The École Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie (ENSP) has opened a 2,300 sq. m extension to its Yssingeaux campus in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France.
Work to increase total available teaching space to 7,000 square metres and create new laboratories and student accommodation at the historic Château it occupies began in June 2022.
Founded in 1984 and acquired in 2007 by Alain Ducasse and Yves Thuriès, ENSP has established itself as th benchmark school for excellence in the ‘world of the sweet arts’ for training in pastry-making, chocolate-making, confectionery, ice cream-making and baking.
With 17 pastry chef trainers and 25 professors, the school trains over 1,500 students representing more than 60 different nationalities throughout the year.
Its wide portfolio of programmes includes post-baccalaureate courses (ENSP is renowned for its 3-year Diplôme Supérieur des Arts Pâtissiers), retraining programmes, a 2-month French pastry Arts Essentials programe and a one-year diploma course in French Pastry Arts.
In addition to these programmes, 68 professional training courses are held on site for a duration of between two and three days under the guidance of Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, France’s guild of Master Craftsmen. Many of the greatest names in French and international patisserie who originally trained at the school return to perfect their techniques.
With three new classrooms and four new laboratories, as well as 36 new apartments for students, the ENSP extension will support École Ducasse – the larger network of schools dedicated to promoting French expertise in the pastry arts ENSP belongs to whose other member institutions include Paris Studio, Paris Campus, Manila Campus in the Philippines, Gurugram Campus in India and Nai Lert Bangkok Studio in Thailand.
We are very proud of the outcome of this project, which enables us to instil the excellence of our schools even more firmly in France, in parallel to our international development.
Elise Masurel, École Ducasse managing director, says: “We are very proud of the outcome of this project, which enables us to instil the excellence of our schools even more firmly in France, in parallel to our international development.”
Luc Debove, Director and Executive Chef of the ENSP, World Ice Cream Champion and winner of the Ordre National du Mérite Agricole who led the project, adds: “This extension is the culmination of a great collective project supported by Laurent Wauquiez, President of the Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Isabelle Valentin, MP for first constituency of Haute-Loire and Pierre Liogier, the Mayor of Yssingeaux. It is not just the ENSP that is becoming the world’s largest school dedicated to the sweet arts, but Yssingeaux and the whole region that are becoming a strategic hub for patisserie worldwide.”
This extension is the culmination of a great collective project supported by Laurent Wauquiez, President of the Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Isabelle Valentin, MP for first constituency of Haute-Loire and Pierre Liogier, the Mayor of Yssingeaux.
