Listed by CNN News as one of the top pastry and baking schools, Johnson and Wales University offers a bachelor's degree in baking and pastry arts at campuses in several states including Rhode Island, Florida and Colorado. In addition to a basic four-year pastry program, the college offers a joint bachelor's degree that combines pastry arts with food service management. The university places special emphasis on hands-on training by allowing students to work at partnership sites around the world, such as university-owned and operated hotels, restaurants and banquet establishments.
Paul Smith's College, located near St. Regis Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, offers a four-year program in culinary arts with course options that concentrate on pastry and baking techniques. The program consists of training in a real-life, on-campus bakery that allows students to produce products for retail and wholesale distribution to establishments affiliated with the college. The school has two restaurants and seven modern laboratory kitchens where students can practice and hone pastry techniques. Students completing the four-year program receive extensive training in bakery and restaurant management, advertising and promotion and financial accounting.
The Culinary Institute of America, located in Hyde Park, NY, offers a bachelors degree in baking and pastry arts management. It takes about 38 months to complete the program, which includes hands-on pastry preparation courses, as well as emphasis on culinary business aspects, such as financial management, marketing and food promotions. The CIA's pastry program also includes extensive coursework in international food studies including language, culture and history classes for different regions of the world, as well as a travel seminar that sends students to study food preparation in other countries.
Le Cordon Bleu, the largest institutional network for culinary training, offers 35 schools in various countries such as Europe and Asia, including U.S. locations in Florida, Oregon and California. Students can obtain an associate degree in pastry and baking arts and continue with business-oriented culinary classes to obtain a bachelors degree in culinary management. The pastry program covers several skill aspects including design and creation for chocolate and sugar, artisan bread production and classic European pastry creations.