Mengen trains chefs for the finest in world

Bolu's Mengen Cookery School, known for its chefs, trains students for the food services industry. After a two-year education, students find positions all around the world in the finest places Abant ?zzet Baysal University's (AIBU) Mengen Cookery School, a vocational high school in the northwestern province of Bolu's Mengen district, trains chefs in the art of Ottoman and world cuisines. 

Director of the school, Associated Professor Nihal Do?an, said the school was opened in 1997 and specialized in training academic and administrative staff for the food sector. 

She said the school currently has 201 students enrolled for the 2015-2016 education year, adding, "Since the opening of the school, 500 chefs were trained and they have been successfully representing Turkish cuisine as well as world cuisine all around the world." 

According to Do?an, the school's purpose is to train professional cuisine chefs through whom to introduce Turkish food culture, along with the tradition and heritage of Ottoman palace cuisine to the world.  The school also aims to increase the exportation of Turkish products, through the appraisal of Turkish products by students.

Full capacity every year

She said graduates of the school work in many countries of the world. "The graduates are working in luxurious hotels in many successful positions. They are everywhere, from Singapore to Germany, from the United States to the Far East," Do?an said. 

Do?an said students learned about fine cold appetizers from both the Ottoman and world cuisines, in addition to cuisine customs, culture and communication and the art of gastronomy. 

During the two year program, the "students take theoretical classes for the first year. The...