Portland

The Western Culinary Institute is set in beautiful northwest Oregon, close to ski resorts and the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully you'll get out to enjoy some of the scenery, but you'll be busy indoors, too, with two complete career tracks to choose from, the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary program(s), and the Le Cordon Bleu Hospitality and Management program. The latter is a unique feature among the schools that we've discussed thus far, and is ideally suited for the student who has plans to get into restaurant management or entrepreneurship.

The culinary track takes about 50 weeks and includes comprehensive introductions to basic cooking skills and tools, purchasing, cost controls, dining room procedures (including American, Russian, French, Banquet and Buffet versions), cold cuisine, baking, soups/stocks/sauces, nutrition, sanitation, food history, world cuisines, human relations, wine appreciation, food styling, confectionary art, restaurant management and a six-week externship.

The Le Cordon Bleu Hospitality and Management program is modeled after the Le Cordon Bleu Management program first developed in South Australia in 1992, and after revisions, designed to reflect current local and national standards, was presented as the first of its kind in North America.

Students in this track focus on cuisine/culinary skills and sanitation in their first course, and then move on to restaurant service, beverage service, wine studies, professional communication, advanced culinary topics, menu planning, cost analysis, accounting, management, more wine studies (I hope that you like wine!), restaurant law, restaurant concept/design/marketing, and an externship.

These strong programs are enriched by a number of other factors. World Class Chefs, Plentiful Financial Aid, and Externships with restaurants associated with the school.