Join the Ranks of World-class Chefs in Culinary Arts School

The bustling restaurant kitchen--delicious aromas wafting from steaming pots and pans--and you, elbow deep in a beef carpaccio with black truffle vinaigrette, living the job you always envisioned in your dreams. Maybe you've seen today's world-class chefs working their magic in restaurants and on television and wondered if you could make the make the grade. So what's the recipe for success? Mix a love of cooking with training at culinary arts school and you could cook up your own hot culinary career.

Culinary Titans: How Did They Get There

From cooking school to super stardom, fame and fortune have really heated up for these three world-class chefs. So how did they get where they are today?

Wofgang Puck began his formal culinary training as an apprentice in Provence at L'Oustau de Baumaniere cooking school, when he was 14. Soon after emigrating to the United States, Puck became the chef and owner of the Los Angeles restaurant Ma Maison and later opened Spago Hollywood, which earned the prestigious James Beard Restaurant of the Year Award in 1994. Puck has since debuted a number other internationally acclaimed restaurants from Atlantic City to Las Vegas; from Minneapolis to Malibu. His cookbooks, food products, and kitchen appliances fill stores across the country, and his top-notch catering business caters official Academy Awards events.

Cat Cora grew up in Jackson, Mississippi surrounded by Greek and Southern cooking. After college, she attended cooking school in New York City and apprenticed with famous chefs both in New York and in France. She worked as Chef de Cuisine at Napa Valley's Bistro Don Giovanni restaurant before making her TV debut as co-host of Food Network's Melting Pot. She went on to host a number of other shows before making television history in 2005 as the first and only female chef on Food Network's Iron Chef--where she continues to defeat world-class chefs. Fans flock to buy her cookbooks and await the upcoming opening of her signature restaurant.

Emeril Lagasse began making bread and pastry at a Portuguese bakery in his small Massachusetts neighborhood. Deciding to follow his culinary dreams rather than his musical talents, he earned his culinary arts doctorate and then apprenticed extensively in France. He returned to the United States and opened his own highly acclaimed Emeril's Restaurant in 1990. He now owns and manages nine other restaurants across the country, from Emeril's New Orleans House of Fish to Emeril's Miami Beach. This chef spices it up on the Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril. He has also written a series of successful books, including There's a Chef in My Family and Emeril's Pot Luck.

Cooking School: The Key Ingredient of a Successful Culinary Career

Cooking school helped teach these three chefs everything from restaurant management to the difference between a veloute and a demi-glaze. They may have started out in a cooking class, but they ended up managing glamorous restaurants, hosting TV shows, and running highly successful businesses.

You can choose from a baker's dozen of culinary arts schools offering a buffet of delectable classes that can start you on your own sizzling culinary career. Follow in the footsteps of these cooking titans and let culinary arts school write you a recipe for the good life.