Pasadena Star News- Front Page
Farid Zadi seems at home in his new kitchen – a modest industrial space he shares with other small businesses at Chef Center of California on North San Gabriel Boulevard.
Having just left Le Cordon Bleu after six years as an instructor, the French-born chef is breaking out on his own to start a new culinary school, the Ecole de Cuisine Pasadena.
Ecole De Cuisine’s Dean of Culinary Arts, Chef Farid Zadi,
believes students shouldn’t go into crippling debt as they start in the culinary field and therefore he and his wife Susan Park started a little culinary school, with an appropriately French name – Ecole de Cuisine.
Ecole de Cuisine’s mission, if you will, is to deliver exemplary culinary training with a strong foundation in French International technique through individual attention with small classes no larger than 18 persons.
Evaline Lee, 27, a resident of Industry who works at Trader Joe’s in Pasadena and is registered to start ECP in October, said she wants to work on a team in a kitchen, learn about different food cultures, maybe work her way up to sous chef.
“They seem like they care about their students and want to provide a high quality of learning – but at a very affordable price,” she said, adding that the program will allow her to keep working and pay in installments.
Those of us who have followed Farid Zadi’s career — at the Le Cordon Bleu School in Pasadena, where he was a chef instructor for the last six years, or via his blog chefzadi, or through Charles Perry’s excellent 2007 profile of the French born chef in the L.A. Times food section — will soon have a whole new arena in which to appreciate the chef. Zadi, who left Le Cordon Bleu a few weeks ago, and his wife Susan Park, a food historian, author and expert in French, North African and Northeastern Asian cuisines, are opening their own culinary school next month. Ecole de Cuisine Pasadena will begin classes October 19th.
“Prospective culinary professionals, whether in restaurants, at newspapers, or in the corporate world, shouldn’t have to cripple themselves financially to achieve their academic goals,” said Jeff Tafoya, head of Research and Development at ECP. “ECP’s only focus will be its students. We’ll judge our success by our students’ success.”
“Step aside Le Cordon Bleu, Pasadena has a new culinary academy, Ecole de Cuisine Pasadena. The Chefs Center of California partnered with local chef instructors to launch ECP which kicks off its first set of classes this coming October.”
“The school will focus on teaching students French technique, classes are limited to 18 students, and pupils have the option to take a full track of classes or simply take specific courses to focus on one area of study.”
August 26, 2010 print edition of the Pasadena Independent
Ecole de Cuisine Pasadena is featured on page four.
“Want to learn to cook? You can’t say you don’t have enough options. Three very different Southern California cooking schools have announced their fall schedules.
The first, the Ecole de Cuisine Pasadena, located in a former restaurant on San Gabriel Boulevard, will focus on providing professional culinary training, with many classes scheduled so that working cooks can take advantage of them.”
Photo gallery of Ecole de Cuisine