Are you looking for a great chef education. Watching shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef making you want to get a job in the kitchen. Or are the Cordon Bleu commercials on TV peaking your interest? It’s not a bad job. You don’t have to sit in an office all day long. Have a passion for food? It’s a great way to make money doing what you love.

The pay is good, and can be great. An executive chef starts at $36,000 and one with lots of experience and working at a high-end establishment can make $100,000. The great thing about being a chef, is when you start working, you have the potential to move up in the company. So you could start as an assistant chef and eventually be an executive chef.

There are three main types of professional cooking programs. Cordon Bleu and Art Institute International and Community College type programs, some have associate and bachelor degrees. This tend to be longer in duration. The other type of program is by individual schools and they provide courses that are shorter in length and generally lower in cost. The third is the high ranked culinary programs that are priced similarly to good state universities.

A few things to consider that will help you decide where you want to go to school. Are you willing to go to school in another part of the country or even abroad? How passionate are you, do you want to be a superstar or do you want a great, nice paying job? How much can you afford? Is financial aid available? Can you attend school full time or do you need courses at night and on the weekend? Does the school provide job search assistance?

The import thing do to is spend time online looking at culinary schools that you are interested in and then start calling them to get more information to help with making your decision.