The kitchens · Lucerne
Where the hours are logged
7 professional kitchens, a 10:1 student-to-chef ratio, and 630 kitchen hours before your degree year even starts.
The setup
Facilities, in the numbers BHMS publishes
7
professional-grade kitchens covering all culinary stages
10:1
students per chef instructor on the pastry programme
630
kitchen hours across the two taught pastry semesters
Year 1 · 330 hours
The foundation labs
Six practical labs in the taught semester of the Diploma. Each is named for what comes out of it.
Pastry and Bakery Foundations
Doughs, creams, custards and the base repertoire everything else is built on.
Classic Patisserie
The canon — tarts, choux, mousses and the classics you are expected to know cold.
Boulangerie and Viennoiserie
Bread and lamination: croissant, brioche, fermentation and proving.
Traditional European Cakes
The European cake repertoire, made to a standard rather than a recipe.
Chocolate Work Foundations
Tempering, moulding and the first ganaches.
Culinary Foundations
Savoury basics — because pastry sections sit inside real kitchens.
Year 2 · 300 hours
The labs people photograph
Six labs in the taught semester of the Higher Diploma.
Ice Creams & Plated Desserts
Sorbets, parfaits, and the dessert as it leaves the pass under time pressure.
Advanced Chocolate Pralines
Shells, fillings, finishing — a full tray, consistent, repeatable.
Petit Fours & Petit Gâteaux
Precision at small scale, made identical dozens of times over.
Entremets Cakes
Layered mousse cakes: structure, insert, glaze, assembly.
The Art of Showpieces
Sugar and chocolate built to stand up and be photographed.
Catering Operations
Volume production without losing the finish.
Module names are as published by BHMS. The one-line descriptions are our summary of what each lab covers, not official BHMS module text.
And then the real ones
Six months a year in someone else's kitchen
Campus labs are half the training. Every year-long programme sends you out for a six-month paid internship — Switzerland or worldwide, assessed by the employer, at CHF 2,390/month gross minimum under the Swiss hospitality labour agreement.
Campus, accommodation and the practicalities of living in Lucerne are shared across all BHMS culinary paths, so we keep them on our sister site rather than repeating them here.
Questions
Straight answers
How many kitchens are there?
BHMS operates 7 professional-grade kitchens across its Lucerne locations, covering all culinary stages, including the pastry and chocolate labs used by this programme.
How many students per instructor?
The pastry programme is described as having a 10:1 student-to-chef-instructor ratio.
How many hours will I actually spend in them?
330 hours in the Year 1 taught semester and 300 in Year 2 — 630 logged kitchen hours before Year 3, which is academic. The ten-week certificates are 180 hours each. These are the totals BHMS publishes per semester; hours are not broken down per individual lab.
Are the pastry labs separate from the main kitchens?
BHMS publishes 7 professional-grade kitchens covering all culinary stages, and the pastry track runs its own named labs — chocolate work, boulangerie, entremets, showpieces. The exact room allocation is confirmed at enrolment.
Three intakes a year. One decision that pays you back.
Next intakes: August 2026 · November 2026 · February 2027 · Lucerne, Switzerland
Every programme year pairs a taught semester with a six-month paid internship — CHF 2,390/month gross minimum in Switzerland under the national hospitality labour agreement. How the internship model works →