To address the issue of return-on-investment, culinary schools that offer a degree program could simply offer a certificate only. In fact, Le Cordon Bleu already offers this program. The 9 month program costs approximately $20,000 and classes run from 6:30 PM-11:05 PM according to representatives I spoke to. Not considering grants and the interest rate on federal or private loans, that investment is manageable to pay back on a cook’s wage. If the student has a previous Bachelor’s degree and is a career changer, they don’t necessarily need an extra Associate’s Degree. If the student is right out of high school and earn the certificate, they can always complete an Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree in a related or unrelated field.

Revenue may decrease for the companies and the investors but they could create a financially viable investment for students.

Another option is one that is rarely discussed by the mainstream media: community college. Having visited and talked to the administration and students at two schools in Illinois (Washburne Culinary Institute and Elgin Community College), I can confidently say that the quality of education and facilities are on par with other for-profit culinary schools I was employed for or have visited. Washburne’s Culinary Arts Associate’s Degree is comparable in price to certificates from Le Cordon Bleu, Kendall College, and Art Institute in Chicago. You can find your state’s culinary school options accredited through the American Culinary Federation, which is not a requirement for a culinary school to have, at  www.acfchefs.org.

Finally, there’s the apprenticeship or work option. Many industry professionals and educators, such as Kendall College’s Chris Koetke did not attend culinary school. However, he does have a Bachelor’s Degree from Valparaiso in French Literature and an MBA from Dominican University. He started cooking at as a teenager and worked his way up from there with drive, intensity, intelligence, and perseverance. This approach would be difficult for someone considering a career change at 30, has children, a mortgage, and previous student loans, but this is an option for any teenager needing a part-time job whether they are considering a culinary education or not.

While I believe unethical practices should not be tolerated, for-profit schools can provide viable education options that keep them profitable while not sending their students and graduates into a lifetime of debt. At the same time, it is up to the customers (the students) to thoroughly research their options before making a decision that could cost them their future.

Before considering culinary school, here are some general questions you should be asking yourself:

• Why do I want to attend culinary school?
• What are some of the career paths that exist and what education do I need to get there?
• Do I like working on Friday and Saturday nights?

Not all career paths in the food industry require you to work on the weekends and put in 60+ hours a week but that is a norm if you want to work at the best restaurants in the country. You could have a life being a cook in a hotel and if it’s union, you can usually land some benefits, a decent wage, and work hours more conducive to seeing your family.

Are you still thinking a culinary career can be in your future? Now you need to ask the following:

• What is my current education?
• How much culinary education do I need? (Certificate? Associates Degree? BA?)
• How much debt is too much debt?

The great thing about the food industry is that if you have experience working in sales, business, accounting, writing, or science, you can take that previous knowledge and apply it to the world of food writing, research and development, or account sales. If you already have a Bachelor’s degree, does one need an Associate’s? That kind of question leads to the issue of debt. Understand that in life, you are hindered by the decisions you make or don’t make.

If you are asking these questions and are not finding the answers, email me at jeff@culinaryschooladviser.com for further assistance.

After reading “The Seasoning of a Chef,” by Doug Psaltis, it was apparent that this man is driven by the pursuit of perfection. The common occurrence throughout his story is that he never finds it as once he has hit the ceiling of a particular establishment, he seeks the next level. Family, relationships, and a general social life are rarely mentioned unless he writes about how he doesn’t have these things in his life.

From his grandfather’s diner in Queen’s to Alain Ducasse’s ADNY to Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, the story’s consistent theme is that complacency does not exist in this man’s world.

Psaltis never attended culinary school but has worked within the industry for over 25 years. Although he never received a formal training where grades determined if you passed or failed, he feels culinary education had always been in front of him, however, his employers, chefs, and peers were his teachers.

The book, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell and its principal of 10,000 hours of practice (completed well before the age of 21 based on his autobiography) along with opportunity (his grandfather’s restaurant as a start) explain how Psaltis became successful without culinary school. An obsessive and self-driven personality is not to be discounted.

Now with Rich Melman and the Lettuce Entertainment Group, Psaltis has worked amongst some of the best chefs in the country and for a chef that is in his 30’s, he does not appear to want to take a break from the routine of 16 hour work days.

