Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts

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Outstanding day of French Bistro cooking at The Bleu Ribbon Kitchen at Le Cordon Bleu w/​Chef David Baker! The classic French Bistro classic Steak Frites and Mussels with White wine herbs and shallots and then Profiteroles filled with Ice cream and chocolate for dessert were what learned how to prepare. Simple easy fun and delicious! I look forward to the next class!

First of all everyone on here giving a bad review has either not gone to school, because of their own arrogance, or has had hard luck when out of school. The culinary industry is just like every other industry, competitive. If you’re only finding jobs that pay $ 9-​$ 12 an hour I would suggest you try looking and working a little harder. Any degree is just a piece of paper if the person behind it isn’t worth their salt. Any great chef will tell you that the culinary field is hard on the mind, body, and soul, this isn’t an industry for whiners. I’ve been cooking for 6 years and have decided to obtain my degrees from Le Cordon Bleu. This college is just like any other college, they teach method, not skill. What makes a lawyer great, and better than other lawyers? A mixture of method and skill. Some people are just better cooks than others. Of course being in a class room isn’t going to be the same as doing 300+ covers on a Friday night, and if you allowed yourself to get into $ 30,000 worth of debt because you were deluded by Food Network, then sorry you might be a little stupid. That doesn’t make the curriculum fraudulent. I have been attending Le Cordon Bleu for 8 months now and am happy with what I am being taught. I also hold myself personally accountable for my success in the future. Hopefully the rest of these whiners can someday do the same.

Before you even consider going here, you need to understand a few things. Entering the food business means you will very likely break your body working and have very little money to show for it. After being stuck with $ 30,000 in loan debt you can expect to have a $ 9 – 12 per hour job after leaving the school. That same job that many, many people have who never went to school. You will learn a lot about about cooking but nothing about managing. The truth of the food business is the money is made by the people who do the least amount of cook and most of the managing. Chefs, kitchen managers, owners, and front house staff make bank while the cooks slave away for $ 15−20k per year.
So understand your priorities before going to school. If you don’t care about money, massive debt, don’t want to work your way up the traditional way, like a stressful environment and love cooking then this school is for you.
Source: 10 years of working as a cook without any schooling.

Complete Fraud. Go to any other school. it does not matter where you go. No one cares. what they do care about is speed and knowledge.
I went to kitchen academy and at the end was forced by several staff to graduate with LCB degree. worthless.
I had an original loan with Sallie Mae. now they have been on my credit report telling me i owe them $ 360.
already got me for $ 30,000
Now im going to sue them and Tell the world about this crappy school.
go to LA Trade Tech or Arts institute. doe not matter where u go. like i said its about speed, consistency and knowledge and experience.
MAJOR SCAM

I love it here. Everyone is friendly and you learn a lot!

Great school, getting my culinary education. Just have to say the people writing bad reviews of this school are reviewing the recruiting process and phone calls, not the actual school. They are clueless and don’t know what they are talking about or what this school has to offer. I’m almost done with culinary 1 and about to enter culinary 2. It is much harder than I thought. Ps: people should not write reviews about a place when they have not actually had an experience there.

A few years ago, I signed up to receive information about the school since I was debating on what I wanted to do with school. Little did I know that I would be called to make an appointment to speak with a representative and I told them I could not go into details at the moment, which they were polite about. They called me 6 months later and I told them again that I was not interested since my father had just passed and I could not deal with school at the moment. They started harrassing me and said that since this was my second call, they would not be calling me again and I would never be accepted to the school. They are such pricks! A death in the family didn’t even warrant an «I’m sorry for you loss» from these freaks!

i too came here when it was Kitchen Academy. i had a great experience and had some great instructors who worked at very notable restaurants such as Providence, Little Door, Melisse, etc. the facility itself was awesome, ALWAYS clean thanks to the cleaning crew and the fact that dishwashing was part of the nightly duties. it was a good way to instill discipline. the program cost is slightly steep, i guess. i didn’t compare other programs. i’m still paying and will be for a while.
i tried this field because i’ve always enjoyed cooking and fascinated by all the facets associated with it, such as the service, costing, working the line and the overall culinary arts. however, here’s the rub as you will see if you venture into this industry… your certificate from school is only going to get you so far. which is not far enough. it will barely get you a call back when applying at most restaurants. barely. most kitchens are going to look for experience and only experience. 2 – 4 years at the minimum. a dishwasher turned line cook who’s been in the kitchen for 5 years has a better shot at getting a lead spot than someone with only a culinary degree.
right after graduation, i worked at a French Bistro for a little bit. i was already there for my externship. i learned a lot of real world practical functionality from the chef. i thoroughly enjoyed my time there. then, the economy took a dump. a BIG dump. and like most dumps that get flushed down the toilet, so did my litte Bistro. luckily, this was my night gig. my day job still paid the bills.
i tried for the next several months trying to get back in the kitchen, for the sake of not losing my tools of the trade. pretty difficult having only limited experience during a recession. most restaurants who were nice enough to entertain my calls needed the requisite 2 – 4 years. a couple places offered to provide me another «externship», but, i just couldn’t do working for free again all hours of the night. plus, mama and i were expecting so i decided to forgo it.
as much as you will learn from this school, (knife skills, plating, seasoning, firing, working the line), realize that practical experience is more coveted out in the real world. take advantage of your externship. oh, and yes, the administrators do end up calling you and emailing you forever. luckily, when KA switched to LCB, the staffer who used to contact me left. good luck!

