Le Cordon Bleu

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This article is about the French culinary and hospitality school. For the meat dish, see Cordon bleu (dish). For other uses, see Cordon Bleu.
Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu logo.jpg
Established 1895
Students 20,000
Location Worldwide
Nickname LCB
Website www.cordonbleu.edu

Le Cordon Bleu (French for "The Blue Ribbon") is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with over 50 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually.[1] Its education focus is on hospitality management, culinary arts and gastronomy.





In 1933, former student Dione Lucas helped to open a school under the Le Cordon Bleu name in London, England.[3] In 1988, shortly after buying Le Cordon Bleu, Cointreau[4] purchased the London school, and has since launched schools in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; Ottawa, Canada; Tokyo, Kobe and Yokohama, Japan; Lima, Peru; Mexico City, Mexico; 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.[5] 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.[citation needed]

Le Cordon Bleu school in Ottawa, Canada

In the United States, 18 schools[6] operate under the Le Cordon Bleu name through a marketing relationship with Career Education Corporation (CEC); the deal was renewed in 2008 to continue until 2013.[citation needed]



Modern issues[edit]

Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris



In books and films[edit]

In her memoir My Life in France (Knopf), Julia Child, aided by her husband's great-nephew Alex Prud'homme, discusses her experiences attending the school in the late 1940s.[10] This is one part of Julia Child's life portrayed in the feature film Julie & Julia (2009).

In 2007, an American writer, Kathleen Flinn, wrote The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, the first insider's account of attending the modern Paris flagship school.[11] Flinn's best-selling memoir recounts the modern day-to-day trials of the program, and provides a further history of the school. The film rights for Flinn's book were purchased by the TV division of 20th Century Fox; an adaptation is expected to be filmed in Paris.

Le Cordon Bleu school in London


In the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, villain Francisco Scaramanga says of his manservant Nick Nack, "He's a Cordon Bleu."


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.[12]


List of affiliated schools[edit]


For full list, see Category:Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu


  1. ^ "About Us". Le Cordon Bleu. Retrieved 2012-01-23. 
  2. ^ a b Le Cordon Bleu. "A Brief History". Ibiblio.org. Retrieved 2012-01-23.  correlates to accounts in the school's introductory text of Le Cordon Bleu at Home and other books.
  3. ^ "Dione Lucas - A tribute". Adgitadiaries.blog-city.com. Retrieved 2012-01-23. 
  4. ^ A message from school president André J. Cointreau[dead link] at Le Cordon Bleu
  5. ^ Wairarapa Times-Age: UCOL pulls plug on cuisine school[dead link]
  6. ^ "Le Cordon Bleu schools in the U.S". cordonbleu.edu. Retrieved 2012-01-23. 
  7. ^ "Le Cordon Bleu course information". cordonbleu.edu. Retrieved 2012-01-23. 
  8. ^ Cordon Bleu sues Manitoba eatery, Winnipeg Sun, January 23, 2008.
  9. ^ Sears, Neil (2008-06-06). "Cookery school siege standoff". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2012-01-23. 
  10. ^ Grimes, William. "Julia Child's Memoir of When French was Scary", The New York Times, 8 April 2006.
  11. ^ Flinn, Kathleen. "NPR's Talk of the Nation: 'The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry'". NPR.org. Retrieved 2012-01-23. 
  12. ^ LCB International history[dead link] at Le Cordon Bleu

External links[edit]