If your goal is to work in the food industry, culinary school could help you. What’s important is to look into how many hours in the kitchen are dedicated to the class as well as if the school offers additional lab time for practice. Another consideration is the cost of the program. If it fits into your financial budget, one can earn anywhere from 500-1000 hours of kitchen time by attending culinary school. While attending school, one can earn more hours by applying what they are learning in the classroom into a restaurant kitchen.

However, having opportunities to gain experience or the perseverance to create your own opportunities along with the ability to see work and life as a marathon as opposed to a sprint, it’s possible for anyone to establish a career in the culinary industry through Psaltis’ method. It comes down to drive and determination: two things that cannot be taught in a classroom.

Neither Thomas Keller no Christopher Kostow attended culinary school although Kostow, as well as 1 star winner Mark Sullivan, earned a degree in Philosophy. Both of these chefs earned 3 Michelin Stars.

Amongst the 2 star winners, only David Kinch attended culinary school and he had graduated from Johnson & Wales in 1981. Douglas Keane is a college graduate but of Cornell’s acclaimed School of Hospitality Management.

The California Culinary Academy can boast that they have 5 recipients that received 1 Michelin Star. CCA is now known as Le Cordon Bleu San Francisco.

Another local school showed as Tante Marie Cooking School had two Michelin recipients with Executive Pastry Chefs Mie Uchida and Melissa Chou.

However, most of those awarded Michelin Stars attended culinary school outside of the Bay area.

Once again, the Culinary Institute of America carried the majority of recipients that attended culinary school with a total of 8 while Johnson & Wales had three graduates on the list. This makes sense as Johnson & Wales is across the country and although they have prestige, it does not match the CIA when it comes to reputation.

The French Culinary Institute of Manhattan had two on the list and there were three chefs that had attended culinary school but did so outside of the United States.

Education in general is not to be dismissed and it is important to see other areas of study some of these recipients focused in. There were those that studied business and economics like Richard Reddington, Dominique Creen, and Mourhad Lahlou. Other chefs found studying Art beneficial such as Nancy Oakes who graduated from San Francisco.

As one can see, attending culinary school can help you reach excellence but it is not the only way.

What do you say? Agree or disagree with this analysis?

For the full breakdown of Michelin Star recipients in San Francisco…

San Francisco:

3 Stars

French Laundry: Thomas Keller

Restaurant at Meadowood: Christopher Kostow (Hamilton College – Philosophy)

2 Stars

Coi: Daniel Patterson

Cyrus:  Douglas Keane (Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration)

Manresa: David Kinch (Johnson and Wales)

1 Star

Acquarello: Suzette Gresham-Tognetti

Alexander’s Steakhouse: Jeffrey Stout

Ame: Orlando Pagan

Applewood: Bruce Frieseke – St. John’s College (Maryland)

Auberge du Soleil:  Robert Curry

Aziza: Mourad Lahlou:  San Francisco State University (Macroeconomics) & Melissa Chou – Pastry Chef -Tante Marie Cooking School

Baume: Bruno Chamel – Lenotre Pastry Academy in Paris

Bouchon: Philip Tessier – Culinary Institute of America & Janine Weismann – Pastry Chef – Johnson & Wales

Boulevard: Nancy Oakes – B.A. San Francisco Art Institute

Campton Place: Srijith Gopinathan – Culinary Institute of America

Chez TJ: Scott Nishiyama – Culinary Institute of America & Executive Pastry Chef – Erica Waksmunski – Johnson & Wales

Commis: James Syhabout – California Culinary Academy

Dining Room at Ritz-Carlton: Ron Siegel – California Culinary Academy

Dio Deka – Salvatore Calisi***

Etolie: Perry Hoffman

Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant: Steve Litke

Fleur de Lys: Hubert Keller & Rick Richardson (Chef de Cuisine)

Frances: Melissa Perello – Culinary Institute of America

Gary Danko: Gary Danko – Culinary Institute of America

La Folie: Roland Passot Executive Chef & Mie Uchida Executive Pastry Chef – Tante Marie Cooking School

La Toque: Ken Frank

Luce: Dominique Creen – Cours Charlemagne BA Economics & International Business from Academy of International Commerce of Paris

Madera: Peter Rudolph – California Culinary Academy

Madrona Manor: Jesse Mallgren

Masa’s: Gregory Short – Culinary Institute of America & Maggie Leung – Pastry Chef – California Culinary Academy

