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Five Facts About Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools

Learn all about the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school.


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Founded in Paris in 1895, Le Cordon Bleu occupies a unique place in the history of culinary arts as one of the oldest and most prestigious cooking schools in the world. While you probably associate the name Le Cordon Bleu with rigorous training in the art of French haute cuisine, here are a few things you may not know about this elite French cooking school:

  • Taking its name from a distinguished order of sixteenth-century French knights, who apparently wore blue sashes and were therefore popularly referred to as the "Cordon-bleus," Le Cordon Bleu is the only French cooking school that can claim to have been in operation for over 100 years.
  • The school was originally conceived as an "extra" for subscribers to founder Martha Diestel's popular cooking publication, La Cuisinière Cordon-bleu. Diestel invited master chefs to demonstrate cooking techniques in a series of classes for subscribers. The classes proved so popular that the school was soon established and quickly began attracting students from around the globe.
  • Le Cordon Bleu served as the set for the 1954 movie Sabrina, in which Audrey Hepburn's character attends the famous French cooking school. In the process of learning to prepare fine French cuisine, she transforms herself from a mousy teenager into a sophisticated, worldly woman.
  • Julia Child trained at Le Cordon Bleu before going on to write her best-selling cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which in turn led to the development of her legendary PBS cooking show The French Chef. Following in Julia's footsteps, many of today's celebrity chefs, including Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Giada DeLaurentis and Jamie Oliver also studied at Le Cordon Bleu.
  • While Le Cordon Bleu remains a Parisian icon, the school now operates 30 schools in 15 countries, offering classes in cities as diverse as London, Tokyo, New York, Ottawa and Sydney. According to the school's website, over 18,000 students from more than 70 countries now attend Le Cordon Bleu each year.

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