Are you kidding me!!! i already wrote one crummy review for this place and now I have to write two because I got a phone call today from a Rosanna soliciting me for an appointment! She asked me if I was still interested in attending the school and to let me know that the tuition price has gone down. WTF?
I’ve asked over and over to be removed from their prospective student list over a damn year ago now and I’m getting a call a whole entire year later??!
And when I asked Rosanna to be taken off the prosepective student list, she gives me an attitude and tells me that it’s not a prospective student list, but an appointment list from 2010 that she is working off of. Give me a friggin break! 2010?! Today is June 16^th, 2011! When I asked her politely if I could not get anymore calls from the school, she got snotty with me and said that I won’t have to worry about that. FIrst of all, I’m not ‘worried’, I am just flat out annoyed. And second of all, if you are working off a list from 2010 from people who didn’t want to attend and have asked repeatedly to be taken off the call list… you’re a f*ckin idiot!
LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

I had a similar experience with a LCB College sales person. Once they have your number or email, watch out, they don’t give up. I was surprised at the unprofessional response I recieved when calling the first time and remember feeling the need to get off the phone quickly after hearing this sales person’s voice/​attitude. It wasn’t the upbeat or positive voice you’d want to talk to when calling for the first time. It was more sales pitchy and uptight. I knew right away I wasn’t going to be dealing with this co. on ANY level. I proceeded to get calls for several weeks and then mo. I finally said I changed my direction and did not want any more calls. The same person called me each time and never changed their tone. Hard to believe these people sell education at a high price with such bad energy. I am not interested whatsoever in trying them again. I learned my lesson the first time.

This School Is A joke! I dropped out after realizing that it was not going to help my future at all. The instructors are nice I don’t know about helpful though, five students could have the same answer on a test and half will get it right half will get it wrong. Their only in it for the money. If you are seriously considering a career in the culinary field do no attend this school it will in no way prepare you for the real world. It’s sad how much the standards have gone down since Julia Childs days. And as for the financial aide reps don’t even get me started I’m convinced that none of the people that work there are in any way intelligent.

I don’t mean to be an angry beaver.
The staff at this campus is wonderful– nice, accommodating, and reasonable.
However, the overall brand may be the bigger issue. I realized this wasn’t going to take me anywhere and decided to quit, also because it was a bit pricey for my monthly payment.
I ended up signing up for their automatic payment withdrawal program. Their system fails and then when I call about it, they ignore me, don’t return my calls and when I finally get a rep on the phone, she decides to say it was literally my «fault» for everything and that I «should’ve» done this and that, and gave me a giant lecture about how to manage my finances. Then she cuts me off the line after telling me she was going to send my balance to a collection agency.
Fine. But when I’m trying to solve a problem with a rep on the phone and not only does she lecture me and blames me for everything that happens and then cuts me off, how is that helpful, and what does it say about Le Cordon Bleu’s regards for their students as soon as a real problem arises?
Negative Negative Stars.

Le Cordon Bleu in Hollywood is a great campus its small consisting of 5 kitchens and one regular class room. All the staff is awesome they are incredibly helpful and are willing to give you not only the their help with the actual cooking process but everything else that you might be having issues with in my opinion they truly want you to succeed. The only thing that i don’t like is the recruiting process i was signed up waiting in 4 days not much time really to consider anything and the student rep that your given that is supposed to help you stopped calling after the first week and i am about 9 weeks away from graduating. The program i choose was the diploma program slightly shorter than the associates program by about 6 months i have learned so much from this program i will more than likely return to finish it since there are a few things that you don’t learn in the diploma program like tempering chocolate and although there are a few things that might not be perfect the bottom line is that if you want to go to a school and learn the difference between being a cook and a chef everyone knows Le Cordon Bleu is the top of the mountain the place where everyone wants to go and the price reflects that at 24 000.00 dollars for the 9 months but that includes every single thing that you need to go to that school books knifes uniforms and all the food that you would work with in short i would recommend this school to anyone that wants to take a serious step up in their knowledge of food and the culinary arts
GO BLEU!!! D CLASS RULES

I graduated from college and wound up a cubliceman. In a desparate attempt to change my fate, I decided to go to cooking school.
I attended this school when it was called Kitchen Academy. A month before I graduated, Le Cordon Bleu bought it out and I graduated with a Le Cordon Bleu certificate for the price of a no-​name cooking school.
I opened a catering company with a partner after graduating, and I have to say, they trained us well in the cooking, prepping, and to some degree, the business departments of the food industry. I quit after a year, having realized big bucks wouldn’t be coming for at least 5 yrs, if i didn’t go broke or kill my partner fist.
I’m still at my office job and know how to cook, bake better than average. And if thats all you want, or even if you want to open up your own business, get a job at a restaurant or an existing catering business. You’ll get hands-​on real experience and pickup on some new techniques they don’t teach you in classical cooking school. You might not be well rounded in world cuisine, or the nuances of baking, but you could always job hop if thats what you’re after. Not to put down the program in any way. The instructors here are great, knowledgable. So if cooking is your passion, go for it. And if you really want a career out of it, its a good stepping stone. Just prepare to be heavier and poorer than when you started.
I give it 4 stars. 20k is still a bargain compared to other programs. And watching my unsuspecting friends eat rack of rabbit with glazed carrots was priceless.
Flavor = fat plus salt.

