Culinary Schools

Just a few months ago, the cooking school business was deflating like a punctured souffle. But at several culinary academies around Los Angeles, enrollment has taken a turn for the better. Spurred by out-of-work cooking enthusiasts seeking training for food industry jobs and by foodies brushing up on their skills so they can eat well without paying restaurant prices, sales are starting to recover -- even bouncing to pre-recession levels. "People are taking advantage of the economic downturn and looking to change careers," said Eric Crowley, who with his wife, Jennie Shields Crowley, owns Chef Eric's Culinary Classroom in Los Angeles.

Cole Dickinson, the chef de cuisine at Michael Voltaggio's soon-to-open West Hollywood restaurant, Ink, got his culinary education the old-fashioned way: in the kitchen. That might sound obvious, but it makes him something of an anomaly as the number of culinary schools multiplies, drawing legions of novice cooks with the promise of turning them into top chefs. Yet the less-touted, less-glamorized path of working one's way up through the restaurant kitchen ranks is starting to sound more appealing.

All five San Fernando Valley contestants in a citywide high school cooking contest sliced, diced and poached their way to victory, winning valuable scholarships to culinary academies across the country. Mario Gonzalez, Rosa Rivas and David Ruiz from Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, and Robert Servin and Rosalinda Valdespino from Monroe High School in North Hills, all seniors, each took home scholarships in the annual Careers Through Culinary Arts Program contest.

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A day after an Encino school for chefs abruptly closed, officials at the state agency overseeing vocational education said they spent most of Tuesday trying to reach the owner and learn what had happened. "You figured they would have called back after all the desperate messages we left," said Deborah Godfrey, an analyst with the Bureau for Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education. "But still no word from them."

About 50 students of the Los Angeles Culinary Institute rushed Deborah Godfrey Wednesday morning, hoping the analyst for the Bureau for Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education could allay fears and answer questions about the school's abrupt closure. The chefs in training were also hoping that Godfrey, a representative of the state agency that licenses private schools to operate in California, could help them recoup their tuition--$20,000 apiece--or the class credit they earned.

Dorit Ulrich, one of the major shareholders of the Los Angeles Culinary Institute, faced a mob of angry students Tuesday and told them she did not know that the school was in bad financial shape when she and a friend invested nearly half a million dollars early this year. "I had no idea," said Ulrich, in a voice barely above a whisper. "I tried to keep the school open."

Wolfgang Puck laughs when he recalls how a date abandoned him on a Beverly Hills dance floor 25 years ago after he told her he was a "cook." Of course, that was before he became a celebrity chef, one who helped popularize haute cuisine in America by turning Spago into a brand name and a Hollywood hangout.

Cameron Cuisinier's dreams of a catering career led him to culinary school. Now he is unemployed and $43,000 in debt, and he is not alone. With the popularity of TV chefs and reality shows on which the winners get their own restaurants, it's a hot time to be in the kitchen. Record numbers of would-be chefs are enrolling in culinary schools, some of which charge $20,000 a year or more.

Dorit Ulrich, one of the major shareholders of the Los Angeles Culinary Institute, faced a mob of angry students Tuesday and told them she did not know that the school was in bad financial shape when she and a friend invested nearly half a million dollars early this year. Ulrich, her voice barely above a whisper, said, "I had no idea. I tried to keep the school open." But most of the 60 students who attended the session didn't want explanations for the Encino school's sudden closure May 19.

Just a few months ago, the cooking school business was deflating like a punctured souffle. But at several culinary academies around Los Angeles, enrollment has taken a turn for the better. Spurred by out-of-work cooking enthusiasts seeking training for food industry jobs and by foodies brushing up on their skills so they can eat well without paying restaurant prices, sales are starting to recover -- even bouncing to pre-recession levels. "People are taking advantage of the economic downturn and looking to change careers," said Eric Crowley, who with his wife, Jennie Shields Crowley, owns Chef Eric's Culinary Classroom in Los Angeles.

Ariel Rogers looked for all the world as if she was the only person in the room. Never mind the other high school seniors, the nervous parents with cameras, the teachers, the hovering professionals who watched and graded her as she pared potatoes into little football-shaped pieces. Her future was on the line, and Rogers, 17, was determined to keep her nerves at bay for the two hours she had to compete for a culinary school scholarship.

They're three hours into the contest, cooking hard, when team captain Marissa Gerlach peers into the deep fryer and glimpses potential doom. Not this, she thinks. Not now. She's tried to anticipate every calamity. She's practiced sick, juggled work, labored for hours with her fellow aspiring chefs in their Costa Mesa school's cramped kitchen.

Cameron Cuisinier's dreams of a catering career led him to culinary school. Now he is unemployed and $43,000 in debt, and he is not alone. With the popularity of TV chefs and reality shows on which the winners get their own restaurants, it's a hot time to be in the kitchen. Record numbers of would-be chefs are enrolling in culinary schools, some of which charge $20,000 a year or more.

Hans Reza Ghaffari roared up Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica on his Harley-Davidson, parked his hog in front of Sur la Table and peeled off the helmet that shielded his Marine's buzz cut. He wasn't headed to a bar or restaurant, but inside the culinary shop for a cooking demonstration with Anne Willan, whose cooking school in France is internationally revered.

Talk about a pressure cooker. The two teams of culinary arts students had spent six months refining each dish for a state competition Sunday at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. To get to the western regional contest in Colorado next month, they had to get past four judges with demanding standards. The two teams, Orange Coast and American River College, from Sacramento, each had 90 minutes to prepare and serve four courses, half a point deducted for each minute they were late.

Asian and Hispanic cuisines will receive major emphasis in the curriculum of the Los Angeles International Culinary Institute, which is projected to open in January, 1991. "We'll try to create a network of (international) exchange for the instructors," said Raimund Hofmeister, institute president, during a pre-renovation open house at the school site in Santa Monica. "We want to concentrate on the Pacific Rim, number one."

The problem with vocational education, says chef Giovanni J. Delrosario, can be summed up by the 15-minute roasted chicken. The 15-minute roasted chicken is not a myth: It represents a revolution in culinary technology--the food set's equivalent of superhighways and the World Wide Web. But Delrosario's students at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College won't learn how to accomplish the feat any time soon: Trade-Tech can't afford the $25,000, German-made ovens used to cook the bird.

If you're looking to carve out a career as a top-flight chef, the Art Institute of California in Santa Monica is a splendid place to learn your chops. But who would have guessed it would also be a great place to base a TV show? "Cooking School Stories," a weekly series that can be seen tonight at 9:30 on the Food Network, is from Pie Town Productions, which provides the channel with such programming as "$40 a Day" as well as "Design on a Dime" and "Designers' Challenge" for HGTV.

Wolfgang Puck laughs when he recalls how a date abandoned him on a Beverly Hills dance floor 25 years ago after he told her he was a "cook." Of course, that was before he became a celebrity chef, one who helped popularize haute cuisine in America by turning Spago into a brand name and a Hollywood hangout.