SAIT's $41 million culinary school renovation opens with competition kitchens and rooftop honey

After ten years of renovations, SAIT has unveiled the National Centre for Culinary Arts in the John Ware Building — a $41 million investment that positions Canada's oldest publicly funded culinary school alongside rivals like the Culinary Institute of America and Cordon Bleu.

The main, second, and third floors now house 11 new teaching labs: four competition kitchens and bakery labs where students test capstone projects, three Highwood Kitchen and Bar teaching kitchens, and six additional main-level stations. Highwood Kitchen itself, which seats up to 200 guests, opens November 20.

The facility sources ingredients from SAIT's own butchery program and honey from the building's roof. A partnership with a local Calgary hydroponics supplier and a university researcher in Ireland is testing technology to grow leafy lettuce in ways that work easily in restaurant operations — a living lab for students to see emerging farm-to-table infrastructure.

James Overall, dean of the School of Hospitality and Tourism, laid out the vision: "We've got world-class faculty, world-class programs and now a world class facility." He added that in a couple of years, SAIT plans to host its own international culinary competition, filmed and broadcast by SAIT's media school. Magnetic T-bar roofs allow pop-up studio lighting for broadcast quality.

Dr. David Ross, SAIT's president and CEO, told the gathered media that this represents "the state of the art of culinary education globally, not just in Canada." The school is already in talks to attract top culinary talent from around the world.