Le Cordon Bleu: the network, the Grand Diplôme, is it worth it

Le Cordon Bleu is the one culinary school name that a person outside the trade will recognize, which is both its strength and the reason this page needs care. The name covers a Paris institution founded in 1895, a network of more than thirty schools that vary in what they teach and how they are accredited, and a group of American campuses that traded on the name under license and closed in 2017. A student asking “is Le Cordon Bleu worth it” is usually asking about one of these without knowing which. This page separates them. Fees and intake dates are left out; each campus’s site carries them.

What the school is

The institution’s own timeline dates it to 1895, when the journalist Marthe Distel launched the magazine La Cuisinière Cordon Bleu in Paris and held the first cooking lessons on 15 October of that year. Rosemary Hume and Dione Lucas opened a London school in 1931. Julia Child began training in Paris in 1948. Ottawa opened in 1988 “as the first campus outside of Europe,” Tokyo in 1991, and Sydney in 1996 to train cooks ahead of the 2000 Olympics. In 2018 the Paris school partnered with Université Paris Dauphine for its bachelor’s degrees, in 2020 it launched certified online programs, and in 2023 it opened a second Paris site at the Hôtel de la Marine, while London added an MSc with Birkbeck (Le Cordon Bleu, Our timeline). On its 130th anniversary the group described itself as “more than 35 institutes,” “present in over 20 countries” and “training over 20,000 students annually,” under the leadership of André J. Cointreau since 1984 (Le Cordon Bleu, 130 years).

In the field, Le Cordon Bleu is the school of classical French technique taught to an international student body, and its weight on the editorial lists of the world’s best culinary schools is partly the recognition of the name. The outcome evidence, below, is real but narrower.

The network, campus by campus

London teaches in English and publishes the longest argument for its own value on the network, which I take up below. Its Grand Diplôme runs nine months full time, twelve months when combined with the Diploma in Culinary Management, and fifteen months with an internship (Le Cordon Bleu London, Is culinary school worth it?).

Ottawa grew out of a school run by Eleanor Orser, the first Canadian to earn the Grand Diplôme in Paris in 1979, sold to André Cointreau in 1988. It moved in 2000 to the Munross Mansion, which it shares with the Signatures Restaurant, and offers the Grand Diplôme, cuisine, pastry, plant based and culinary management diplomas (Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa, Our story).

Tokyo opened in 1991, teaches in Japanese, English and Chinese through interpreters, and added a Japanese cuisine diploma in 2017 (Tokyo Weekender; Kyodo PR Wire, 2017).

Shanghai opened in April 2015 as a joint venture with the Shanghai Business and Tourism School, a Chinese government school, and offers the Grand Diplôme, the three French diplomas and a culinary management diploma; its page does not state the language of instruction (Le Cordon Bleu Shanghai).

Australia has campuses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, offers culinary qualifications and business management degrees, and is registered with the national regulators (Le Cordon Bleu Australia, About us).

Accreditation differs by country: the Paris diploma is the institution’s own, the Paris bachelor’s degrees run with a university, the Australian schools are state registered. Read the page of the campus you mean.

The United States, 2015

Le Cordon Bleu was also, for years, a chain of American career colleges operated under license by Career Education Corporation, a for profit company. In late 2015 the company announced that the sixteen schools would close; its chief executive blamed changing federal support for high cost career schools (NPR, 2015). The schools stopped accepting students after January 2016 and closed in September 2017. In 2013 the company had paid forty million dollars to settle a class action by former students who said they had been misled about job prospects (New Republic, 2015).

Much of the American skepticism about the name dates from that chapter and belongs to it. The Paris school and the international network were not affected.

The Grand Diplôme and how it is taught

The Grand Diplôme combines the Diplôme de Cuisine and the Diplôme de Pâtisserie. In Paris it takes nine months, taught in French with consecutive translation into English, and each discipline runs through three levels, Basic, Intermediate and Superior. Classes pair demonstrations in front of the whole group with practical lessons at individual work stations, and an internship pathway lets a student complete a placement in a professional kitchen in cuisine, pastry or both (Grand Diplôme, Le Cordon Bleu Paris). That pattern is the house method across the network, and it is the main difference between Le Cordon Bleu and a degree college such as the Culinary Institute of America, where students also run public restaurants for a semester and spend a further semester on externship. Here the practical component is the class kitchen and, where chosen, the internship.

Who it is for and how to get in

The Paris school states that applicants for the Grand Diplôme must be 18 or older, must hold a baccalaureate or equivalent, and need English at level B2 or French at level A2. The programs “are open to beginners” and prior experience is not required (Grand Diplôme, Le Cordon Bleu Paris). London says the same about experience and describes its students as school leavers, graduates of unrelated degrees and career changers (Le Cordon Bleu London). Other campuses set their own conditions.

This is a school for the career changer and the international student who wants classical French technique in under a year, in a city of their choosing. It is less suited to a student who wants a degree in the American sense, or most of the course in a working restaurant.

