School (SHMS), across campuses in Montreux and Leysin, is ranked among the top hospitality schools in the world, and was the first hospitality school globally to receive Apple Distinguished School recognition for its use of technology in teaching.
HTMi in Lucerne blends American-style business education with Swiss hospitality precision, while BHMS, also in Lucerne, rounds out a genuinely deep bench of options within a single country.

What ties all of them together is a teaching philosophy Swiss hospitality schools are famous for: learning by doing. Students don't just study hotel operations in theory — they run real front-office desks, real events, real food and beverage operations, on campus, before they ever graduate.

France: The Country That Trained the Chef Who Trained a Generation

Our partner in France, Institut Lyfe, was known until 2023 as Institut Paul Bocuse — named after one of the most influential chefs of the 20th century, credited with shaping the entire trajectory of modern French cuisine. Founded in Lyon in 1991 — a city regarded as France's gastronomic capital — the institute's International Hospitality Management bachelor's programme has been ranked first in its category for over a decade running.

The renaming to Institut Lyfe was a branding shift, not a change of substance: the school still teaches through a faculty that includes Michelin-starred chefs and holders of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France title, one of French cooking's highest individual honours. For a Kerala student, studying here means training in the country that essentially wrote the technical vocabulary the entire culinary world still uses today.

Albania: The Balkans' Largest Culinary School, With Real Industry Roots

Our partner in Albania, the Neranxi Culinary Institute (NCI) in Tirana, has a different kind of story — and it's worth telling, because it's unusual. It didn't start as an academic institution at all. It grew out of Neranxi Company, a food-industry supplier operating since 1991, after Italian technical specialists working with the company suggested that its clients needed more than the occasional seminar — they needed a real school.

That school has since become the largest culinary institute in the Balkans, having trained thousands of students who now work across Albania and abroad, with several going on to start their own restaurants and businesses. NCI's roots in an actual working food business, rather than a purely academic setup, show up in how hands-on the training is — this is a school built by people who were already in the industry, for people who want to be.

Mauritius: Luxury Hospitality, With a French Academic Backbone

In Moka, Mauritius, our partner Escoffier Luxury Institute takes a different angle again — positioning itself specifically around the luxury industry, not hospitality in general. It offers French-recognised diplomas, bachelor's degrees, and MBAs across culinary arts, pastry, luxury hospitality, and sommellerie, delivered in partnership with established French universities.

Its diplomas are deliberately vocational rather than purely conceptual — the kind of professional focus that tends to translate directly into employability, with some students securing job offers before they've even finished training. For students drawn specifically to the luxury and fine-dining end of hospitality — five-star resorts, premium F&B, high-end guest experience — this is a genuinely distinctive option, and one most Kerala families have never heard of.

What a Culinary or Hospitality Diploma or Degree Actually Leads To

This isn't a lecture-hall degree — it's an apprenticeship-heavy field, and the best programmes treat it that way. Career paths from here run through restaurant kitchens, international hotel groups, cruise lines, luxury resorts, and — for those with the appetite for it — eventually building something of their own. Both Regi Mathew and Suresh Pillai are proof of that last path: formally trained or self-taught, both eventually became owners, not just employees, of the restaurants that made their names.

How to Choose Between These Four

A rough way to think about it:

• Want the deepest, most internationally recognised hospitality-management pedigree? Switzerland's cluster of schools gives you the most choice within one country.
• Want to train specifically in culinary arts, in the country that defines global culinary technique? France, through Institut Lyfe's Paul Bocuse lineage, is hard to beat.
• Want strong, affordable, hands-on training with real industry roots? Albania's Neranxi Institute is worth a serious look.
• Want to specialise specifically in luxury and fine hospitality? Mauritius's Escoffier Luxury Institute has built its whole identity around exactly that.

A Note on Other Destinations

We also work with universities in Malta and Bulgaria, and continue to expand our partner network across other countries as well. If a student already has strong reasons to consider one of these destinations — family ties, budget, or an existing interest — it's worth a direct conversation with our counsellors about what's currently available there, since our course offerings in these locations are still growing.

A Final Word from IRS Study Abroad, Kottayam

Kerala has never been short on people who can cook — ask anyone who's eaten at a wedding here. What's changed is the number of ways that talent can now travel: into a Michelin-adjacent kitchen in London, a luxury resort in the Indian Ocean, or eventually, a restaurant of your own, wherever in the world you decide to open it. If your child is drawn to the kitchen the way Regi Mathew or Suresh Pillai once were, we can help you work out which of these countries actually fits your budget, goals, and appetite for the work.

📞 Call us: +91 96561 21000 

📍 Visit us: 3rd Floor, Vettiyil Endow, Opp. Pvt. Bus Stand, Nagampadom, Kottayam

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a culinary or hospitality diploma or degree abroad recognised for work visas? 

Recognition depends on the specific country and institution. Schools like Switzerland's SHMS and César Ritz Colleges, and France's Institut Lyfe, are well established with international employers and typically support strong post-study work pathways. Always confirm current visa and work-rights details for your specific destination and course before enrolling.

Do I need a science or commerce background in +2 to study culinary arts abroad? 

No. Culinary and hospitality programmes generally accept students from any +2 stream. What matters more is genuine interest and, for some programmes, a demonstrated aptitude through an interview or portfolio.

Which is more affordable — Albania or Switzerland? 

As a general pattern, Albania and Mauritius tend to be more budget-friendly than Switzerland or France, though exact costs depend on the specific programme and duration. Our counsellors can walk you through current fee structures for each partner institution.

Is culinary training abroad only useful for restaurant work? 

No. Graduates go on to work in hotel food and beverage operations, cruise lines, resort management, catering companies, and increasingly, in food styling, product development, and their own ventures — not restaurant kitchens alone.

A great chef is trained in technique. A great career is trained in the right place, at the right time. For a growing number of Kerala students, that place is no longer just down the road.