Don’t cash in your 401k to attend culinary school just yet. Top Chef is looking to expand on their product-placing empire with Top Chef University—an online culinary school.
According to their official press release:
Top Chef University, perfect for everyone from experienced foodies to the home cook, is a fraction of the cost of traditional culinary school and provides access to virtual courses 24/7.
Here at foodiggity, we were curious about what this TCU had to offer. As the concept of TCU is based on a game show, we wanted to focus on the personalities involved. So we looked over the former chef’testants turned ‘instructors’ and took a guess of what we can expect to learn for $24.95 a month.
Kevin Gillespie
How-To Break Down a Chicken, How-To Keep Beard Hair Out of The Food, Preparing For Your Future Career as a Mall Santa, Wrapping Everything In Bacon, and more.
Spike Mendelsohn
How-To Cook While Smiling Like a Douche, Mother Sauces, How-To Open a Restaurant Based On The Current Food Trend of The Week.
Carla Hall
Knife Skills, Talking People Into Liking Your Food, How-To Coast On Personality, Giving The Crazy Eyes Like a Real Cheftestant.
Richard Blais
Impressing Your Friends With Dry Ice, Sous Vide Basics, How-To Make Anything Look Like Scallops.
Marcel Vigneron
How-To Find a Reliable Hair Gel Vendor, Butchery 101, How-To Make People Hate You With White-Hot Passion.
Stephanie Izard
How To Effectively List ‘Game Show Winner’ on a Resume, Fish Cookery, What To Do With a Basement Full of Glad Products.
A video tease of the ‘curriculum’ that will surely send douche chills up your spine can be found here. Class begins May 19.
Thanks for the warning , I spent 4 years in the navy as a cook and I had 1 semester at a comercial cooking school and was lookigf for a way to get better training. I learned a lot more from the cooking channel and it was free
Thanks Brin, We were waiting to hear from someone who actually participated in this. Not terribly surprised by its horribleness. Thanks for sharing.
I joined Top Chef University and could not believe how brief and shallow it is. It really is bad to call this a University and set such high expectations. It should be call Top Chef Videos. I cancelled and I am waiting to see if I can get my money back because it was so wasteful! Stupid BRAVO!
The part that makes me sad, is that there are people who will indeed pay for this. These are also the same type of people who try in vain to mimic Sandra Lee Tablescapes.
Funny article and I could not agree more! Who would pay for this crap? There are so many free recipes and tips and lessons all over the web and you don’t have to listen to the hyperbole!
Out-dated concept. Where were you in the 90’s when this would have been relevant?
The short answer… It does not.
If one wants to become a personel chef or caterer, how does this online school prepare you besides cooking techniques?