Business Idea: How to Start a Cooking School

If you are interested in starting a business teaching people how to cook, you may want to check the International Association of Culinary Professionals http://www.iacp.com/ as they have a Cooking School subcommittee, which provides information and networking opportunities for starting a cooking school. They have a publications area, which may have information on how to start a cooking school.

Contact them at:

International Association of Culinary Professionals
304 West Liberty Street – Suite 201
Louisville, KY 40202 USA
Telephone US (502) 581-9786
Fax US (502) 589-3602
E-mail: iacp@hqtrs.com

It is important to check with your local health department for the requirements of starting a cooking school. In many places, you will be required to teach cooking in a certified industrial kitchen.

Some recommended books include:

• Professional Cooking by Wayne Gisslen
• The Professional Chef, Seventh Edition by Culinary Institute of America
• Le Cordon Bleu’s Complete Cooking Techniques by Le Cordon Bleu

If you need help in starting your business, you can find someone to help and mentor you from these organizations:

• Government Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women’s Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_roundtables.html
• Volunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs
• Formal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs/globallinks.html , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/ , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org
• Professional organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.html
• Industry and trade associations
• Local business groups, such as the chamber of commerce
• Local chapters of business groups