Le Cordon Bleu

{{Short description|French hospitality and culinary education institution}}

{{About|the French culinary and hospitality school|the meat dish |Cordon bleu (dish)|other uses|Cordon Bleu (disambiguation){{!}}Cordon Bleu}}

{{Infobox university

| name = Le Cordon Bleu

| image_name = Le_Cordon_Bleu_logo.jpg

| established = {{start date and age|1895}}

| type = Culinary school

| location = Worldwide

| website = {{URL|http://www.cordonbleu.edu}}

}}

Le Cordon Bleu ({{IPA|fr|lə kɔʁdɔ̃ blø|}}; French: "The Blue Ribbon"; LCB) is a French hospitality and culinary education institution, teaching haute cuisine. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The institution consists of 35 institutes in 20 countries and has over 20,000 attendees.{{cite web |url=https://www.cordonbleu.edu/home/en |title=Official website |access-date=27 December 2021}}

History

File:Le duc de Saint-Aignan donnant à Rome au prince Vaini le cordon de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit.jpg holding the Blue Ribbon with the Order of the Holy Spirit.]]

The origin of the school name derives, indirectly, from the French Royal and Catholic Order of the Holy Spirit. This was a select group of the French nobility that had been knighted. The first creation of Royal Knights at the French Court was performed in 1578. The French Order of the Holy Spirit was for many centuries the highest distinction of the French Kingdom. Each member was awarded the Cross of the Holy Spirit, which hung from a blue silk ribbon. According to one story, this group became known for its extravagant and luxurious banquets, known as "cordons bleus". At the time, of the French Revolution, the monarchy and the Order were abolished, but the name remained synonymous with excellent French cooking. By the nineteenth century the blue ribbon had become synonymous with excellence. The name was adopted by a French culinary magazine, La Cuisinière Cordon Bleu, founded by Marthe Distel in the late 19th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/restaurant/history.html |title=A Brief History |author= Le Cordon Bleu |publisher=Ibiblio.org | access-date= 2012-01-23}} This correlates to accounts in the school's introductory text of Le Cordon Bleu at Home and other books. The magazine began offering lessons by some of the best chefs in France.

The magazine developed into the original Le Cordon Bleu that Distel and Henri-Paul Pellaprat established in 1895 in Paris, France. In 1945, after the end of WWII, Madame Elisabeth Brassart purchased what remained of the struggling school from a Catholic orphanage which had inherited it after Distel died in the late 1930s.{{cite book

|last=Spring

|first=Justin

|date=2017

|title=The Gourmands' Way: Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of a New Gastronomy

|publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

|page=

}} Brassart managed the school until 1984; at the age of 87 she retired and sold the school to André J. Cointreau,[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-07-25-wr-27479-story.html "Profile of Andre Cointreau"]. Los Angeles Times. a direct descendant of the founding family of Cointreau liqueur and Rémy Martin Cognac.

Other countries

In 1933, former student Dione Lucas helped to open a school under the Le Cordon Bleu name in London, Great Britain.{{cite web |url=http://adgitadiaries.blog-city.com/dione_lucas_and_lecole_du_cordon_bleu.htm |title=Dione Lucas - A tribute |publisher=Adgitadiaries.blog-city.com |access-date=2012-01-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219113315/http://adgitadiaries.blog-city.com/dione_lucas_and_lecole_du_cordon_bleu.htm |archive-date=2012-02-19 }}