Is it worth it

Le Cordon Bleu London’s own answer is that starting at the bottom of a kitchen is “quite dated,” that restaurants now recruit trained juniors, and that nine months is a small cost against a long career (Le Cordon Bleu London). The sharpest public answer on the other side came when the American schools closed, from Scott Jones, then chef de cuisine of Menton in Boston, who told NPR: “I haven’t hired anybody out of Le Cordon Bleu in years,” and added, “The idea that anyone would want to come into this industry with debt is ludicrous” (NPR, 2015). He was speaking about the American chain.

The one independent measure is a Chef’s Pencil study published on 16 March 2026 of 278 chefs leading Michelin starred restaurants in the United States. It found that 61 percent had attended culinary school and that 8.3 percent had attended a Le Cordon Bleu school, the second largest share after the Culinary Institute of America at 14 percent, counting international branches. The authors built it from public biographies and warn that “minor inaccuracies may occur” (Chef’s Pencil, 16 March 2026). One in twelve American starred kitchens led by a Le Cordon Bleu alumnus is a serious record. It is a correlation across a very large network, and it says nothing about any one campus.

What the chefs in my books say

One chef in my books names the school. Cristina Bowerman spent ten years as a graphic designer before deciding, at 32, that the same creativity could go into a kitchen. She enrolled at the Cordon Bleu college in Austin, Texas, one of the American schools that later closed, went to Italy to learn fresh pasta, took a job in Rome, and earned a Michelin star at Glass Hostaria in 2009.

“I gave myself 10 years to succeed as a chef.” Cristina Bowerman, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

“My degree in law, my studies of foreign languages, and my job as a graphic designer helped me speed up the learning curve,” she told me. The school opened the door; the life she brought to it, and six months making pasta in Italy, did the rest.

Anthony Bourdain had a warning for a student drawn by a famous name.

“Let’s face it, if you’re rolling out of culinary school and your highest aspiration is to be on TV, or you think you’re ready to make the big bucks, good luck with that because your prospects are not good.” Anthony Bourdain, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

And Pedro Subijana of Akelarre, after more than fifty years in the kitchen, set out the terms on which any school is worth attending. Enroll, he told me, but not to learn everything. “You need to learn how to learn.” That is the honest case for a nine month diploma. It is long enough to learn how to learn, and too short to learn the trade.

How to decide

Decide which Le Cordon Bleu you mean, and read that campus’s accreditation. Decide whether nine months of technique in a class kitchen is what you want, or a semester in a public restaurant and a semester on externship, which a degree college gives and this network mostly does not. Then weigh the internship pathway heavily, because that kitchen will teach you what the diploma cannot.

The book is blunt about that part. “The schools are not teaching the love of the work. The love of the work cannot be taught.” The Luxury of Attention (2026), Chapter 1. Chapter 2, on the apprenticeship, is about the years after a program like this ends, and it is the chapter to read before you enroll.

Sources

Questions people also ask

Is Le Cordon Bleu worth it?

It depends on which school and what you want from it. Le Cordon Bleu’s own London page argues that a nine month diploma is a small cost against a long career, while a Boston chef de cuisine told NPR in 2015 that he had not hired a Le Cordon Bleu graduate in years. The one independent measure is a 2026 Chef’s Pencil study in which 8.3 percent of 278 Michelin starred chefs in the United States had attended a Le Cordon Bleu school, the second largest share of any school.

What is the Grand Diplôme?

The Grand Diplôme is Le Cordon Bleu’s flagship credential, combining the Diplôme de Cuisine and the Diplôme de Pâtisserie. In Paris it takes nine months and runs through Basic, Intermediate and Superior levels in each discipline, taught in French with consecutive English translation. An internship pathway adds a placement in a professional kitchen.

Did Le Cordon Bleu close its schools in the United States?

Yes. The American schools were run under license by Career Education Corporation, a for profit company, which announced in late 2015 that its sixteen United States campuses would stop accepting students after January 2016 and close by September 2017. The Paris school and the rest of the international network were not affected and continue to operate.

What do you need to get into Le Cordon Bleu Paris?

For the Grand Diplôme the Paris school asks that applicants be at least 18, hold a baccalaureate or an equivalent school leaving qualification, and have English at level B2 or French at level A2. No prior cooking experience is required; the programs are open to beginners. Other campuses set their own requirements, which are on their pages.

Where are the Le Cordon Bleu schools?

The network describes itself as more than 35 institutes in over 20 countries, training more than 20,000 students a year. The headquarters is in Paris, with a second Paris site at the Hôtel de la Marine since 2023, and the timeline lists campuses including London, Madrid, Ottawa, Mexico City, Lima, São Paulo, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and four cities in Australia.

Did any chef in The Luxury of Attention train at Le Cordon Bleu?

Cristina Bowerman, chef of the Michelin starred Glass Hostaria in Rome, changed careers at 32 and enrolled at the Cordon Bleu college in Austin, Texas, one of the American schools that later closed. She is the only chef in my books whose profile names the school.