I went to LA Trade Tech years ago. It's a pretty solid program, but it's in a bad neighborhood, so sometimes the student restaurants aren't that busy. I'd take the evening section of the 111 and 112. We did a lot more interesting things then the day section which spent too much time chopping mirepoix for knife skills, IMHO. I had to take a look at the catalouge to see who's still teaching there. Blanchard is very solid. He used to run private clubs. Feiganbaum is a trip, one of my faves to work with. You'll probably learn the most line skills in her class. Kasmer is pretty decent, kinda goofy. IIRC he was made dept dean a little after he left. I took Lisanti for 111 and 112. He's a funny guy, good teacher.
Looks like Headly left. Which is too bad. He was a very old school guy, and a right Scottish bastard. He made the roux for his espagnole and demi with the fat from the roasting bones <3<3<3<3 I like him even though he docked me major points for wearing black pants instead of checks.
I see they lost Giovanni Delrosairo to Harbor college. He was one of the best guys they had there. A real booster for culinary competitions if you're into that kind of thing.
Don't know much about Long Beach Culinary. We came in second to either them or Orange Coast at an intramural culinary comp. I think Kasmar used to moonlight there.
ACF certification would be a dealbreaker for me. The hour long commute isn't too bad, since you can take the Blue line down there from Long Beach. The Blue Line stop is right outside the culinary dept (At least it was when I went there. They're were about to undertake a huge renovation when I left.)
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