Transforming lives through food

Australia's Top-Tier Cookery College

Offering Culinary Career Training

The Institute of Culinary Excellence is an Australian top-tier cookery college and Registered Training Organisation (RTO, number: 40748) that offers culinary career training for apprentice chefs and new entrant students to the industry. Along with post graduate training to professional and qualified chefs.

We have some of the best chef teachers in the industry and utilise world-class training kitchens.

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Inside Our School

Courses & Programs

We Offer

What Makes ICE Different

Transforming Lives Through Food

Unlike other training organisations and colleges, we offer personalised, tailored training for each student that best suits their needs and, importantly, their workplace needs.

We offer our apprentices the opportunity of a lifetime with our ICE Student of the Year Award which sees our best ICE apprentice travel overseas on a culinary trip of a lifetime to visit and dine at one of the world’s best restaurants.

We continually push the boundaries at ICE and deliver our training in a modern, innovative and exciting way. Our programs include excursions to off-site farms, markets, factories, and local producers.

Also each year we reward our final year students with a big graduation party which is the highlight of the ICE school year and one not to be missed.

Skills Assure Provider

Subsidised Courses

The new Skills Assure identifier makes it easier to recognise providers that offer training subsidised by the Queensland Government. By choosing a subsidised course through a Skills Assure supplier, you can gain skills that are valued by the industry and will help get you a job once you are finished your studies.

Ask us about our subsidised courses and how you can enrol.

Find out more about Skills Assure.

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Our Team

Learn about our expert trainers, and assessors.

Testimonials

What our clients say

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Phillip JohnsonOwner and Head Chef of Ecco Bistro, Brisbane

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Josh LopezOwner and Executive Chef of The Wolfe Restaurant, Brisbane

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Damien FaulkinghamExecutive Chef of Cloudland, Brisbane

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Daouda DolleyICE Apprentice Chef

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Dylan SeedsICE Apprentice Chef

Alison Taafe

Director & Training Manager

Alison has been a professional chef for nearly 40 years. She trained in London at the highly prestigious Westminster Hotel School where she received the Westminster School Diploma in Professional Cookery. She then spread her wings and travelled around the globe working in some of the world’s finest kitchens, cooking for movie stars, pop stars, sporting greats and more importantly royalty, namely Queen Elizabeth II and two US presidents both Reagan and Bush Snr. along the way. Alison eventually reached Australia in 1988 where she was appointed as chef for the VIP Lounge of the Australian Pavilion at World Expo 88. She has lived in Australia for 32 years.
She began her professional teaching career in 1996 and gained a Bachelor of Adult and Vocational Teaching from Griffith University in 2000. She also held the role of a tenured Leading Vocational Culinary Teacher at Southbank Institute of Technology (COTAH) for 14 years. During this tenure, she received several awards. In 2004, Alison was the first chef to win a prestigious ‘Churchill Fellowship’ which was a great honour. Alison claimed a further award namely ‘Outstanding Educator’ in 2006 for the degree program she wrote for chefs in Australia.
In 2014, Alison launched ‘The Institute of Culinary Excellence’ (ICE) which is a registered RTO. ICE started with only 8 apprentice chef students. Over the last 6 years, ICE has trained over 2000 apprentice and trainee chefs, from most of the top 10 restaurants in Brisbane. After only 4 years of operation, ICE was awarded ‘Best School in Queensland’ in 2018, runner-up in the national awards, and named ‘Best Culinary School’ in Australia.

Media-wise, Alison was the resident chef on Channel 9 for several years and has made many appearances on TV. Alison has written 5 books: ‘Fun, Fast and Fabulous Food’ (2008) ‘Leftovers Magic’ (2010), ‘Eat For Your Life’ (2013), the proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to her cancer charity ‘Eat For A Cure’ aimed at helping people use food to overturn terminal illness.

She released her 4th book ‘Food for Thought’ (2016) in conjunction with ASCA (Australian Schools Canteen Association) where she hoped to ‘health up’ tuck shops in Australian schools. Finally, she completed her 5th book ‘The Recipe Resource’ (2019), an eBook for QMOW (Queensland Meals on Wheels) assisting in providing healthy and nutritious food for the elderly. Just recently Alison completed an Oxford University Program in Strategic Leadership and was awarded honours for her efforts.
Alison is the CEO and Training Manager for ICE and her students become part of her extended family. All the students at ICE are respected, motivated, inspired, and lead by her and her incredible team of teachers and trainers. Alison leads ICE by example and her work ethic, leadership and professionalism as a teacher and professional chef are second to none.

Her dream for ICE was to ‘transform lives through food’ and she has certainly done that…