# Culinary School



## wesgraham (Feb 13, 2015)

Does it really matter where you go for Culinary School? Look at La Cordon Blu. The expensive college everyone wants to go to... and most chefs i've met laugh at that school.

I'm planning on getting my Cert. at a local College, and thinking about getting my A.S. there also, or maybe going to a "better" college after I get my Cert.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Best advice I can give you is to get a level entry job in a kitchen and get some experience from that while you are in local college.

You will end up having an advantage over your peers in that you will have had real industrial experience.


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## grande (May 14, 2014)

Culinary school is good because you learn a lot of technical details, techniques, terminology, and a variety of skills you may or may not learn in a restaurant kitchen. You won't have a chance to master them, but if you pay attention you can learn a lot. But I definately also recommend working in a real kitchen first.

I went to a CC and it was fine for me, and some CC's have very good programs. I live in Seattle and there are two, Seattle Central, and South Seattle, that are very good. The flip side is that a friend of mine from Jersey says ALL the chefs he knew were CIA grads(chef meaning kitchen mgmt in this case).


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## Iceman (Jan 4, 2011)

The biggest percentage of people laughing at culinary school are those that couldn't get in. High price doesn't really make a school any better, however the most expensive _(I think)_ is the best. I live 20-30 minutes from a great CC/JuCo program. It's affordable and very very good. Things are what you make them. The school I went to was paid for through the GI-Bill. It's the best. Without that I wouldn't have gone. I would have gone to a CC/JuCo.


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## wesgraham (Feb 13, 2015)

Chefross said:


> Best advice I can give you is to get a level entry job in a kitchen and get some experience from that while you are in local college.
> 
> You will end up having an advantage over your peers in that you will have had real industrial experience.


 I know it's not a fancy, everything is made from scratch place like I'd love to be in after culinary school, but I did just get promoted to line cook at T.G.I.F. so I'll have some line experience with a Cert. Which would be nice.


IceMan said:


> The biggest percentage of people laughing at culinary school are those that couldn't get in. High price doesn't really make a school any better, however the most expensive _(I think)_ is the best. I live 20-30 minutes from a great CC/JuCo program. It's affordable and very very good. Things are what you make them. The school I went to was paid for through the GI-Bill. It's the best. Without that I wouldn't have gone. I would have gone to a CC/JuCo.


 I think you just might be right. I bet they all couldn't get into college so they bash it. I just don't seem to understand the big colleges though. From what I read, Culinary school is a kick start, and you really learn more from your chefs then any school could ever teach you through experience. So, does CIA give you a bigger job advantage?


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## halb (May 25, 2015)

> I bet they all couldn't get into college so they bash it.


I don't think so. Anybody with a pulse can get into a college as long as they graduated HS and can come up with the money and there are several ways to do that if you don't have it yourself. I notice people bash colleges because grads are a dime a dozen, are in their early twenties and already up to their eyeballs in debt and can't even get a minimum wage job. Why bother.


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## grande (May 14, 2014)

I think about culinary school in general, people see grads come out, with no experience, work a few months in the industry and move on. Culinary school gets s bad rap, but it doesn't need to be a negative thing; it depends on how you use it. Guys that come up in the business would rather train someone their way then argue with them.


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## Iceman (Jan 4, 2011)

The CIA did open a lot of doors for me. It didn't at all keep any of them open. My skills did that. I would have been out as fast as the potato peelings and trim scraps if I couldn't do the job. I said before that I wouldn't go there if I had to pay for myself. There is no way I could have gotten out of the debt hole with today's wages, even with my skills. Therein is why I recommend good _(*really good*, not just adequate)_ CC/JuCo programs. What I learned at the CIA you don't get with just a few years experience in regular ordinary places.


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