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Bay Chef Le Cordon Bleu SF

post #1 of 6
1/30/09 at 1:18am
Thread Starter 
Hi everyone!
IS there anyone who has knowledge about the Le Cordon Bleu academy in San Francisco? Has anybody attended the school? I'd like to get more information and feedback about the school. I'd like to attend the Pattisserie and Baking program. Would be very happy if you could provide info about it. Thanks!!!:chef:
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post #2 of 6
1/30/09 at 8:33pm
pretty much all lcb schools are the same, they get your money, pump people through there program. there will be people you graduate with that shouldnt have and so on... im not saying its bad education you'll take as much knowledge from school as much effort as you give. im sure theres comunity college's near by that offer the same education for 1/2 the price. plus experence is going to mean more in this industry epecily now that jobs are scarce.
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post #3 of 6
1/31/09 at 1:14pm
I am going to assume junebug111 lives in the Bay Area?

I have NO experience with this school. BUT, with everything I have read I would stay away from it. YES you can get a really good education if you are determined, but I think there are other local options that might be better.

Personally, I would prefer The Professional Culinary Institute (PCI) in Campbell.

And since you are interested in baking, The San Francisco Baking Institute sounds really good.

City College of San Francisco is another school I have had my eye on. IMO it looks GREAT and is a fraction of the cost of CCA / LCB
CCSF: Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies

There are also apprenticeships offered by the American Culinary Federation (ACF). However, you might need to travel.

Good luck.
"To be a good chef all you got to do is lots of little things well" -Marco Pierre

"As far as cuisine is concerned, one must read everything, see everything, hear everything, try everything, observe everything, in order to retain in the end, just a little bit." -Fernand Point
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post #4 of 6
2/17/09 at 9:23am
I moved to San Francisco about three years ago seriously considering going to that school - wanted to wait at least a semester before starting anything though so instead looked for a job. With only a couple years of "grill and bar"-type restaurant experience, I somehow managed to make a good impression on the chef at a small fine-dining place downtown and landed a decent job. The chef and two other employees were either graduates or students of Le Cordon Bleu - all three encouraged me to only go if I really had the money(they had all gone into debt paying for it) and the desire for a "formal" education. Their opinion was that nothing beats hands-on experience and there is little or nothing that a good chef couldn't teach that a school could. I gained a ton of valuable experience and knowledge.

Things changed though after the chef left - restaurant ended up closing and due to loads of other things in my life I could no longer afford to live in SF. Now, I am taking culinary courses at the JC(the community college) in Santa Rosa.

It all depends on what you want out of it. I would prefer to be working hard in a restaurant kitchen than doing what I do now - there are positives and negatives to every way you go
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post #5 of 6
3/24/09 at 8:31am
I graduated from LCB in Miami location and to tell you the truth it was hard for me since I was a FT student with a FT job. LCB has a Baking program that takes 6-8 months.. i think? and of course you pay half what the A.A. pays (like me) and you only get the LCB diploma at the end. The classes I've seen were pretty big, 2 classes of 35 students average (PM shift). Very intense class for 15 recipes taken per day.

You can look for other Culinary Institutes aorund your are and compare, but I really like mine.

-Cristian
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post #6 of 6
5/12/09 at 11:40am
I now live in san Francisco and am a chef in a restaraunt downtown. I had a formal education from The institute of cluinary education In manhatten, NYC. The schools do teach you a lot BUT are you prepared to pay that much money. Experience is key in this industry and from what i heard that school is JUST OK.
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