Mirepoix: Matthew Bousquet – California Culinary Academy

Murray Circle: Joseph Humphrey – Florida State University – International Affairs

One Market: Mark Dommen – California Culinary Academy & University of San Francisco (Business Administration with Hospitality Management emphasis)

Plumed Horse: Peter Armellino – French Culinary Institute

Quince: Michael Tusk – Culinary Institute of America

Redd: **Nicole Prue – Executive Pastry Chef – California Culinary Academy &  Executive Chef (Richard Reddington – Miami of Ohio – Business)

Saison: Joshua Skenes – French Culinary Institute

Sante: Bruno Tison – Institut Technique Des Metiers De L’Alimentation (Belgium)

Solbar: Brandon Sharp – Culinary Institute of America & also (BA from University of North Carolina)

Spruce: Mark Sullivan (see Village Pub)

Terra: Hiro Sone – École Technique Hôtelière Tsuji (Japan)

Ubuntu: Aaron London – Culinary Institute of America

The Village Pub: Mark Sullivan – St. John’s University – Philosophy (Minnesota)

Wakuriya: Katsuhiro Yamasaki

*No longer at Spruce but promoted to Chef de Cuisine August 2010

** No longer at Redd

*** Left Dio Deka late 2010

Here are a few pieces of open and honest advice by some Chicago area chefs courtesy of the Restaurant Intelligence Agency website, Soapbox.

“Speed, technique, and sense of urgency: Without these you can not become a good cook. It is impossible,” wrote Executive Chef Chris Pandel of the Bristol.

Chef Cary Taylor, Executive Chef of The Southern expects interns to be “Clean, organized, respectful, and on time.”

Even though some chefs will focus on some of the basics like technique and common sense, others will focus on humility and the proper mentality for interns.

“A lot of interns I have talked to are in some sort of la-la land and don’t realize the laborious nature of the job. Cooking is not what you see on TV,” wrote Chrissy Camba, Chef de Cuisine of Vincent. “You work over 9+ hour days, you don’t have time to take breaks, you make very little money and you don’t have the luxury of taking time off. You choose this career because you have a real passion – not because you want to be on TV.”

“Just because you’ve gone to culinary school and done an internship does not mean you are ready to be a chef,” wrote Chris Curren of Blue 13.

David Posey, Chef de Cuisine at Blackbird stressed, “The importance of knowing that you are never “the shit.” Everything can always be better from your attitude to your work.”

While success in a classroom experience may help a student think that they are ready for a professional kitchen, Hillary Blanchard-Rikower, Pastry Chef of one sixty-blue, feels a classroom cannot necessarily replicate the real thing.

“Actual experience in the kitchen is mush more valuable than school courses,” wrote Blanchard-Rikower. “You can learn the basics there but nothing will prefare you for the real world except the real world.”

Because the food industry doesn’t have the same restrictions as other professions, there really should be no reason why a student’s internship is their first experience in a professional kitchen although it does happen.

Expectations of the industry are sometimes not set by the administration of culinary schools and the schools that do that let themselves, their student, and the industry down by pumping out mediocre to terrible cooks…especially mediocre and terrible cooks with an ego.

Keep your head down, work hard, and understand that a mistake will happen but it’s how you respond to that mistake that may separate you from just a failed intern to an employed cook.

The rest of you, well, culinary school may not be a good idea. Maybe instead, you should consider continuing education classes on the weekends. Something that maybe just teaches techniques, or simple dishes. But full time school is probably not for you.

Let me say right off the bat that I don’t like Anthony Bourdain. The excerpt from “Medium Raw” that causes me to whip out a digital middle finger on a daily basis into cyber space has offended and motivated me beyond measure. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s being told I’m not good enough. Tell me that about something I truly love, and you can multiply that times a factor of 10. I think Mr. Bourdain is arrogant, pompous, and far too in love with his own intellect. I think that he’s in a position to lift people up, but instead, under the guise of “telling it like it is”, he tears them down instead. If I had listened to him, I would not be about to graduate from Culinary School with honors in May.

I know, I’m rambling. I do that.

