This page is for the person deciding whether to go to culinary school, and if so where. It names ten schools worth knowing, in no ranked order, says why each is here, and then turns to what the chefs I interviewed say about school, since most of them have an opinion and the opinions do not all agree. The page does not say one school is better than another.
How the ten were chosen
Four tests. The school holds accreditation or awards a recognized diploma or degree. It has a serious practical component: externships, stages, or a restaurant the students run. Its graduates work in the kind of kitchens described in my books, by the school’s own account or by reputable press. And the ten together cover France, the United States, the rest of Europe, Asia and Canada, with a range of program lengths from a nine month diploma to a four year degree, because the right length depends on the student.
Fees vary widely and change every year, so they are not given here; each school’s site has them, with intake dates. What follows are the facts that hold.
The ten, in alphabetical order
ALMA, La Scuola Internazionale di Cucina Italiana (Colorno, near Parma, Italy). Founded in 2004 in the Reggia di Colorno, with Gualtiero Marchesi, the chef who trained Enrico Crippa of Piazza Duomo, as its first rector. Accredited by the Emilia-Romagna region, with its flagship course on the European qualifications framework. Roughly half of the course is spent on stages in Italian restaurants. The school for Italian cuisine.
Basque Culinary Center (San Sebastián, Spain). Founded in 2009 by Mondragon University and the chefs of the Basque country, among them Pedro Subijana, Martin Berasategui, Eneko Atxa and Andoni Luis Aduriz, all of whom appear in my books. The only school on this list built as a university faculty of gastronomy, awarding an official four year degree, with internships every year and a six month final project. It sits in the region with the densest concentration of Michelin stars in Spain.
Capital City College, Westminster (London). The hospitality school opened in 1910, the first in the United Kingdom, with the support of Auguste Escoffier and César Ritz; the college was renamed in 2024 and was known for decades as Westminster Kingsway. Publicly funded diplomas at levels that lead into a professional kitchen, taught through the Vincent Rooms, public restaurants where students cook and serve every dish. The low cost route on this list, and a famous one.
The Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, New York; also California, Texas and Singapore). Founded in 1946, the oldest and largest degree granting culinary college in the United States, regionally accredited, offering associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The associate degree requires an externship semester in the industry and courses in the campus restaurants, which students run. Its graduates run a large share of the starred restaurants in the United States, by the school’s own count.
FERRANDI Paris (Paris and other French campuses). Founded in 1920, the school of the Paris chamber of commerce, whose three year bachelor was the first culinary degree recognized by the French state. Internships every year, in France or abroad, four training restaurants and two hundred instructors, half of them working professionals. The school’s alumni hold stars across France.
George Brown Chef School (Toronto). Part of George Brown College, offering a two year Ontario diploma with a paid industry placement, a degree pathway, and a postgraduate program in Italian cuisine. Students run The Chefs’ House restaurant. The Canadian option and the value option in North America, whose alumni have earned stars in the first years of the Michelin Guide’s presence in Canada.
Institut Lyfe, formerly Institut Paul Bocuse (Lyon). Founded in 1990 by Gérard Pélisson with Paul Bocuse. Its three year culinary arts bachelor is approved by the French state, with at least twelve weeks of placement in each year, and its training restaurant, Saisons, holds a Michelin star, the only starred training restaurant in France. The school for a student who wants the classical French path with a degree at the end.
Institute of Culinary Education (New York; also Los Angeles). Founded in 1975 as Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School, nationally accredited, offering a career diploma that can be completed in well under a year. The final course is an externship chosen with the school’s career office, and the school documents a steady movement of externs into New York’s starred kitchens. The short, intensive option in a major restaurant city.
Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Founded in 1895 and the best known culinary name in the world, with a network of institutes in more than twenty countries. The Grand Diplôme in cuisine and pastry takes nine months and is taught by chefs drawn from leading restaurants, with an optional internship pathway. The network’s alumni include Virgilio Martínez of Central in Lima, who trained at its Ottawa and London schools and who appears in my books. One caveat for a student comparing it with the degree programs above: the diploma is the institution’s own rather than a state degree.
Tsuji Culinary Institute (Osaka; also Tokyo and a campus in France). Founded in 1960 by Shizuo Tsuji, Japan’s largest culinary education group, with one to three year vocational programs in Japanese, Western and Chinese cuisine and a French campus near Lyon for classical training. Ryuki Kawasaki, chef of Mezzaluna in Bangkok when I interviewed him, went there from high school. The Asian option, for a student who wants Japanese precision at the start.
What the chefs in the books say about school
The chefs I interviewed split on culinary school in a way the hoteliers do not split on hotel school. Eric Ripert went, and describes the training between his first and second years, when his chef handed him twenty five ducks to debone, confit and freeze. Aaron Silverman of Rose’s Luxury in Washington took a month long stage during a college winter break and came out so excited that he finished college a year early to enroll in culinary school. Chan Yan Tak of Lung King Heen, with three stars, learned the other way entirely.
“I knew the only way to achieve big things was to start from the bottom.” Chan Yan Tak, chef of Lung King Heen at Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong
In a traditional Chinese kitchen, he told me, you learn by observing senior chefs cook while you continue doing your assigned tasks. David Kinch of Manresa describes an education made of stages, in France, Germany and Spain, after his schooling. And the chefs who did go to school tend to say the same thing the hoteliers say: it opened the first door, and the kitchen taught the rest.
“A cook can’t make delicious and beautiful food if his hands are shaking from fear.” Eric Ripert, chef of Le Bernardin, New York
Ripert’s line is about the kitchen he runs now, and it belongs here because the kitchen a graduate walks into matters more than the school they walk out of. The question on whether culinary school is worth it, and the glossary page on the stage, take up how the two fit together.
How to use this list
Decide first how long you can give it, because the ten range from nine months to four years and the right answer depends on your age, your savings and whether you already know you want this. Then look at where each school’s students actually cook during the course, since the restaurant a student runs or the kitchen a student stages in is the real curriculum. And read the chefs’ profiles on this site before you decide: forty three paths, most of them beginning with a correction remembered thirty years later.