This school rocks! Ive been a student here for about 5 months already. The hollywood campus is essentially just a branch of the pasadena one. You end up @ the hollywood one if you decide to go with the diploma program, rather than the associate degree program. only real difference between the two programs is the associate degree program has a few more culinary courses, and the rest are academic courses to complete the requirements for an associates degree (by the way, my little sister attends here under the patisserie program, and tells me the academic courses are all all culinary oriented, so they definitely help and hone your skills)
With that said, theres so many things i can say about this school. First things first– this is NOT a COOKING SCHOOL. a cooking school will teach you how to make a few recipes. You come here to learn COOKING TECHNIQUES. when you learn proper techniques, the recipe becomes a guideline. you end up understanding why certain things make the flavor so rich, or even bland.
The instructors here are genuine people. They really care about the learning process over here, and really help to nurture their students. Whenever i have questions at home, its as simple as emailing my instructor, and it is usually responded to in a prompt manner. When i have issues getting down a technique, they wont hesitate to hover over you, and coach you along. They even offer free skills enhancement workshops every few weekends or so, in order that you can come in if you wish to work on something you feel might be lacking.
Now dont get me wrong, but this school is definitely no cake walk (no pun intended). You really have to be dedicated to your craft here. Because the instructors here will also push you hard. Really hard. Your knife skills, cooking, seasoning and technique will be under constant scrutiny. This is not a school where you can fall asleep in class. They will not tolerate it. They will make sure you are getting your money’s worth by really helping to prepare you to work in a commercial or restaurant kitchen environment. By no means is it a cheap school to attend, but keep in mind, you end up getting to work with very fine ingredients like veal and lamb, and at times, fine cuts of beef, and your tuition covers that.
When you pay how many thousand to go to a school like UCLA, do the teachers really give a crap that you fall asleep in class or even come? no they dont. do you get to make crazy recipes and take home AWESOME food almost every day; something to show the fruits of your labor? nope. At le cordon bleu, you will actually get to see your results.
One last tip– make sure this is really what you want to do, if you ever really decide to come here. This is a serious school, with highly qualified instructors, that take every student seriously.
Do i feel i made the right choice in coming here? you bet.

Ok first off let me start by saying that I have not attended this school and have no opinion on how the teaching or instruction is presented to the students. I no longer have a desire to find out based on how this institution conducts itself in its recruiting process. This experience has been a let down from the start let me tell you. It starts off with my friend wanting me to check out culinary schools which I agree to do. I have an interest in the culinary arts and have always wanted to attend a school to learn cooking from a professional standpoint. So begins my adventure into this wonderful world of food and its industry. I made and appointment to check out The Art Institute Orange County and see how well that school would suit me, at the same time Le Cordon Bleu also wanted me to check out their campus so after going back and forth with the «Sales Man» over when to meet I simply told him to call me back at 2’oclock after my interview at AI was complete. So comes 2pm, 230, 4, 6pm I never hear back from him, if that is where it ends that would be fine by me, but it doesn’t. A few weeks later I get a call from Le Cordon Bleu this is probably late January by now asking me if I was interested in their culinary program, I politely tell them that I have already chosen a school to pursue my desire of cooking. They then ask me why I chose AI over them and I politely tell them that it was due to the fact that their sales rep never contacted me with a follow-​up. So this sales rep that was an asshole says in a very snide way «well good luck with the Art Institute!» and proceeds to hang up abruptly. I was at this point reassured that I had made the better choice in schools. Once again I wish this is where it ends but it doesn’t. Between February and May 19^th I have received no less than 7 more calls from them, asking if I’m interested in joining their school. The first 2 or 3 I was nice and explained that I’m attending AI and they do not need to call me anymore. After the 4^th call I began to get very irritated and asked them to please remove me from their call list and not to call me anymore. Today I got my 7^th call; needless to say I am fucking pissed that they will not stop calling me! I finally broke down and chewed out the lady that called and said to «fucking stop calling me, I’m in my second quarter at AI». The lesson here is and I hope that anyone who reads this will think twice before giving out your number to these sales people who think that pestering customers /​students that they will eventually make a sale. I think of Le Cordon Bleu as a very bad, hostile credit card company that thinks hounding people will make them change their mind. In actuality all it does is make them post on Unilocal and tell how bad their experience was. I will tell everyone I meet that is thinking about going into culinary arts not to go to that school just based on my experience with blood thirsty sales people. Sorry this rant went on so long but I’m still pissed about this!