Masterchef's class act
by Dominic Walsh
Anton Mosimann is also to open a culinary institute in London's Battersea that will draw on his 30 years' experience as one of the world's most innovative chefs.
At the heart of Mr Mosimann's Art of Gastronomy, as the centre will be called when it opens in September, will be a library containing 4,000 cookery books from his personal collection and 10,000 recipes from all over the world.
It will also be something of a celebration of the Swiss-born chef's achievements, enabling him to display the plethora of medals, trophies and certificates that his skills have earned him during his career.
While the library will be free to visitors - "It's here to be used, I want to share it" - the building's ground floor will host seminars on all aspects of the hospitality industry. These will cost between £200 and £300 per delegate per day, (inclusive of lunch at his Belgravia dining club).
The courses, which have been run for the past year from Mosimann's club for clients such as Marks & Spencer and British Airways, will be aimed at management, particularly chefs and food and beverage managers, though their appeal may eventually be broadened.
Subjects covered will include menu planning, cooking trends and the history of food, marketing and public relations, service, wine, and health and safety, with courses lasting between one and four days.
Although there will be some cooking demonstrations, the institute is not designed to be a cookery school. "There are so many cookery schools around already," Mr Mosimann explained.
"This institute will be for people who want to be updated, who get rusty and need an injection of motivation. Lots of people get tired in a position. The job gets easy and it's hard to be creative."
Although Mr Mosimann plans to spend as much time there as he can in between running the club and satisfying a host of consultancy contracts around the world, specialists will be brought in to take many of the seminars.
To run the school as full-time course directors, Mr Mosimann has recruited Linda and Daniel Studer, who have taught at the Lausanne Hotel School in Switzerland as well as in Singapore. Mr Studer, a fellow Swiss, worked with Mr Mosimann at the Dorchester.
The institute, which Mr Mosimann is hoping will attract commercial sponsorship, is located in a three-storey Victorian building that once housed a school.
The cost of converting the property is about £150,000, much of which has gone on creating a sense of space and orderliness, crucial to Mr Mosimann's brand of creativity. "I hate clutter," he declared.