Like many of you reading this, when the US economy went to hell in a handbasket, I suffered some repercussions. In my case, I was a truck driver, and making a pretty decent living. On May 8^th, 2009, that changed when I, along with every other company driver in the Southeast, was fired from the company I worked for. After some serious panic, my wife and I decided that we’d had enough of me doing a job I was miserable at, no matter what the pay. We found a program through the unemployment office that would help to pay for my school. I’d always wanted to be a chef. I could already cook, but I was rough, inconsistent, and unrefined. The local tech school here in Greenville, SC had a pretty good program that fit the budget I was looking for, so we took the plunge. It is by far the best decision I ever made. When I am done with school, I will, at minimum take a $10,000 a year pay cut from my previous career. I say to you with, pardon the pun, no reservations, I. Do. Not. Care.

But that’s me. If you’re at this site, and reading this article, you’re probably debating whether you should go to culinary achool. The short answer to that-It depends. Bourdain would tell you if you’re over 25, have a family, or any health issues, that you absolutely shouldn’t.

I say instead, if this is what you love to do, if you can live on less money than your current career may provide, if you can find a reasonably priced program, then by all means, take the shot. If that is your dream, grab it. No one, not me, not Gordon Ramsey, Bobby Flay, Alton Brown, or Anthony Bourdain, has any right to tell you that you should not try to live your dreams. Yes, the reality is that you’re going to work some long hours. You’re also going to do it for relatively low pay.

On the flip side, if you think you’re going to be an Executive Chef right out of school, or even worse, if you think you’re going to jump straight to the Food Network or any “reality” cooking show, (and this is coming from someone who has auditioned for one of those shows, but that’s another story for another article.), turn around and go back to your job. If you have to mortgage your house to pay for school, turn around and go back to your job. If you only “like” cooking, and aren’t sure what you want to do, you guessed it, turn around and go back to your job. Bottom line, if you’re any age, let alone mine, and you go to any culinary school without knowing that this is what you want to do, it will be the most expensive set of knives you will ever buy. This industry is not for everyone, and a case can be made that those of us who love it are a little twisted.

Let me stress that if this is what you love, and you have a true passion for it, and you can walk that path with your eyes open, don’t let anyone turn you from it. I knew I wanted to be a chef when I was 22. I let someone turn me off that path. I’ve regretted it since. I’m lucky, I got another shot at my dream. You might not.

So suck it, Bourdain.

Jason Key is a student at Greenville Technical College and is scheduled to graduate in May of 2011. You can follow him on twitter @darthwaya

When I look back at my life, school at 40 never was where I would have seen myself.  With a career in Event Planning, I was content with the direction my life was headed.  But as fate would have it, life never is stagnant, and change is always bound to happen.

I had always thought about a career in the Culinary Arts.  From my time in the kitchen with my parents, to helping my father cater an event; food was in my blood.  I just never realized how much in my blood it was.

In August of 2010 I was separated from my employment and was now faced with the fear of “now what?” That fear became overwhelming.  However, I saw this as a chance to do something completely different with my life.  In a matter of a couple weeks from leaving my career, fate stepped in and threw the world of the culinary arts in my path over and over again. I took the hint and started looking at my choices.  I never realized how much there was to look at; from financial aid to the type of culinary arts programs or even what school and what city would I want to study in.  So many choices, but the horizon of possibilities was endless.  I had always thought my former career as an endless road of possibilities; I was wrong.  With new sites ahead of me, I could see clearly how such a small change of direction would influence my life so greatly and it was enticing to think of the infinite possibilities a head.

I looked into a couple of different schools and programs and after meeting with Le cordon Bleu, I knew I had found my home! I started the Culinary Arts Certificate program on November 8, 2010.  Fear, excitement, anxiety, I was feeling everything all at once.  What had I gotten myself into?  Sitting in orientation, I thought to myself over and over again, ‘yes you love to cook, but this much? I knew this was the right choice and knew that even though I was a cluster of emotions, this was where I needed to be.

As I have gone through Foundations 1 and Food Safety/Sanitations, the program is nothing that I thought it would be, yet everything I hoped it would be.  I never realized the detail of cooking, from keeping food safe for consumers to the acute detail of using all of your senses.  I have learned so much from the program already and I know I have so much more to come.

After entering into the second round of classes, Foundations 2, fear and nerves that I felt at the beginning have subsided.  Yet the excitement and hunger for knowledge have increased by leaps and bounds.  The journey through the culinary world has been an adventure, one that I would hope everyone could experience.  As for me, it is one I will never regret.

