French culinary school Le Cordon Bleu wants Adelaide to be the nation’s capital of food and hospitality

The illustrious Le Cordon Bleu school still wants to base its Australian operations in Adelaide, even after plans to build an academy at Lot Fourteen were scrapped.

One of the most illustrious cooking schools in the world wants to place Adelaide at the centre of its operations in Australia, even after plans to move to Lot Fourteen were scrapped.

The now-abandoned International Centre for Food, Hospitality & Tourism Studies would have been Le Cordon Bleu’s new Adelaide home, replacing the ageing TAFE SA Regency Park school.

But in an exclusive interview with The Advertiser, Le Cordon Bleu Australia executive dean Professor Alan Bowen-James has vowed to pursue a similar project – and fast.

But he said any move would need to be in concert with partners TAFE SA, requiring significant government investment.

The executive dean of Le Cordon Bleu Australia, Professor Alan Bowen-James.

“We need to know within less than a year what the alternative (site) is, and up to two years to do the additional planning,” he said.

“Lot Fourteen is not the only viable location in Adelaide.”

The state and federal governments had committed $60m in total to build the new centre at Lot Fourteen – but those plans have been officially dumped.

Instead, the state government is considering building a hi-tech cyber education centre at the North Tce precinct, as revealed by The Sunday Mail, at a similar cost.

Prof Bowen-James remained “very confident” a new location, preferably in the CBD, for the cooking school would be identified within the next two years as the TAFE campus “rapidly runs out of viable life”.

“If that doesn’t eventuate, we then need to look at our own alternatives,” he said.

“Le Cordon Bleu does have assets, we have real estate in the Adelaide city itself, so we could actually call on that but we don’t intend to because we wish to do it in partnership with TAFE SA.”

Prof Bowen-James said Adelaide “really needs” an international hospitality centre to help attract more people to SA and accelerate growth of the local hospitality industry.

“South Australia is a wonderful place, but it’s famous for gastronomy, wine (and) hospitality,” he said.

“If you want something that really differentiates South Australia and will attract international as well as domestic students, something like an international (food) centre … with strong local support is necessary.”

The planned International Centre for Food, Hospitality & Tourism Studies was meant to be one of the centrepieces of Lot Fourteen.

Prof Bowen-James said the Lot Fourteen site would have been the “focal point for many of our activities in Australia”, with students across the country coming to Adelaide to experience the state-of-the-art centre.

“One of the strategies we wanted to implement with the international centre was to really give all students at other campuses an opportunity to spend time in Adelaide at a world-class facility,” he said.

TAFE SA boss David Coltman said his agency had a “highly valued relationship” with Paris-headquartered Le Cordon Bleu.

“We are regularly reviewing how our facilities are utilised and how they can be improved to meet the future education and training needs of students and industry,” he said.

Treasurer Rob Lucas did not rule out a similar project in the future.

“We are still considering what alternative options, if any, we might pursue in the CBD, so it has not been ruled out,” he said.

“One of the key determinants would be if any prospective tenants might want to move in there and pay the appropriate level of rent for a CBD location.”

Prof Bowen-James said refurbishing Regency Park was not an option, due to its “dispersed” location.

“(The new site) has to interact with the community, it has to be much more engaging, much more inviting and create an interest and curiosity that we believe will really add to the community’s broader interests,” he said.

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