Which Culinary Art School in CA?

Go to the one that you most feel comfortable with. This is the advice I woulda given myself several years ago before springing for a LCB program because they had blinded me with hype. Recruiters make an overwhelming amount of money to "bait & fish" prosperous students like you in, and they will say just about anything (even if it was made up and/or exaggerated slightly).

Keep your budget and goals in mind when selecting. Do not buy into "prestige" or "hype" as neither are much of a bargaining chip to getting a nice job. The jobs you get, how long you keep them, how much they pay, and how quickly you move up is dependent on you, not the school.

Best of luck in your endeavors

All schools will have recruiters or some such title and it will be their job to get you to sign on the line and get money committed. Many if not most will do or say anything to achieve that end as RAS1187 has indicated.

Look for longevity i.e. how long have they been teaching cooking at that location?

This particular line of questioning can be tricky and somewhat meaningless, because many people are excellent instructors/teachers as well as excellent cooks/bakers without being certified, but I would still ask the recruiter these kinds of questions. What credentials do the cooking instructors have? Are they certified chefs? Are any of them certified master chefs? What areas of cuisine do they represent? Here you would be looking for things like French, Italian so to speak, Mediterranean, Latin, Carribean, Asian etc, etc. The idea here is that you want to know if you are learning about foods and flavors from around the world or are you just learning some foundational cooking techniques.

The Culinary Institute of America, more commonly know as CIA in hte cooking worls has a school in California. Do the same sort of thing with them that you did with the other school and then find out about some of the other schools in California and visit several just as you have done once already. Ask lots of questions, which you should have written done and take notes on the answers you recieve. After each visit, write a summary of the visit and your impression of the school. When all the visits are done and written about, forget about it for a week. Then go back to your writings and read what you wrote about each school. You will most likely find in your writings which school you are most comfortable with. After that keep RAS1187's comments in mind regarding success in the field...."is dependent on you, not the school"

Yes the same thing applies to culinary schools as you are are aware of with dental programs.

Any school is going to have plenty of negative comments on websites such as Yelp. People who are mad or upset are the ones who tend to "vocalize" their feelings. People who were satisfied with what they got out of the school usually have nothing to "yelp" about.

All of this is why it is so important to do the research and hopefully find a school you are comfortable with. Every one of them is out to get your money which is fine, but you have to get what you want out of the school as well.

It couldn't hurt just to walk by the school and ask any current students their opinions. Usually you will get brutally honest feedback about what is good/bad.

I may have turned a few people away from my school from my brutal honesty when asked in person, but I would rather that then they make a mistake in attending a school that doesn't fit them.

I went to the LCB school in Chicago, The Cooking & Hospitality Institute of Chicago (aka CHIC). It is not a bad school, but it is not a really great one either. I would have done more research so that I could make a smarter decision for my money if I could go back to the past.

And sorry, I don't know anybody attending school in CA.

I didn't attend culinary school. My education and training is in health care but my heart really is in food. I did work in restaurants and a bakery and eventually I had my own bakery for a while. I had wanted to go to CIA in Hyde Park back in the very early '80's but it just wasn't in the cards for me. One of my daughters graduated from CIA in Hyde Park. I'm drawn to CIA like a moth is to a light :D Looking back on life, I wish I would have put all the effort I put into healthcare, into the culinary arts--particularly baking and pastry. Although I do like cooking as well.

I have a feeling that no matter what school I ended up in, I would have a foundation of basics to build up on, but I could have done it for alot less money.

My kitchen is full of CHIC grads. The former chef, former sous chef, current chef, current asst. sous chef, and 2 of 5 PM cooks I work with all graduated from there. The general consensus is what I already stated, wished they had looked at other options before committing 45k to help pay off that intense marketing program that LCB schools have.

This is my third attempt to reply so this will be short. Lots of self study and practice. Also I worked for almost three years at a bakery that did everything from scratch working with a baker who had been there for over 30 years and had never known any other job. I learned so much from him.

Good luck with your research and keep us posted on your findings. Keep in mind that there are a lot of knowledgeable, experienced people here on cheftalk so feel free to ask any questions you come up with while researching schools and other learning options.

I suggest that you check ShawGuides, for a community college in California. Otherwise, check out ACF's Apprenticeship Program, California. Good luck.

Edited by TheUnknownCook - 12/16/10 at 1:20pm