In the United States, 16 schools used to operate under the "Le Cordon Bleu North America" name through a licensing agreement with Career Education Corporation (CEC), a for-profit education company based in Chicago, Illinois. In 2009, the license was estimated to be worth $135 million.{{Cite web |url=http://www.careered.com/press-room/press-releases/culinary/cec-announces-purchase-of-lcb-brand |title=Career Education Corporation Announces Purchase of le Cordon Bleu Brand Rights for Culinary Education Programs |access-date=2016-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826070841/http://www.careered.com/press-room/press-releases/culinary/cec-announces-purchase-of-lcb-brand |archive-date=2016-08-26 |url-status=dead }} In 2014, Le Cordon Bleu North America generated $178.6 million in revenue and $70.6 million of operating losses.{{Cite news | url=https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20151216/NEWS13/151219887/career-ed-closing-le-cordon-bleu-campuses-by-end-of-2017 | title=Classes out for good at Le Cordon Bleu | first=STEVEN R. | last=STRAHLER | work=Crain Communications | date=December 16, 2015 }} However, in light of the gainful employment rules implemented by the US Department of Education in 2015, CEC made the decision to sell the 16 campuses. When CEC failed to find a buyer[https://www.cordonbleu.edu/usa/home/en Cordonbleu.edu/usa: Le Cordon Bleu USA discontinuing in the USA acknowledgment]. accessed 21 December 2015.{{cite news|last1=Davis|first1=Janel|title=Le Cordon Bleu culinary colleges for sale|url=http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/le-cordon-bleu-culinary-colleges-for-sale/njXNn/|access-date=January 22, 2015|work=ajc.com|publisher=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|date=December 19, 2014}} it announced on 16 December 2015 that all 16 campuses in the United States would close by September 2017, giving enrolled students time to finish their programs.{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Le-Cordon-Bleu-to-End-Culinary-Classes-in-US-362705821.html/ |title=Le Cordon Bleu to End Culinary Classes in U.S. | NBC Chicago |access-date=2015-12-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219040742/http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Le-Cordon-Bleu-to-End-Culinary-Classes-in-US-362705821.html |archive-date=2015-12-19 }} |Retrieved December 17, 2015[https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/12/17/career-ed-closing-down-le-cordon-bleu-operations Inside Higher Ed Blog: "Career Ed Corp Closing Down Le Cordon Bleu Operations"], 17 December 2015.

The last new students were accepted in January 2016. In June 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission requested documents and information regarding Career Education's fourth quarter 2014 classification of its Le Cordon Bleu campuses.{{cite web|url=http://seekingalpha.com/filing/3132365 |title=Career Education Corporation|publisher=Seeking Alpha |date=23 June 2016 |access-date=2019-12-06}}

Le Cordon Bleu has continued to maintain a presence in the United States through its New York office, Le Cordon Bleu Inc., which places students in the locations abroad.{{cite web|url=http://www.cordonbleu.edu/usa|title=Le Cordon Bleu USA International Office|website=www.cordonbleu.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-07-17}}

=Cities with schools=

;Campuses in Europe

Paris, France
London, Great Britain
Madrid, Spain
Istanbul, Turkey

;Campuses in the Americas

Brazil
Rio de Janeiro
São Paulo
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Mexico
Mexico City
Tampico
Lima, Peru

;Campuses in Oceania

Australia
Adelaide
Brisbane
Melbourne
Sydney
Wellington, New Zealand

;Campuses in Asia

Shanghai, China
Beirut, Lebanon
Gurgaon, India
Tokyo, Japan
Seoul, Korea
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Bangkok, Thailand
Manila, Philippines

In popular culture

Le Cordon Bleu played in central role in the 2009 American film Julie & Julia, which was partly based on Julia Child's memoir My Life in France.Grimes, William. [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/books/review/08grim.html "Julia Child's Memoir of When French Was Scary"], The New York Times, 8 April 2006. In addition, central protagonists in other films attended or were graduates of Le Cordon Bleu such as Audrey Hepburn's character in the 1954 American film Sabrina, Huo Ting En in the 2017 Taiwanese television series The Perfect Match, Dev D in the 2017 Bengali film Maacher Jhol and Hervé Villechaize's character Nick Nack in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.

The school also plays a central role in publications by its students. For example, American writer Kathleen Flinn's 2007 book The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, is the first insider's account of attending the modern Paris flagship school.{{cite news |last=Flinn |first=Kathleen |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15732097 |title='The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry' |work=Talk of the Nation |publisher=NPR |access-date=2012-01-23}} Flinn's best-selling memoir recounts the day-to-day trials of the contemporary program and provides a further history of the school. The book was translated into several languages.[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15732097 'The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry']