Certified Professional Cook
Culinary Arts & Professional Cookery
Twelve weeks from knife grip to running a section: food safety, stocks and sauces, Nigerian and continental menus, portion and cost control, and the discipline of a working line.
What you will be able to do
- ✓Work safely and hygienically to food-safety standard
- ✓Use knives accurately and quickly
- ✓Produce the mother sauces and core stocks
- ✓Cook a Nigerian and a continental menu to consistent spec
- ✓Portion to cost and record waste honestly
- ✓Run a section through a full service
Week by week
1 Kitchen safety, hygiene and HACCP
Covered
- Personal hygiene and illness reporting
- Cross-contamination and colour coding
- Temperature danger zone
- HACCP critical control points
- The 14 allergens
- Cleaning schedules and chemical safety
Practical: Complete a full hygiene audit of a working kitchen and write up the failures found.
2 Knife skills and mise en place
Covered
- Knife types and their uses
- Sharpening and honing
- Grip, guiding hand, and speed without injury
- Julienne, brunoise, macédoine, chiffonade
- Mise en place discipline
- Storing prepped product
Practical: Timed cutting test across five standard cuts, judged on uniformity as well as speed.
3 Stocks, soups and the mother sauces
Covered
- White and brown stock
- Skimming, clarity and why it matters
- Béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise, tomato
- Roux and thickening
- Emulsions and how they break
- Nigerian soup bases: egusi, ogbono, pepper soup
Practical: Produce two stocks and three sauces from scratch, plus one Nigerian soup base.
4 Cooking methods
Covered
- Dry heat: roast, grill, fry, sauté
- Moist heat: boil, poach, steam, braise
- Combination methods
- The Maillard reaction in plain terms
- Resting meat
- Holding without ruining
Practical: Cook one protein five ways and present them side by side with a written comparison.
5 Proteins: meat, poultry and fish
Covered
- Beef, goat, chicken and fish in this market
- Basic butchery and portioning
- Doneness by temperature and by touch
- Marinating and brining
- Fish freshness indicators
- Safe thawing — and why the counter is not a thawing method
Practical: Portion a whole chicken and a whole fish to yield spec; cook both to temperature.
6 Nigerian menu to hotel standard
Covered
- Jollof, fried rice, native rice
- Soups and swallow
- Grilled and peppered proteins
- Small chops and starters
- Consistency across cooks
- Plating and portion presentation
Practical: Produce a six-item Nigerian menu to written spec, twice, on different days.
7 Continental and breakfast service
Covered
- Eggs: every method, properly
- Breakfast service under time pressure
- Pasta, grills and continental mains
- Vegetarian and dietary requests
- Sauces to order
- Buffet holding and replenishment
Practical: Run a live breakfast service for 30 covers.
8 Pastry, bread and dessert basics
Covered
- Weighing and why pastry is unforgiving
- Shortcrust, puff and choux
- Bread and proving in a hot climate
- Cakes and batters
- Custards and creams
- Dessert plating
Practical: Produce one pastry, one bread and one plated dessert.
9 Portion control, costing and waste
Covered
- Recipe costing and gross profit
- Standard portion sizes and why they are fixed
- Yield testing
- Waste: preparation, spoilage, plate return
- The kitchen stock module and portion counts
- Ordering against par
Practical: Cost three dishes from the live menu and compare to the selling price; run a yield test.
10 The line: service, tickets and communication
Covered
- Section layout and station setup
- Reading a ticket
- Calling away and timing a table together
- Kitchen language and why it is short
- Working with the pass and with waiters
- Recovering when you are behind
Practical: Work one section through a full live service.
11 Kitchen stock, ordering and the handover
Covered
- Counting portions and prep
- Par levels for a kitchen
- Requisitions from the main store
- Receiving and checking deliveries
- Fridge and freezer temperature logs
- Writing a kitchen handover
Practical: Complete a full kitchen stock count and submit a handover in the system.
12 Running a kitchen, final assessment and going to work
Covered
- Planning prep for a known cover count
- Leading a section
- Training without doing it for them
- Menu development basics
- Your record: consistency, waste, timekeeping
- Interviews and the hire-ready register
Practical: Plan and lead a full service for 40 covers with a trainee on your section.
Register
Fee ₦75,000, payable on registration.
Who it is for
Aspiring cooks and kitchen staff moving up. No experience needed; you must be able to stand a full shift in a hot kitchen.
What you need
- •Able to stand and work in heat for a full shift
- •No untreated skin infection on the hands