Culinary schools teach the fine art of cooking. Cooking is no longer considered to be just simple cooking. It involves a lot of expertise and innovation. With the food industry growing at spectacular rates, there is a lot of demand for good cooks. This is the reason most people are taking up the culinary arts as a serious career option. There are now hundreds of culinary schools that teach not just basic cooking but also specialties like pastry preparation, wine classes, knife skills, desserts, baking, holiday foods, healthy foods, regional cooking, style cooking, sauces, chocolates, safety and sanitation, cost management, food handling and identification, food and nutrition, special cuisines, and more.

Culinary schools offer a lot of courses: executive chef, sous-chef, saucier, garde manager, pastry chef, sommelier and more. The courses are based on the level of expertise: level 1 for basic introduction, level 2 for more experienced cooks and level 3 for professional cooking.

The best culinary schools not only offer certifications that are respected worldwide, but also the finest facilities and instructors, food service operations, job placement assistance, good credentials, teaching by experts, hands-on teaching, and so on. They teach fundamental and traditional cooking, and encourage innovation and novelty. They generally have small teacher-student ratios. One way to judge the quality of a culinary school is to take at look at its alumni and where they are placed. These people can also provide their own critique of the various schools. Another way to judge is to see the accreditations that school has.

There are many rankings and ratings provided to culinary schools by Princeton Review or US News or World Report. Some of the best culinary schools across the world are: The Culinary Institute of America, Texas Culinary Academy, Sullivan University, New England Culinary Institute, Liaison College, The Art Institutes, Johnson and Wales University, Le Cordon Bleu, the French Culinary Institute, Western Culinary Institute, and several others.

Information about top culinary schools and their programs can be obtained by visiting the school or requesting a brochure. The internet will help you locate a top culinary school in your area; there are several websites that provide information. The schools also have their own websites that advertise their latest courses and offers.