Education has developed in great lengths and heights throughout the past few decades, as now there’s a school for everything and thankfully the culinary industry is not left out.
Gone are the days when you needed to stay in the kitchen anytime your mother or father was cooking (even though that’s still awesome), as now there are so many materials on the internet that would help make you a top-notch chef as long as you’re properly motivated.
Asides from those materials and source documents, there’s something called a chef school that gives anyone pursuing a culinary career an upper hand in the industry, something that a lot of chefs in the past decades would have given a lot to be beneficiaries of.
What Are These Chef Schools?
These chef schools are available in different parts of the world, with a significant majority being from the United States of America. These chef schools have top-notch scholars, programs, apparatus, experiments, and a host of other mediums to give prospective chefs a proper introduction to the complex culinary industry.
The typical chef school would have a long (or occasionally short) list of top chefs that earned a degree or some months of experience at the school campus, and those experiences usually help shape up the said chef’s legacy.
Chef schools are also known as culinary schools, as they give the graduates a proper introduction to what would eventually become a lifetime thing and not a mere side hustle. As a result, these chefs happen to become some of the finest chefs in the world.
Here we will be talking about a variety of culinary schools and the best of the bunch, why you should attend one, a few notable alumni of such schools, and the highest degree obtainable from a chef school. So without further ado, let’s get to peruse some of the campuses where master chefs are made.
A Rundown of Culinary Schools
There’s no exhaustive list of the best culinary schools on planet Earth, that’s because each school had its merits and there are thousands of schools that have specialists in an array of super unique fields.
However, there are a couple of culinary schools that stand out thanks to a few factors such as consistency, specialty, and notable alumni. Here are three of the best, after which we will analyze the pick of the bunch in-depth.
1) Culinary Institute of America, USA
This culinary institute per excellence is reputed to be the first of its kind in the United States of America, and it has produced some of the finest chefs to grace the planet. It offers a variety of courses, and it takes typically about twenty-one months to complete a degree in the institute (1).
The school fees typically hover around the rate of $13,230 per semester, and a degree is completed in four semesters. The awesome part is that this institution has campuses all around the globe notably in Hyde Park, NY, San Antonio, TX, Napa, CA, and Singapore.
2) Culinary Arts Academy, Switzerland
In typical Swiss fashion, this magnificent culinary institution properly equips its students with the ethos of hard work, entrepreneurship skills, and culinary mastery within their stay on the campus.
This chef school is reputed to be one of the best outside the United States of America, and it offers degrees ranging from a one-semester timeframe to a three-semester period. Its campuses are located in Lucerne and Le Bouveret, Switzerland.
3) Apicius, Italy
Italians are known for their class and hospitality, and thankfully these good habits extended to this fantastic culinary institute located in the grand town of Florence, Italy. There are a plethora of courses available in this institute ranging from Dietetics and Nutrition to Wine and Culture, and Consumer Sciences.
There are a lot of perks that come with attending this chef school, as the majority of jobs are done in-house, and you are afforded fantastic networking opportunities.
The Top Culinary School in the World
While the above three culinary schools are no doubt some of the finest on the planet, we had to give you the best of the crop, a cooking school that has so many notable alumni that the others pale in comparison, and a cooking school that has such a turnover of successful graduates, that their school fees are the highest be a significant amount.
The chef school we are raving about here is the superb Culinary Institute of America, the USA located in Hyde Park. This magnificent work of culinary masterpiece is one of the best things to happen to the cooking industry in North America and the entire planet since it was founded in 1946 in downtown New Haven.
It offers a variety of programs ranging from foreign cuisines, local delicacies, winemaking, and a host of other culinary-related endeavors.
This institute offers degrees ranging from an associate’s right up to the master’s degree in culinary studies, and it has respectable members in the said fields to put you through. The most awesome part about this culinary school is that it has campuses in different parts of the United States of America, and even spread its tentacles to Singapore in Asia, offering a bachelor’s degree in the said field.
Why is it the Top Culinary School?
The Culinary Institute of America has been growing to great heights over the past couple of years, and it’s only a matter of time before they start offering doctorate degrees in the institute for interested candidates.
The main reason for the Culinary Institute of America gaining such a magnificent reputation is the consistency, hard work, and integrity incorporated into their students during their stay on campus, and how they take such good practices into their businesses.
Also, the school has a wide plethora of successful alumni ranging from television personalities, Michelin star chefs, cookbook authors, and way more than can be stated. With that aside, let’s get to check out the most famous chefs that attended the Culinary Institute of America.
Famous Chefs That Attended the Culinary Institute of America
There are a host of top-notch chefs that passed through the walls of the great The Culinary Institute of America. These chefs have carved out niches for themselves in their chosen fields, broken records in the culinary industry, and they are forces to reckon with anywhere you look in the industry.
The common denominator is that they all attended the prestigious The Culinary Institute of America, and it’s super apparent in their art form. Here are the top three chefs to attend the great culinary school.
1) Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain was a chef that saw it all and did it all in his lengthy career in the culinary industry. He was a renowned chef that owned cut his teeth in the industry before moving to greater things.
He was a top-notch writer, that became one of the first primary cooks to achieve crossover success in literature as an art form, and he was a well-respected television show host who helmed the affairs of some of the food and world-travel shows to grace the screens.
He graduated from The Culinary Institute of America and used that as a stepping stone for all the wins he managed to achieve in his career.
2) Duff Goldman
As far as versatility is concerned, only a few graduates of the Culinary Institute of America fit mold like the master chef Duff Goldman. Duff Goldman is a pastry chef first and foremost, as he owns a very profitable and sound business named “Charm City Cakes” which was opened in 2002 and has achieved widespread fame.
He is also a renowned cookbook author, letting his talent be used by numerous fans around the world trying to become the next Duff Goldman. Last but not least he’s a television personality, as his work has been featured on shows like Iron Chef America, Oprah, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in the late 1990s.
3) Michael Mina
Michael Mina has been there, done that, and seen it all in the culinary industry. Maybe that’s why he has been branching out more frequently and achieving superb success along the way. He is a chef, restaurant owner, and cookbook author among other things.
He is also a Michelin star chef who has earned rave reviews for his consistency as well as remarkable talent in his number one priority which is serving sumptuous meals in his self-named culinary spots. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York as a teenager, and his career has just kept growing and growing ever since.
Michael Mina has cooked for three presidents of the United States of America and don’t rule out him cooking for a couple more before he hangs up the spatula.
Final Thoughts
These days everyone wants to be the next Martha Stewart or Duff Goldman, but do these people know what their favorite chefs go through before they get the respect they truly desire in the culinary industry?
One of the best ways to get a leg up in this business is to attend a proper cooking school which will expose you to the nitty-gritty of what could turn out to be a very financially beneficial career path.
Who knows, you could go all the way and earn a doctorate in culinary studies and head your establishment, or you could end up a three Michelin star chef. The sky is merely the beginning for culinary school graduates, and it’s only hard if you don’t give a hundred percent to pursue your culinary dreams and goals.