Scott Wilson is a culinary student at the Le Cordon Bleu program in Las Vegas where he resides. He is also a drag performer in Las Vegas and you can follow him on twitter @SyrenVaughn

Congratulations! You have just graduated, or even dropped out, of culinary school and are ready to establish your career in the food industry. Are you ready?

You might believe so but many of the chefs and restaurant owners I have talked to feel that many are unprepared for the industry. While there are hundreds of culinary schools based in the United States, with just fewer than 200 of them being certified by the American Culinary Federation, some chefs feel that the graduates, as well as dropouts, are leaving school unprepared for the realities of working in the food industry.

“A real fundamental of the basics of cooking has been neglected,” said Rob Levitt of The Butcher and Larder. “For me, when I went to school, I didn’t want to learn just how to braise, I wanted to know 5 to 10 different ways to get short ribs from raw to delicious.”

“Teach the kids the absolute basics they need to function in a kitchen. Most of all, keep your head down, shut up, and work faster and harder than the guy or girl next to you. If you can’t keep up, you should do something else,” said Chris Pandel, Executive Chef of The Bristol.

“Organizing is so important,” said consultant and Culinary Institute of America graduate Heather Turner. “For example, you don’t start the stew that takes two hours to make a half an hour before service starts. Prioritizing is lacking…Cooks also need to improve on mise-en-place gathering, better at estimating the amount of covers, and getting the most time consuming prep done first.”

The basics aren’t “sexy” though. Some students I have met and talked to want to skip knife cuts and learn about flavor profiles and combinations. Some want to learn about molecular gastronomy but do not understand basic chemistry. While these skills may be useful (although the molecular gastronomy is more of a luxury than a needed skill), the basics should have more of a focus as it is the foundation for this, or any, craft.

Although prep skills and cooking techniques are taught in school, are programs and educators teaching these students how this will work in a real-time environment? Are they preparing students to improvise and think on their feet when the situation calls for it?

“If you are in a kitchen that has a lousy oven or in a small restaurant that has one little oven but you have to braise short ribs for 100 people, what are you going to do? You can’t take up the oven all day. Or are you going to figure out a different way to do it and that’s what’s important,” said Levitt.

While technical skills and kitchen savvy are needed, it’s the mental preparation and lifestyle that some chefs feel that new cooks are not ready to handle.

Pandel found that the culinary school he attended lacked ambition with apathetic instructors and a poor curriculum. However, that did not deter him from the industry, but it did help with his decision in dropping out of culinary school.

“My fellow classmates that really cared found each other in the same situation of constantly trying to be better than mediocre. We referred to ourselves as the 2% club,” wrote Pandel in Soapbox. “The 2% that were actually going to try to make a mark in the industry through hard work, and paying attention to what is going on in the world. Ten years later, the 2% club has done well for themselves for the most part. Everyone else? Not so much.”

“Some of these reality shows blind the youngsters to what it’s REALLY like in the industry. There are long hours, alcoholism, broken marriages, high burn out and heart attack rate,” said Turner.

“Being in a kitchen is very physical, the hours are long and are 7 days a week sometimes. I’m not saying it’s a young person’s game but when you are younger, you have more energy,” said personal chef Valerie Bolon.

Weeding out who should and shouldn’t be heading into the culinary profession is in everyone’s best interest. For the student, it could save them thousands of dollars in unnecessary debt. For the chefs, it will make their lives easier as they will have a smaller, yet more focused pool of talent to hire and train. In order for someone to know that the industry is right for them, there are steps one can take to make a well-informed decision such as working in the industry before enrolling. However, the Culinary Institute of America is one of the few, if only programs out there that have requirements that Levitt advocates.

“I would really like for schools to require that you must have experience before they can accept you. Make somebody work in a kitchen 6-12 months before they even get into school if for no other reason to see if they want to pursue this as a career.”

Before worrying about whether you can master Grant Achatz’s “Truffle Explosion,” understand that he reached this point in his career by working hard every day and mastered the fundamentals first.

Culinary students: Are you ready for the industry? Industry professionals: Did your school help prepare you for the profession?

Three finalists will be chosen with the winner receiving the $15,000 grand prize scholarship.

Click here for full details and the application.