Welcome to the Next Generation of the ACF

For 90 years ACF has not only been the champion of the culinary profession for chefs around the country, but around the world. Now, to further this commitment, ACF is proud to announce two new Student Membership programs for ACFEF-accredited programs—one for post-secondary students and one for secondary students.

Our new Postsecondary Student Program allows ACFEF-accredited postsecondary programs to provide their culinary students individual student memberships in the ACF for a reduced rate of only $50 per student and includes the ACF certification application fee of $85. This is a decrease of more than 40% from the regular student membership fee of $84.

Our new Secondary Student Program provides free ACF student membership to any junior or senior student attending an ACFEF accredited program. The regular junior membership fee is $50. Junior members earning ACF certification pay a reduced certification application fee of only $35 per student. This is a decrease of 30 percent from the regular certification fee of $50.

If you have any questions regarding these programs, please reach out to membership@acfchefs.org.

Postsecondary Student Program

• School can enroll as many students as they choose.
• Cost to enroll a student is $50 per student. Schools have at least three options on how to cover the $50 fee. They can:
  1. Include it in a student’s tuition.
  2. Include it in their student fees.
  3. Cover the cost from school funds.
• Program (and cost) is yearly with annual renewal required for each student.
• Membership provided is ACF National Membership only. During enrollment, ACF National Office will contact the program’s local ACF chapter to determine if they will waive local chapter fee. If chapter does not waive their fee, the program may purchase local membership as well (local chapter fee averages $7 a year).

To enroll your students, download the spreadsheet below, fill it out with all required information, and e-mail it in Microsoft Excel format (no PDFs) to membership@acfchefs.org.

Download Form

Please note: students who wish to enroll outside this program because their eligible program does not participate—or their program is not ACFEF-accredited—must enroll at the current fee of $84.

Secondary Student Program

• All juniors and seniors at ACFEF-accredited secondary programs are eligible to receive the free ACF Membership.
• Secondary program students enroll at the Junior Culinarian level.
• Program Coordinator will need to enter their students into a pre-determined electronic spreadsheet for upload into the ACF member database. The spreadsheet is provided by ACF and contains these required fields for each student:
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email (non .edu only)
  • Date of Birth (DOB)
  • Month/Year of Graduation
• Annual registration is required for each school participating.
• Junior Culinarians are not eligible for the ACF life insurance member benefit. Likewise, they are not eligible to vote in ACF elections.

To enroll your students, download the spreadsheet below, fill it out with all required information, and e-mail it in Microsoft Excel format (no PDFs) to membership@acfchefs.org.

Download Form

Please note: students who wish to enroll outside this program because their eligible program does not participate—or their program is not ACFEF-accredited—must enroll at the current fee of $50.