FERRANDI Paris: the Paris chamber of commerce school that trains more of France's starred chefs than any other

FERRANDI Paris is the school I point to first when a reader asks where the chefs of France actually trained, because it is the one school for which the outcome evidence is reasonably clear. Le Cordon Bleu remains the more famous name. FERRANDI is the school whose alumni turn up in French Michelin starred kitchens more often than those of any other, and it belongs to the Paris chamber of commerce rather than a private brand, which shapes what it teaches and whom it admits.

What the school is

FERRANDI Paris was founded in 1920 and belongs to the Paris Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which runs it as a private non profit higher education institution. The chamber’s page gives the scale: about 2,500 students in initial training, about 2,000 adults a year in continuing education or retraining, around 200 instructors of whom roughly half are permanent faculty and half working professionals, and some 28,000 alumni. The school is a member of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles.

The main campus is at 28 rue de l’Abbé Grégoire in the sixth arrondissement. The chamber lists six French campuses in all, at Paris, Saint-Gratien, Bordeaux, Nice, Rennes and Strasbourg, and an international campus in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. The school’s own English language pages list Dijon as well, and the two lists do not match exactly, so a student interested in a regional campus should check the current list on the school’s site. The Paris campus, by the school’s description, covers 25,000 square meters and holds 40 kitchens and technical laboratories, two training restaurants and a library of 4,000 books.

The school teaches the full French ladder of national diplomas, from the CAP that a sixteen year old can begin to the Master of Science, which makes it a working part of the French vocational system rather than a finishing school for foreigners.

Programs and how they are taught

There are two tracks. The French track runs from the CAP and the Bac Pro through the Certificat de Spécialisation and the BTS to the bachelor and the MSc, and covers cuisine, pastry, bakery, chocolate and confectionery, wine and spirits, table service, hospitality management and entrepreneurship. These diplomas are taught in French, and most of the school’s students are on this track.

The international track is taught in English. It includes the Intensive Professional Programs in French Cuisine, French Pastry and French Bread Baking, shorter Introduction to the Fundamentals courses in pastry, cuisine, bread, and chocolate and confectionery, and the English language bachelor and MSc programs. The school says these classes are taught by bilingual chef instructors in groups of twelve, that the approach is 70 percent hands on practice, and that guest Meilleurs Ouvriers de France and Michelin starred chefs give demonstrations. Students on the intensive programs are offered internships in hotels, palaces, boutiques and starred restaurants through what the school calls more than 800 industry contacts; these are offered rather than compulsory.

The degree most readers ask about is the Bachelor in Culinary Arts and Entrepreneurship, a three year program with a French cuisine or French pastry option, taught at the Paris and Saint-Gratien campuses. The school describes it as certified by the French ministry responsible for education, higher education and research and calls it the first bachelor in culinary arts recognized by the French state. The school’s bachelor FAQ adds that the bachelors are approved by the minister responsible for higher education and registered in the national directory of professional certifications, the RNCP. Internships run every year, in France or abroad; the program page gives two different sets of lengths, twelve weeks in the first and third years and twenty four in the second on one line, and three to six months a year in the year by year description, so a student should ask the admissions office which applies. An apprenticeship format alternates two weeks at school with two weeks in a company.

The training restaurants are the practical center of the school. FERRANDI’s training restaurants page names five, all open to the public: Le Premier and Le 28 at the Paris campus, Nicolas de Catinat at Saint-Gratien, Au Piano du Lac at Bordeaux, and L’Hermine at Rennes, which pairs a restaurant with a student run pastry shop. At Le Premier the cooking and service are done by students from the CAP to the BTS. At Le 28 the menus are designed and prepared by the bachelor students. Students conceive, prepare and serve each dish under chef instructors. The chamber’s page counts six training restaurants across the campuses, one more than the school’s English page names, so the count depends on which campuses are included.

Who it is for and how to get in

The French track is for a student who reads and speaks French well enough to sit a national diploma, and it is the route most French chefs in the alumni evidence took. The international track is for the student from abroad who wants a classical French grounding without first learning the language, either in a few intensive months or over a three year degree.

