Culinary programs at community colleges explode in popularity thanks to television chefs

Culinary school enrollment Related story: Degree from expensive Pasadena culinary arts school no guarantee of a job

It was 2006 when the pilot episode of "Top Chef" aired.

At the time, the now-overcrowded culinary arts program at Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington didn't exist. The three-story, $40 million culinary arts complex at Los Angeles Mission College in the San Fernando Valley was but a blueprint. Nationwide enrollment at a group of 17 for-profit culinary schools owned by the company Career Education Corp. had yet to explode.

Is there a link between the blazing-hot popularity of food TV - led by "Top Chef" - and the booming market for culinary arts classes? Students and instructors alike say without a doubt.

"It brought a business and industry to light that was pretty much behind the kitchen door," said Steve Kasmar, chairman of the culinary and baking program at Los Angeles Trade Tech, home to the oldest continuously running culinary arts program in the nation. "They did glorify it. "

Regardless, in just three years, the annual student load of the culinary curriculum at Los Angeles Mission College has more than doubled, from 250 to 600. And that's not just because of the fancy new facility, which boasts seven spacious kitchens, each of them equipped with cutting-edge video technology a la the cooking shows. The surge is also happening at Trade Tech in downtown Los Angeles

Both of those schools have multimillion-dollar kitchen remodels in the pipeline, largely to accommodate the onrush.

"I'm packed with more than 60 kids per class - the cap is supposed to be 25," said Giovanni Delrosario, who runs the 5-year-old program at Harbor College. "We have 90 more students on the waiting list. It's phenomenal; I've never seen anything like it. "

Although the stampede for these classes is no doubt largely the product of an intangible trend - the term "gourmet" is becoming so ubiquitous it can even apply to ketchup - the food entertainment craze is a clear contributor. The popularity of TV cooking shows began heating up in the mid-2000s and reached a boiling point in 2012. (Soon after hitting an all-time high, ratings for the Food Network cooled slightly in the fourth quarter of the year.)

"It's more glamorous now - we look at chefs like rock stars," said Julie Valenta Kiritani,who recently finished a program at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena.

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Culinary programs at community colleges explode in popularity thanks to television chefs