Find Trade Colleges

Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region

2023 Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region

63 Colleges
$22,400 Avg Salary
$17,606 Avg Student Debt

Finding the Best Culinary Arts School for You

Out of all the majors we analyze each year, culinary arts was ranked #11 in the country. In fact 22,075 degrees and certificates were handed out in 2021-2022.

With all the trade school programs available today, it can be tough to choose which one is the best for you. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Trade College Search has created the Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 63 schools in the Southeast Region to see which ones offered the best programs for trade school students.

View our full ranking methodology.

2023 Best Culinary Arts Schools in the Southeast Region

Check out the culinary arts programs at these schools if you want to get the best education that money can buy.

Top 10 Best Culinary Arts Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Wake Technical Community College the best school in the Southeast Region for culinary arts students. Located in the large suburb of Raleigh, Wake Technical Community College is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Full Culinary Arts at Wake Technical Community College Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Johnson & Wales University - Charlotte. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region list. JWU Charlotte is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Charlotte.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University - Charlotte

#3

Atlantic Technical College

Coconut Creek, FL

The excellent programs at Atlantic Technical College helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best culinary arts schools in the Southeast Region . Atlantic Technical College is a small public school located in the suburb of Coconut Creek.

Full Culinary Arts at Atlantic Technical College Report

The excellent programs at Athens Technical College helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best culinary arts schools in the Southeast Region . Located in the midsize city of Athens, Athens Technical College is a public college with a small student population.

Read More…

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means Lake Technical College is a great place for culinary arts students. Lake Technical College is a small public school located in the suburb of Eustis.

Read More…

#6

Miami Dade College

Miami, FL

Miami Dade College came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. MDC is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Miami.

Full Culinary Arts at Miami Dade College Report

Crescent City Bartending School did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best schools for culinary arts students. It came in at #7 on the list. Crescent Schools is a small private for-profit school located in the large city of New Orleans.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at Crescent City Bartending School

Pinellas Technical College-Clearwater came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Pinellas Technical Education Center-Clearwater is a small public school located in the suburb of Clearwater.

Read More…

#10

Sullivan University

Louisville, KY

With a ranking of #10, Sullivan University did quite well on this year’s best schools for culinary arts students. Located in the large city of Louisville, Sullivan University is a private for-profit college with a small student population.

Read More…

Additional Noteworthy Schools

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Culinary Arts Trade Schools in the Southeast Region award.

Rank College Location
11 Gwinnett Technical College Lawrenceville, GA
12 First Coast Technical College Saint Augustine, FL

Best Culinary Arts Colleges by State

Explore the best culinary arts schools for a specific state in the Southeast region.

State Degrees Awarded
Georgia 864
South Carolina 215
Arkansas 283
North Carolina 811
Florida 1,298
West Virginia 59
Louisiana 367
Virginia 357
Alabama 94
Kentucky 359
Tennessee 104
Mississippi 320

Culinary Arts is one of 4 different types of trade school programs to choose from.

Culinary Arts Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
Culinary Arts/Chef Training 10,546
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef 5,029
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts 3,303
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager 1,394
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant 786
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services 335
Institutional Food Workers 204
Culinary Science/Culinology 203
Bartending/Bartender 157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager 82
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter 28
Wine Steward/Sommelier 8

Related Major Annual Graduates
Cosmetology 124,611
Funeral & Mortuary Science 2,186
Casino Operations and Services 385
Other Personal & Culinary Services 95

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • Read more about our ranking methodology.
  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to U.S. Army Europe Images.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

Find Trade Schools Near You

Our free school finder matches students with accredited trade schools across the U.S.