Renowned as one of the top culinary arts schools in the world, Le Cordon Bleu has campuses from the U.S. to Australia and from Paris to Japan. The Better Business Bureau has also awarded Le Cordon Bleu an A+ rating since 1990. The institute prides itself on teaching classic cooking techniques mixed with modern touches and international fusion methods. Students who graduate from Le Cordon Bleu, at any campus, typically become top chefs at Michelin-star restaurants and top hotels or go into restaurant management. As of 2011, Le Cordon Bleu has been teaching and training top chefs for over 100 years. According to its website, over 80 of the chef instructors are recruited from the finest restaurants in the world.
The French Culinary Institute in New York offers one of the shortest, but most intense, culinary arts programs in the U.S. The program lasts six months for the day-classes program or nine months if students choose night classes. While the school focuses on traditional, home-style French cuisine and cooking techniques, students in the program also choose elective courses, such as pastry arts. The Institute also functions as a fully-running restaurant, L'Ecole, at the central SoHo, Manhattan location. Chefs try out recipes and traditional and fresh techniques on patrons, under the guidance of expert international top chefs.
Johnson & Wales University is ranked as one of the top culinary and hospitality colleges internationally, according to its website and has an A- rating from the Better Business Bureau. As an accredited school by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges Inc., JWU offers hand-on cooking lessons and demonstrations for students. Concentrations include baking, pastry arts, culinary nutrition, food marketing and food service management. As of 2011, the school has four campus locations: Providence, Rhode Island; North Miami, Florida; Denver, Colorado; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
According to a "New York Times" article, the Culinary Institute of America is known as the "Cordon-Bleu-on-the-Hudson." The culinary arts school campus is located in Hyde Park, New York. Students learn from Certified Master Chefs and spend more than 1,300 hours in the kitchen or in the bakeshop, learning techniques, preparing dishes and participating in demonstrations. The CIA also has campuses in San Antonio,Texas and St. Helena, California.