Le cordon bleu Austin-TX LCB-Austin, Texas Culinary Academy, Career Education Corporation money scheme, students in deep debt, horrible education, MISSLEADING, education scheme, hides behind a vail of lies all in all Austin, Texas

Back in 2001-2002, I was trying to find a job at the Texas Worksource Center and I met a  Quebecoise guy who had a Masters Degree from McGill University in Canada. He had been hired to teach the remedial math at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy in Austin,Texas. He claimed that the checks bounced --WHEN he got a check, that is.

He also said that the ego trippers in charge treated him and all other instructors like **** and after nearly two years, he was canned for asking for a raise which is what brought him to the Worksource Center.

I think he said he was getting $8.00 or $9.00 an hour which is considered big money in Texas.

He said the turnover was so frequent, he could never remember anyone's name and you had to lock up or keep on your person anything you did not want stolen. He alleged it would not be unusual to have a drunk chef instructor teaching a cooking class that involved a fry pan over an open fire when the flames shoot high!

He also told me how the admissions office hired hustlers, skags, liars, and hard sell, unethical and amoral salespeople who would tell any lie and tell the potential students whatever they thought they wanted to hear to get them to enroll. They would promise them jobs in hot and trendy clubs after they graduated, that they would be the next celebrity chef  like Emeril or be a private chef for celebrities and that they could make millions and millions of dollars if they could just take the Cordon Bleu course.

I know that to get what these shill artists were promising  you MIGHT have a shot at it if you went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York--and even that would be no guarantee.

Is this so-called chef academy even affiliated with THE Cordon Bleu chef academy in France? It might make more sense to go to France and study and get OJT.

On the Eastview canpus, Austin Community College offers  EXCELLENT, affordable  culinary arts and hospitality courses and you can get a Pell Grant and attend much cheaper than these rip-off places.

The guy I knew who worked at the Cordon Bleu in Austin said that the salesmen/ admissions people would be counting the money and laughing at the fools they rooked in to signing up. Would say  privately that their education guaranteed you a job nowhere except maybe as a stocker in Central Market or Whole Foods.

Reminded me of my experience with Virginia College in Austin,Texas - SCAM CAPITAL OF TEXAS!

They do have great TV commercials, though!

All LIES BUT STIIL GREAT COMMERCIALS.

After I was disabled, I used to sit and watch network TV and feel rather lonely and isolated and I would see the fat pig guy tell you to "Get your career cooking-- LITERALLY!" and then there is the one with the freaky weird overstressed woman with the long fuzzy hair I would never let near a kitchen without one helluva hair net. Who wants some of THAT in their food?????? She says how much she loves being a chef and she hopes that you will want to be a chef too after seeing that commercial.

And in the background is some moron who is chopping away at something throughout the entire commercial. Like we aren't going to notice how fake THAT is!

After seeing that commercial, truthfully,I want to stay the hell out of any kitchen with someone like the Pig Boy and Stressed Out Fuzzy Hair in it!

Then there are two more recent commercials.  Two gay guys are on the couch watching the Pig Boy Commercial when all of a sudden there is a knock on the door and there is PIG BOY and he says, "Get your career cooking -- literally!" and hard sells the gay guy in his own apartment.

I don't give a d**n if  the chef who cooks my meal is gay or straight, male or female or what their ethnicity, race, color, etc. is AS LONG AS THEY KNOW HOW TO COOK!

The other commercial is a bunch of folks in their early twenties sitting around on a sofa and this is supposed to be a party and there is no beer in a keg, bottles, cans or otherwise. Some party! They are sitting on the same set where the gay male commercial was shot and they all have perfect little dishes of what must be appetizers  and they are talking to the host of the Party --to YOU, the viewer, actually, telling you how delicious the food is and you are an artist in the kitchen and you need to go study to be a chef with other artists and all that other B.S.

I think they got some recent college grads to shoot that commercial in exchange for food. The poor guy in the back on the right is scarfing that item on the plate like he hadn't eaten in days.

Another commercial I haven't seen in a while were the two people portraying concerned and loving parents urging someone, YOU the viewer, to do something important with your life and become a chef training at --you guessed it!

In hard-to-see letters, at the bottom of the screen, there are disclaimers stating that the people in the ad are paid actors and not actual chefs or instructors, students or employees of the Cordon Bleu Academy. I had to freeze my TV screen  with my remote to read it.

Shortly after the first pig boy commercial came out, in hard to see white letters,I think, there was a disclaimer that Cordon Bleu Academy does not guarantee that you will find work after graduation or even what your salary will be. Wonder when and why they would post such a disclaimer. It IS hard to read.

REGARDING A SCAM STUDENT LOAN.

You do have a recourse!

http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/

This is a free site from the National Consumer Law Center that is a non-profit consumer advocacy group. They sell you nothing and they offer advice on what you can do about these extremely predatory for-profit, private vocational schools that lied to you and got you to sign up for all of this debt.

You might not have to pay.

Something else, you really do need to call both of your U.S. Senators and even your Congresspersons and ask them to PLEASE DENY FEDERAL FUNDING --from Pell Grants to ANY form of student loans to these private, for-profit vocational schools.

This will put them of business and make sure they will never cheat anyone again like you were cheated and I nearly was.

You can do a google search about the Senate investigation  of these for-profit trade schools abuses in August, 2010.

   For those who are dumb enough to get into this program, feel free to get into $40,000 dollars of debt. The only thing you will get out of going to school to become a "chef" is all a lie. Sure you might obtain "job skills" for cooking, but becoming a chef or even getting familiar with the industry is all job related in the first place. So you should work from the bottom to the top of the job chain to achieve getting to that title of chef! Not only do they teach cooking, but they have you take college level core curriculum classes for those who pursue a degree and want to earn more money. They have you do all theses prep courses before you actually get in the kitchen, you get excited about cooking and before you know it your locked into paying off those Loans(s) w/ interest when you go past the 72hr. grace period.

    I had 75 credits from another educational institution, that was when I left in 2002, so I'm trying to pursue my degree now, hopefully I'll get it. The folks at Texas Culinary Academy had me taking all theses remedial courses and every other time I went to class in the morning I would have my "advisor" harassing me about payments under a RIC Grant. I lost my housing in Austin and couldn't find a place to stay, so I left with a big bill in hand!

   Little more than a year I had collections calling me every day for almost 2 yrs. and I had no money so I would beat myself up inside when I thought about how much debt I brought into my life! They sent me a bill in the amount of $10,000 dollars, when TCA didn't exclude the refunded amount back to the government for the 2 loans, so that was misleading and then finally they send me the right amount with interest intact, I didn't know about deferment or anything!

    Sometimes I wish I could make people disappear, If you have been a victim of a the faulty educational system I feel for you. These people will rob you blind, don't sign on the dotted lines go to a community college