Le Cordon Bleu

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For the Schnitzel variant, see Cordon Bleu (food).
The Cordon Bleu school in Ottawa, Canada

Le Cordon Bleu (French for "blue ribbon") is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with 29 schools in five continents serving 20,000 students annually[1]. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The origin of the school comes from L'Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint Esprit, an elite group of French knights that was created in 1578. Each member was awarded the Cross of the Holy Spirit, which hung from a blue ribbon. According to one story, the group became known for their extravagant and luxurious banquets, known as "cordon bleu." While these dinners ended with the French Revolution, the name remained synonymous with excellent cooking. Another theory has it simply that the blue ribbon became synonymous with excellence, and this was later applied to other fields such as cooking.[2]

The name was adopted by the French culinary magazine, La Cuisinière Cordon Bleu, founded by Marthe Distel in the early 19th century. [3] The magazine began offering special lessons by some of the best chefs in France. This eventually grew to become a cooking school that opened in Paris in 1895 and quickly became one of the most elite cooking schools in the world.

In 1933, former student Dione Lucas helped to open a school under the Le Cordon Bleu name in London, England.[4] In 1988, shortly after buying Le Cordon Bleu, president André J. Cointreau[5] purchased the London school, and has since launched schools in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; Ottawa, Canada; Tokyo, Kobe & Yokohama, Japan; Lima, Peru; and Bangkok, Thailand. Le Cordon Bleu was due to open its first rural outpost with partner UCOL in Martinborough, New Zealand in early 2009, but the deal fell through, causing controversy there[6]. In total, more than 20,000 students attend a Cordon Bleu school each year. Le Cordon Bleu has also expanded, issuing cookbooks and a line of kitchenware[7].

In the United States, 15 schools[8] operate under the Le Cordon Bleu name in the United States through a marketing relationship with Career Education Corporation; the deal was renewed in 2008 to continue until 2013[9].

Apart from the culinary programs, Le Cordon Bleu also offers hospitality management education with up to 2000 students studying Bachelor or Masters degrees. They have Masters degrees in France, Japan, Korea and Australia and an on-line gastronomy program. Their Bachelor programs in Hotel Management and Restaurant Management programs are delivered in the U.S., Mexico, Australia, Peru and Korea.[10]

Aside from the CEC-run schools, each Cordon Bleu school offers its own list of culinary short courses, matching local demand. Most diploma programs consists of three ten-week courses; three in "cuisine" and three in "patisserie" (pastry making). Each course, if successfully completed, leads to the award of a certificate at basic, intermediate, or advanced level.[11] Students who complete all three levels in the same field are awarded the Diplôme de Cuisine or the Diplôme de Pâtisserie. Those who complete all six courses are awarded the Grand Diplôme. The "Grand Diplome" is one of the few culinary credentials that signifies mastery of both pastry and culinary fundamentals.

In her memoir My Life in France (Knopf), Julia Child, aided by her husband's nephew Alex Prud'homme, discusses her experiences attending the school in the late 1940s.[12]

In 2007, an American writer, Kathleen Flinn, wrote the first insider's account of attending the modern Paris flagship school titled The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry (Viking/Penguin).[13] The tale recounts the modern day-to-day trials of the program, and provides a further history of the school.

It is often assumed that the character Audrey Hepburn played in the 1954 film Sabrina attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, however the school's name is never mentioned in the film. She did visit the school for the film's launch.[14]

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Conflict with Manitoba restaurant

In 2006, Cordon Bleu threatened legal action against a small family owned restaurant in Ste. Anne, Manitoba for trademark infringement. Although the restaurant had been operating under the name "Cordon Bleu" since 1963, and the owners asserted that no one could have mistakenly believed any connection between their "little hick restaurant" with the corporate giant, they felt that taking the issue to court would have bankrupted them. As a result, the Ste. Anne owners agreed to change their name and reached an undisclosed settlement with the larger company to pay for new signage and other costs.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Le Cordon Bleu - About Us
  2. ^ Le Cordon Bleu: A Brief History; correlates to accounts in the school's introductory text of Le Cordon Bleu at Home and other books.
  3. ^ Le Cordon Bleu - A Brief History
  4. ^ Dione Lucas - A tribute
  5. ^ LCB.net - A message from school president André J. Cointreau
  6. ^ Wairarapa Times-Age: UCOL pulls plug on cuisine school
  7. ^ Le Cordon Bleu - A Company Profile
  8. ^ Le Cordon Bleu schools in the U.S.
  9. ^ Reuters: CEC renew deal with Le Cordon Bleu
  10. ^ Le Cordon Bleu course information
  11. ^ Le Cordon Bleu diploma programs
  12. ^ New York Times: Julia Child's Memoir of When French was Scary April 8, 2006
  13. ^ NPR's Talk of the Nation: 'The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry'
  14. ^ LCB International history
  15. ^ Cordon Bleu sues Manitoba eatery, Winnipeg Sun, January 23, 2008.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Cordon_Bleu"
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