The restaurant industry is alive and happy, and nowhere is it more alive than in the Golden State, where Hispanic and Pacific Rim influences converge with a health-conscious, outdoor lifestyle, and exciting new restaurants are opening every day.

Whether tourists or Californians, diners are flocking to these restaurants and hotel dining rooms, creating jobs for the chefs, sauciers, bakers, sommeliers and managers graduating from the state's culinary schools. These students are tapping into degree opportunities throughout the state. California culinary schools range from the price-wise public colleges to private institutions - some offering Le Cordon Bleu programs - to large systems of private post-secondary educational schools.

The restaurateurs of San Francisco have welcomed students from The City College of San Francisco for more than 60 years. They know that by the time you have graduated from CCSF, you have finished a two-year skills program (four 18-week semesters of 40-hour weeks), that you have had extensive in-house food-service experience and that during the final semester you have worked 240 hours at an unpaid internship.

At the end of the two years at CCSF, you have earned an Associate in Science Degree, an Award of Achievement, and an American Culinary Federation Certificate of Completion. The $2,000 that it costs California residents coveres all tuition, books, tools and uniforms for the two years.

If you prefer a private school, especially one that is affiliated with the prestigious and proven Le Cordon Bleu programs, options include the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, and the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Classic French techniques and terminology meet modern American technology at these schools, where professional Le Cordon Bleu chefs oversee your progress. Costs differ slightly, but the schools average $44,000 to $45,000 for the Culinary Arts Associate of Occupational Studies Degree, about $24,500 for the Patisserie and Baking Diploma, and $28,000 to $32,000 for the Hospitality & Restaurant Management Diploma. Le Cordon Bleu affiliates take pride in placing graduates in the best hotels and high-end restaurants.

The Art Institute of California, owned by Education Management Corporation and part of a national group, has culinary schools in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. They offer similar and well-defined courses: a 12-quarter Bachelor of Science Degree in Culinary Management that you can earn in three years, and a seven-quarter Associate of Science in Culinary Arts that you can complete in slightly less than two years. At San Diego, the tuition, including fees, for the Bachelor of Science in Culinary Management is $73,866; for the Associate of Science for Culinary Arts, it is $44,026.

As similar as they are, each of The Art Institute of California schools responds to the local market and, following the policy of the parent organization, forms a Program Advisory Committee. Mark Sullivan, Academic Department Director for Culinary Arts at The Art Institute of California-San Diego, says "The Art Institutes Culinary Arts and Culinary Management curricula are developed with the assistance of local food industry leaders. Their input as to the level of competency required by the industry ensures that Art Institute Culinary students are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their chosen career field." Apparently the plan works, since their Career Services Department was able to place 93.6% of 2002 graduates (the most recent year available) within six months.

A valuable feature for California's peripatetic population is the ease with which you can transfer from one AIC campus to another, and from an AI campus in one state to another. While some transfer issues may arise, the schools' commonality encourages cooperation and acceptance. The student transfers only seem to increase the number of West Coast students.

As Megan Manion, Director of Marketing at Pasadena's CSCA, points out, "We don't have a lot of people transferring out of Southern California - but we have a lot of people transferring in."

No doubt if one is looking for a wide selection of culinary schools and a concentration of cutting-edge restaurants, California is definitely the place to be!

INTERNET SOURCES...

Splash page for the California Art Institute Schools

City College of San Francisco

California School of Culinary Arts

Education Management Corporation

California Restaurant Association

Top of Page