Our Story

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited officially established the Towngas Cooking Centre in May 1977. Its opening turned a new page in the history of culinary education in Hong Kong. Its establishment has created unique opportunities for customers to experience the joy of gourmet flame cookery.

In 2018, Towngas Cooking Centre has achieved the milestone of cultivating flame cooking for over 40 years and has invited Steve Lee (“Ding Yeh”), a flame cooking aficionado, to promote flame cooking and authentic Chinese cuisine in Hong Kong. Aired on TVB Jade Channel, “The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show” soon became one of the hottest shows in the city, setting off a new wave of flame cooking enthusiasm.

State-of-the-art Facilities and Professional Tutors

The Towngas Cooking Centre has always been recognised for its well-equipped facilities and remarkable achievements. Through our professional instructors' dedicated teaching methods, demonstrations and their own hands-on practice together with the classes, culinary aficionados can master the secrets of cooking and transform them with their own styles. More than offering culinary courses, the Towngas Cooking Centre invites, on a regular basis, locally and internationally renowned chefs to share their techniques, which our members have found extremely inspiring. The promotion on flame cooking went to a further depth when the Cuisine Club came into being in 1994.Luncheon gatherings, exhibitions, demonstrations and other activities have been organised to facilitate members’ sharing and exchange of their gastronomic experiences.

During the recent years, Towngas Cooking Centre has collaborated with the Disciples Escoffier, a French chef association that brings all the distinguished chefs around the world together. Towngas Cooking Centre, the largest cooking school in Hong Kong, has been selected, in collaboration with the Disciples Escoffier, to offer courses in traditional French cooking - Disciples Escoffier Diploma in Culinary Arts & Disciples Escoffier Diploma in Pastry. The Disciples Escoffier programmes have always been rated as the top programmes in the culinary world. Students are trained to master the art of French cuisine step by step. With the 40th anniversary celebration of the Towngas Cooking Centre in 2017, Towngas invited a number of celebrity chefs including Chow Chung, Chan Kei Lum and Diora Fong from Chan’s Kitchen as well as Steve Lee who is conducting the course series named “Ding Yeh’s Classroom”.

With the mission to implement the concept of “one-stop-service”, Towngas Cooking Centre expanded the space, covering now the entire ninth floor since October 2017 to offer an even more comfortable environment and more advanced facilities to cooking lovers. , a stunning cooking classroom has been created with the Mia Cucina premium appliances and kitchen cabinets for students to submerge themselves in this professional classic French cuisine training kitchen.

Food for Thought

We published our first cook book in 1977. Back then, all the recipes for Chinese dishes were solely published in English. Wide recognition on its rich content and graphic illustrations, together with the associated tasting reception which was held at the Towngas Cooking Centre won us considerable acclaim.

Our recipes developed and evolved to become more diverse and inclusive as we entered the 1990s. Not only did we categorise the dishes according to their cooking methods, we also published them in Chinese, English and Pilipino editions, catering to different nationalities. We collaborated with various publishers to launch publications that later gained significant popularity including 「快樂尋味中華名菜」.

The Flame Keeps Shimmering

Culinary art has never been a privilege or knowledge for adults only Cooking together is, in fact, an effective way to enhance inter-generational relationships. Towngas Cooking Centre has been organising parents-and-kids classes to cultivate children’s sense of concentration, appreciation and creativity. Besides the frequent culinary classes for parents and their children, through culinary competitions that invite the participation of secondary students in Hong Kong, we nurture an interest in cooking among youngsters to help narrow the generation gap between parents and children, as well as creating a better bonding between teachers and students.

Inspiring Cooking Ideas

Towngas Cooking Centre has been adding creative elements to the quality service. Aiming at enhancing quality, personality in lifestyle and inspire tasteful culinary ideas, we collaborate with various international brands for the creation of new recipes and the introduction of product demonstration classes.

We understand that hectic city dwellers are usually burdened by enormous work pressure. Those with a myriad of affairs to attend to may discover that preparing delicious meals can be developed into a lifetime hobby that, in return, relaxes their minds in the process. Continuously striving for excellence, the Towngas Cooking Centre introduced an innovative "one-stop-service" concept in 2004 that combines in a venue for culinary enthusiasts the professional training kitchens, spaces where they can purchase ingredients and cookware and a consulting area with reference materials. This one-of-a-kind optimisation in Hong Kong has proved to be invaluable for students in the course of their culinary training.

Out of the Kitchen

We have, in the recent years, diversified our activities by stepping outside the kitchen and teaming up with organisations such as Community Chest, Employee Retraining Board, Hong Kong Tourism Board and Department of Health to name a few to launch events related to different culinary theme, health and gastronomic cultures. Radio stations, food companies and restaurants are also named our partners, working together to serve the public through different channels.

Towngas Cooking Centre continues to show our devotion by sharing with members of all ages the fun and fruits of flame cooking through the theme: “Ignite The Passion of Cooking”.