The Culinary Institute of America, oldest culinary school in the U.S., was founded in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. Its mission was to provide culinary education for returning World War II veterans, and began with an enrollment of 50. Since then it has become one of the most respected culinary schools in the world, counting Anthony Bourdain and Steve Ells, founder and CEO of Chipotle, among its alums. In 1970 the CIA moved from New Haven to Hyde Park, New York, where it employs over 130 chef-instructors today.
Le Cordon Bleu took its name from "L'Ordre du Saint-Esprit," an order created by King Henry III of France in the 16th century to reward culinary excellence. The symbol of this order took the form of a medal on a blue ribbon. In 1895, the journalist and publisher of "La Cuisinière Cordon Bleu" magazine, Marthe Distel, founded the first school of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Now Le Cordon Bleu is recognized as one of the most influential culinary arts schools and boasts 29 schools on 5 continents.
France's oldest culinary-hospitality institute, the Ecole Hôtelière Thonon-les-Bains, was founded in 1912. The Ecole's website emphasizes the growth of the culinary school industry in France in concert with the flourishing hotel and hospitality industry around the turn of the century. The development of luxury hotels encouraged the parallel development of a standard of professionalism, both in staffing and in meal preparation, as luxury hotels competed to house first-class restaurants. Thonon-les-Bains was selected as a location for the first hospitality school in France because of its location in the Haute-Savoie region of France, close to both Switzerland and Italy and easily accessible to the rest of France. Such a placement was ideal for the school's aspiration to become one of the foundational hospitality schools in Europe.