how much cooking experience is required to get into a cooking school?
Depends on what kind of “cooking school” you’re talking about. A close friend is currently attending the Cordon Bleu Academy here in Orlando, which as cooking schools go is among the elite.
He was told that no experience was “required”, but the fact that he’s been a line cook at various upscale restaurants for six years certainly influenced his acceptance.
From what he says, there is no reason novice cooks can’t pick up on what is being taught.
May I hijack? It is related… 
Dutchboy (or others)…my stepson is considering cooking school and Cordon Bleu in particular.
It is insanely expensive. I told him it would be a good idea to check out ‘return on investment’. That is, do places prefer to hire Cordon Bleu graduates and at a higher salary? If a higher salary, how much higher?
What has been your close freind’s experience?
http://www.jwucharlotte.org/news_ccampusfacts.html
this is a new campus for johson and wales opening in the next year or so.
The New England Culinary Institute in Vermont doesn’t require experience, but they do require references.
andymurph… I haven’t really talked to him about job placement yet; I know the externships all Cordon Bleu students have to complete are extremely good resume builders; I’ll ask him about their placement and starting salary numbers when I see him, just give me a day or two.
Sounds good Dutch.
The possibilities either…
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Near worthless. You graduated from Cordon Bleu? So?
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Extremely helpful and stand-out-from-the-crowd-higher-quality-of-life. We pay $80,000 a year for a Cordon Bleu graduate and aggresively seek them out to hire, or
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(most likely) - Wow! A Cordon Bleu grad! Sure we’ll hire you! Pay is $10 an hour. That is it is great for getting a chef position but conveys little or no increase in compensation for spending $60K plus on the degree.
My gut tells me the last one but I could be wrong
Ask if the cooking school you plan on attending has a “Getting-Up-To-Speed” course. Most do (though, unfortunatly they’re typically summer courses, and it’s too late now).
Mostly its just a matter of learning the terms, getting your mother sauces down, learning the flow of a working kitcken and setting up your miz. Things you’d pick up quickly anyway, but are a great help to know ahead of time.
$60k plus? Last I checked (six months ago) $35k was the cost of the course…
I too investigated the California Coronary Academy (oops … Culinary Academy!). They wanted nearly $20,000 dollars for their 18 month program. My sister managed restaurants in the bay area for many years. She would hire their graduates for all of about $10.00 an hour!
If you have absolutely no prior in-depth cooking experience (even at home), I strongly recommend you investigate some vocational food preparation courses at a local community or state college before embarking on a costly professional program. You will be able to determine your proclivity for culinary enterprise without making a substantial up front investment. Remember, all this is from someone who absolutely loves to cook.
I could be misremembering or so could my step-son but I thought he said $30K per year for two years. Maybe it was $30K for both years…
Of course $35K is still a bit of money for many people