About Osaka

The Tsuji Culinary Institute Group is Japan’s top cooking school, drawing students from all around the country, in addition to overseas. The late Tsuji Shizuo began the Tsuji Culinary Institute in 1960, which went on to consist of two professional schools (the Tsuji Culinary Institute and the Tsuji Institute of Pâtisserie), along with the Ecole Tsuji Osaka, Ecole Tsuji Tokyo, and Centre de Perfectionnement Ecole Hôtelière Tsuji in France. Staffed by some 350 educators, the school has produced more than 140,000 graduates—many of whom are employed in Japan as well as overseas.

The school’s founder, Tsuji Shizuo, was an educator and researcher who stood on the cutting edge of the Japanese culinary scene. After establishing the Tsuji Culinary Institute, he traveled numerous times to Europe. In addition to deepening his understanding of cooking and his literary research, he worked with numerous chefs including Paul Bocuse, Jean Troisgros, and Bernard Loiseau. The results of Tsuji’s work were compiled in “French cooking theory and practice” and utilized for educational theory, serving as the Tsuji Culinary Institute textbook. His connections with French culinary artists had a direct impact upon opportunities for aspiring Japanese chefs to learn actual French cuisine. He opened a branch school in the French state of Rhône in 1980, providing students with hands-on opportunities to learn true French cooking in a comprehensive manner on home soil.

Today, the institute produces chefs and pâtissiers with the knowledge and skills to meet today’s growing needs for expertise and diversification through curriculum that covers Japanese, Chinese, and Western cuisines, as well as Japanese and European confectionery, and even breadmaking. The Shizuo Tsuji Gastronomy Foundation was additionally founded in 2015, and awards a Shizuo Tsuji food culture prize and a professional technician prize annually to students who have contributed to the development of gastronomic culture.