The Culinary Institute was founded by two
famously known chefs, and the history is really
impressive because the name itself, Lenôtre
is carried throughout the world.
The Lenôtre is the biggest name in culinary.
The family started with the grandfather, Gaston
Lenôtre and he was a famous caterer for the
dignitaries and the royalty throughout France.
That developed into the family bakery, and
even today when you jump into a cab in Paris
and ask them to take you to the best croissant
in town, or the best bakery or patisserie
in town, they will take you to Lenôtre.
Still, pastry shops around the world still
follow the same traditions of what Gaston
had laid down.
Here, we bring chefs from Europe
The majority of the chefs here are from France
They come from the Lenôtre name
Because it allows them to still keep pushing
the boundaries, try testing new things, new
products molecular gastronomy
pushing the edges, sous-vide style cooking
the modern way
Alain, Gaston's son, has allowed us to do
that
It kinda carries on the tradition of pushing
forward and what the culinary world is today.
They have a much higher level of standards
than the traditional academic-based schools.
They bring in top rated chefs, master chefs
The standard here is an extremely high standard.
The majority of the instructors have what
they call the ... matières
It's a higher level of learning
Most of the guys here went through culinary
school and did their stuff, but they were
also picked out by a handful of chefs in the
European system to be masters of their trade.
One time, between two instructors experience,
when we added it up, it was over 100 years
-- and that's amazing, it's unheard of
The best thing that I've taken from being
a student here at Culinary Institute Lenôtre
was the teachers.
They gave me so much inspiration and taught
me so much.
They gave me real-world scenarios where you're
cooking, and you feel that pressure.
You're understanding workflow, and you're
trying to produce a great product at the end.
Here at Lenôtre we try and create a hands-on
learning environment which gives the students
real-world experience so that when they leave
they're prepared
You have more time in the kitchen actually
practicing your technique--cooking technique,
your professional skills, and there's also
classwork too.
But it's mainly focused on that where as a
lot of other culinary schools, It's almost
half and half or even half the time in the
kitchen that we get.
Whereas here, we do at least 4 hours a day,
4 days a week, for 40 weeks.
I find that most of the students that come
here take the full 40 weeks of cuisine and
sign right back up for 40 weeks of pastry
after they've seen what we put out.
It's pretty unique because they get to see
all the food every day and what the other
classes are doing so it entices them--like
"I really want to learn that"
The students every day present the things
that they've created that day
They talk about the techniques they used to
prepare the meal, they talk about what ingredients
are used, what region the ingredients are
from, and what region the menus come from
"Today I'm presenting Oysters Rockefeller..."
After they do all the technical stuff they
all get to taste and sample
A lot of students will go through the Bistro,
which is the onsite culinary restaurant.
This restaurant is geared in Houston at the
same level as all the other high-end restaurants.In
fact, quite often, we'll be in the top 10
of certain things
for example, this restaurant has the best
foie gras in Houston we get a lot of different
awards, so it's a highly acclaimed restaurant,
but it's student run, and the students do
have some freedom to create some of the plates.
Usually how it works is Icome in the morning
and Ihave class and we have a lot of skilled
teaching and practicing in the class.
Example, I learned about what is sauteeing
and sauce from my instructor in the morning,
and I practice making little dishes and learn
how the process goes, and then the afternoon
I come to Kris Bistro working saute and sauce.
And it's like exactly, 'I learned that this
morning' and also, at the same time I learn
more skills due to a lot of other chefs.
The Bistro in my opinion is an awesome experience
for the students.
They experience real-world speed, they have
customers they have to take care of --It's
a great training tool andthe food there is
incredible.
They do an outstanding job.
It's neat because I get the students when
they're raw and they don't know what to do
yet -- they're still green in the kitchen
-- and they go through a 40-week program here
with me in the labs and with the other instructors.
At the end of it they come into our restaurant
and produce high level food just as they would
at any other high end restaurant.
Just asking the chefs around town, they like
taking chefs from our school.
Because they have more lab hours and more
hands-on which Ii think is amazing, and then
you tie it in with Johnny, who takes care
of all our job placement
Mr. Lenôtre's connections, they're vast and
far and wide.
So, I get calls from the best hotels, best
restaurants, because they know that they're
properly trained and they know that they're
going to get a commitment to excellence.
They do a really good job continuing the legacy
and giving the school a good name.
Since you have the Lenôtre name backing you,
there's a lot more opportunity just because
of the name they know about the quality of
the school.
It was great for my career.
I was able, even right before I graduated,
to land a really good job as soon as I left
culinary lenotre where Ii got to really practice
my skills and prepare myself for opening my
own business.
I don't think I could have done that without
the Lenotre name on my resume.
From my experiences finding students jobs,
they're all really creative but in different
ways.
So we try to get them to maximize their creativity
in the specific field that they're interested
in and that usually helps them be successful.
This has been a good experience for me.
I'm extremely glad that chose this school.
They've given me a lot of great experiences
here, and chef student interaction.
If I were to do it all over again, I would
have chosen this school all over again.
