Following Your Manifest Destiny:
Attending a California School of Culinary Arts

Spurred by the economic opportunities during the California Gold Rush, miners, vendors and other fortune-seekers flocked to Northern California and established cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and other Bay Area towns. During this period a large influx of Chinese immigrants entered the United States to work on the railroads. These immigrants brought their culinary traditions with them and introduced Americans to dim sum, dumplings and other delectable Chinese delicacies. As a San Francisco culinary school student, you will be exposed to cuisines from all over Asia and the world.

Southern California's biggest city, Los Angeles, is credited with bringing us the California roll. The first of its kind of "American Sushi," the California roll was the creation of Chef Ichiro Manashita, who cobbled together the delicious mix of avocado, crab meat and cucumbers balled up in a neat rice and seaweed roll to entice Americans who were afraid to try the raw fish in more traditional types of sushi during the early 1970s.

Students enrolled in a California school of culinary arts can also enjoy and make use of the state's great wine industry. The Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties of Northern California are collectively known as "Wine Country" for their reputation as a world-renowned, premium wine-growing region. Aspiring sommeliers will have a front row seat to wine growing, production and tasting operations. Not coincidentally, one of the finest restaurants in the country, The French Laundry, is located in Yountville in Napa Valley.

California's restaurant industry brought in $56.2 billion dollars to the state's economy this past year and the number of food service jobs is predicted to grow by 14.9 percent by 2019 according to the National Restaurant Association. That means there will be 216,600 new openings in the restaurant industry in the next 10 years. This is a good sign for anyone who is a new graduate of a California school of culinary arts. California chefs, especially those in big cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, are well paid and have lots of job opportunities.

Here are some average annual salaries for California chefs

Students who choose to attend a California school of culinary arts are able to work with some of the freshest ingredients, in some of the most exciting locations, with some of the biggest names in food in the country.

The Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Los Angeles is one of just a handful of schools in the United States affiliated with the famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris. Students at this Pasadena culinary school are given a firm foundation in traditional French culinary skills as well as a front-row seat to all of the action in nearby Hollywood. The College is accredited by the American Culinary Federation, and its instructors are award-winning.

The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes of California is part of one of the largest culinary institutes in North America with campuses in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Ana, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Santa Monica. Students are given hands-on instruction in all aspects of food service, including food handling, baking and pastry arts, and front-of-house management at one of several student run restaurants on campus.

Get more information on these and other great California culinary schools by visiting All Culinary Schools' online directory of culinary arts programs.

_{Source: Salary data from Indeed.com 2010}