Alain Ducasse, one of the modern giants of French cuisine, has influenced an entire generation of chefs and restauranteurs, both in France and abroad. He owns and operates numerous ventures worldwide, including prestigious restaurants in Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Las Vegas, just to name a few. An inspiration to so many young chefs, Alain Ducasse founded the Alain Ducasse Education program in 1999, an organization which aims to spread culinary knowledge and excellence by increasing the know-how of professional chefs. He is now bringing this very expertise to culinary students here in Canada by partnering with George Brown College's Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts. "Sharing our culinary knowledge was the goal of this partnership" Alain Ducasse tells me. "George Brown has many great students with a solid mindset and I wanted to be able to help them acquire a deep understanding of the tenants of French cuisine so that they can use that knowledge in any of their future ventures in the food industry." Set to begin in the Spring of 2015, the parternship is geared at both culinary and pastry students. 24 pastry students will complete a series of courses at the Ecole National Superieure de Patisserie, in the French town of Yssingeaux close to Lyon, followed by an externship in a bakery or restaurant in the region. Culinary students will attend classes in Alain Ducasse's training centre near Paris. After a semester of classes, they will begin an externship at one of Ducasse's restaurants. The end result, hopefully, will be to bolster the profile of Canada's homegrown culinary talent, bringing the best of French culinary traditions back to this side of the Atlantic. Photography by Brilynn Ferguson