For the bachelor, the school asks for a high school diploma or a foreign equivalent. Direct entry into the second or third year requires the relevant ECTS credits and professional experience in the gastronomy sector. The FAQ says academic background matters and motivation carries real weight, and that applicants may submit a recommendation letter from a teacher or internship supervisor. Applications are made online through the school’s admissions pages. Fees, intake dates and deadlines change each year and are on the school’s site; I do not repeat them here.

Alumni and outcomes

Two studies by Chef’s Pencil are the best outcome evidence that exists for any culinary school, because they count where working starred chefs trained rather than asking anyone’s opinion. In How France trains Michelin starred chefs, published 28 May 2026, the site examined the backgrounds of 181 Michelin starred chefs in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nice. Sixty one percent had attended a culinary school or a formal hospitality institution. FERRANDI had 22 alumni among the 181, the most of any school; the regional lycées hôteliers and the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon also appeared repeatedly. In the earlier American study, 61 percent of America’s Michelin starred chefs are culinary school alumni, published 16 March 2026, FERRANDI accounted for 1.4 percent of 278 chefs, the same share as Tsuji. Both studies rest on public biographies and the authors say so.

One caution. Twenty two of 181 is also 159 of 181 who went elsewhere or nowhere, and 39 percent of the French sample had no formal school at all. The chamber’s own figures, a 98 percent exam pass rate and an 83.7 percent employment rate seven months after graduation for the 2025 class, measure something different. The school does not name alumni on the pages I read.

What the chefs in my books say

None of the 43 chefs in my books trained at FERRANDI, so I cannot give you a graduate’s account. What I can give you is the view of French chefs who came up through the system FERRANDI belongs to, and it is a consistent view: the school opens the door and the kitchen does the rest.

Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, who went to culinary school at fifteen after being asked to leave his academic school, told me about the training placement between his school years.

“I was training in between my first and second years of culinary school when my chef handed me about 25 ducks, asking me to debone them all, confit the legs, then freeze the breasts.” Eric Ripert, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

The ducks froze into a single block that needed a hammer to separate, and he never made the mistake again. The point for a prospective student is that the lesson came in the placement, which is why the internship weeks in a FERRANDI year deserve as much scrutiny as the classroom hours. Guy Savoy, whose Paris restaurant held three stars when we spoke, was blunter about where craft is acquired.

“The best way to hone your skillset is through apprenticeships. The acquisition of these precise crafts demands daily practice.” Guy Savoy, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

Guillaume Galliot, then executive chef of Caprice in Hong Kong and a product of French kitchens, gave the advice I would attach to any school prospectus.

“I would advise those pursuing a culinary career to learn all of the basics properly. Do not take shortcuts.” Guillaume Galliot, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

How to decide

Choose FERRANDI if you want the French system itself rather than a French themed course, if the alumni evidence matters to you, and if you are ready to work in French or to accept that the English track is a smaller part of a large French school. Ask the admissions office which internship pattern applies to your year, where recent students on your program were placed, and how many hours a week you will spend at Le Premier or Le 28. Visit one of the restaurants and eat there before you decide, since the students in the room are the curriculum.

Then read the second chapter of The Luxury of Attention, which argues that the school is where the apprenticeship starts and the kitchen is where it is finished.

“Mastery is not self-taught. Every master in this book is the product of another master.” The Luxury of Attention (2026), Chapter 2

Sources

• CCI Paris Île-de-France: FERRANDI Paris
• FERRANDI Paris: Why choose FERRANDI Paris international programs
• FERRANDI Paris: Training restaurants
• FERRANDI Paris: Bachelor in Culinary Arts and Entrepreneurship
• FERRANDI Paris: FAQ, bachelor programs
• Chef’s Pencil: How France trains Michelin starred chefs (28 May 2026)
• Chef’s Pencil: 61 percent of America’s Michelin starred chefs are culinary school alumni (16 March 2026)