# Looking for Culinary school in Austin, TX



## ploy kamonsin (Apr 20, 2011)

I am going to move and live in Austin, Texas within this year and I am currently looking for a culinary art school to get in.

I have found Culinary Academy of Austin (CAA) on the website htp://www.culinaryacademyofaustin.com/

and it seems nice. I just want to know if anyone of you have heard or experienced about this institute ? Please share if you can recommend the best institute for me.

Another question is where would be the best in Austin, TX to study about restaurant management ?


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## chef_matt (Mar 18, 2008)

I dont know of any schools there but the head chef at Whole Foods, Chad Sarno can prob show and point you in the right direction.  I was there over a year ago to eat.  Good Luck!!

Matt


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## austincook (May 6, 2011)

I don't know if you're still looking, but there is a LCB campus here, although it's VERY expensive and the whole for-profit college system has been under scrutiny lately, especially the culinary schools.

ACC also has a culinary assoc. degree program, but I wouldn't recommend it for two reasons:

1) it's an applied science degree which won't prepare you very well for a four-year school, should you ever choose to further your education. You'll end up having to take a LOT of extra classes to satisfy the core curriculum, which means more money out of your pocket. (I was told this directly from an ACC counselor, btw.)

2) I did one semester before deciding to change my degree, mainly for the reason above, but also because I just wasn't all that impressed with the faculty. One instructor was a raw food advocate who had a bad habit of shoe-horning its benefits into his lectures, and another, senior member would often come in hungover (by his own admission), which IMO degraded the quality of the course significantly, not least of which because he would often become irritated by questions from students. His excuse was that he was "preparing us for the real world," which you have to admit is pretty lame.

My advice is to get a _real_ degree that has more flexibility. Meanwhile, take advantage of the ludicrously massive amount of resources on the internet and in books to teach yourself everything you need to know about the science and theory of cooking, and get some IRL experience by getting a part-time job in a kitchen, or cook for free for your friends. It ain't rocket science.

Finally, here's some words of wisdom from an old-school, self-taught chef I know: "Dude, I'll bet that less than 1% of the restaurant owners and kitchen crews in Austin, or any other city, are formally trained, and yet somehow they manage to crank out great food every day. Makes you wonder how our industry survived for thousands of years before culinary schools came along, doesn't it?"


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## dshaz6344 (Dec 18, 2012)

I found this culinary school in Austin,tx, might be worth checking out. Any feedback appreciated!

http://escoffier.edu/


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