Comparison of Culinary Schools in Los Angeles/Orange County Area?

Hi, I live in between LA/OC and am currently looking for a good culinary school in the area. So far, I've toured California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, CA and I heard there's another one in Santa Ana, called The Art Institute and they offer culinary programs. At CSCA, it feels very very business like and they have a huge sales floor just to recruit students which doesn't make me feel very good. However, they are the "education partner" of Le Cordon Bleu" in Paris, France...So..it's really hard to decide. Has any one been to either or perhaps both of these before, if so, please kindly offer any feedbacks or suggestions?

Public Comments

1. I haven't attended either of those although I attended the Culinary Acadcemy in San Francisco. They too are partnered with the Le Cordon Bleu program from paris. Unfortunately, this partnership means they are now apart of a corporation called the CEC. Now I can't say specifically about them, but I can tell you from my experiences attending the CCA in san francisco, everything was about making and saving money. The president of the school had never in her life set foot in a kitchen, had no clue about cooking. The bottom line was number 1, unfortunately when a corporation is incharge, and there are shareholders involved there is a tendency to try to cut costs and make more money for the investors. In cooking school this doesn't work! Anyway I hope this is of some help for you.