Worldchefs Growing Community

As we continue to navigate through these unprecedented times, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the strength and resilience of our global culinary community. Despite the challenges we have faced, chefs and food professionals around the world have continued to innovate, create, and inspire.

At Worldchefs, we remain committed to bringing you the latest news, trends, and insights from the world of food. Our team is dedicated to providing you with informative and engaging content that reflects the diversity and richness of our culinary community.

Our growing community of over 100 national chefs’ association now also includes nearly 150 strong culinary schools from across the world as part of our Education Partners network, ensuring that we are keeping in touch with the new, upcoming generation of chefs to develop the future leaders of our industry.

We are excited to continue to collaborate with Worldchefs’ members and other industry leaders to drive innovation and excellence in the culinary world. We continue to offer a vast majority of industry-related topics through seminars, webinars, podcasts, and much more.

Ragnar Fridriksson, Managing Director

Université auditorium, the World Association of Chefs’ Societies (Worldchefs) was formally established. Its founders came together in the spirit of international solidarity and universality, prompted by the scars of World War 1.

Inspired by the League of Nations, Worldchefs looked to the International Labour Office, set up in Geneva in 1919, to begin its journey. The founding leaders sought to abolish frontier barriers for all workers, fight against unemployment, improve working conditions and training facilities, and foster international trade and other opportunities. Advocating for cooks and the preservation of culinary arts, it was their collective vision to create an international standard, allowing for movement and representation across the globe.

That inaugural 1928 Worldchefs Congress in Paris was attended by 65 delegates from 17 countries, representing 36 national or regional associations. They were joined by artistic, scientific, political, and diplomatic personalities of the day alongside experts attending on behalf of food and beverage businesses. Auguste Escoffier was elected Honorary President, and led a procession to the Arc de Triomphe to lay down a flower at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Today, we continue to strive for the same shared vision. Our association has witnessed wars and conflicts, economic depressions and recessions, injustices and inequalities, global pandemics, and climate crisis. Yet through global cooperation and respect, we have shown how relationships are our greatest asset in forging a better future.

For 95 years, Worldchefs has been dedicated to maintaining and improving industry standards, with empowering culinary professionals at the center of our focus. Through education, training, and professional development of our

In 1968, celebrating Worldchefs’ 40th anniversary, then-president Emile Perrin remarked, “Today, as yesterday and tomorrow, this World Association’s objective has been and will be to act as a link, a platform, a useful and necessary instrument for the universal community of cooks. Our tasks, as outlined in 1928, are still of topical significance since they call for greater effectiveness, friendly relationships between affiliated societies owing each other aid and protection, representing the interests of the profession, enhancing its standing, promoting culinary arts in all their forms, affording members moral and material support, coordinating international exhibitions, and facilitating exchanges and employment opportunities for cooks throughout the world. Friendly societies at first, the affiliates to this World Association have become bona fide institutions.They will give our profession its genuine position, enabling it to play an essential role in modern society.”

President Gugler calls it ‘The Power of the White Jacket’. Toques or no toques, we celebrate our members—and the millions of culinary professionals they represent—who contribute and actively participate in making the Worldchefs idea a reality. Only by working together as an industry united can we foster collaborative action, address challenges, and build industry code to join Worldchefs’ network and expand your professional bonds.

Good Becomes Better