Best Cook, Restaurant programs in Louisiana, ranked by enrollment
Prepare, season, and cook dishes such as soups, meats, vegetables, or desserts in restaurants.
10 schools in Louisiana run programs that feed this job, graduating 584 people a year. The job pays a median of $29,050 in Louisiana across about 14,910 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Louisiana that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
2 programs in Louisiana that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Louisiana (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Louisiana page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Culinary Arts/Chef Trainingmain feeder CIP 12.0503In Louisiana → | 537 | 92.0% | 9 | $25,404 | $13,000 |
| 2 | Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, Generalmain feeder CIP 12.0500In Louisiana → | 47 | 8.0% | 1 | $25,404 | $13,000 |
Top 10 schools in Louisiana
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 1 of the 10 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SOWELA Technical Community College Lake Charles, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 120 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 43% | — | — |
| 2 | South Louisiana Community College Lafayette, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 114 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 30% | — | — |
| 3 | Bossier Parish Community College Bossier City, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 67 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 15% | — | — |
| 4 | Nunez Community College Chalmette, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 59 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 27% | — | — |
| 5 | New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute New Orleans, LA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 47 | Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General | — | 75% | — | 78% |
| 6 | Nicholls State University Thibodaux, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 46 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | $23,038 | 54% | — | 91% |
| 7 | Louisiana Culinary Institute Baton Rouge, LA Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 39 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 73% | $30,472 | 38% |
| 8 | Delgado Community College New Orleans, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 38 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 24% | — | — |
| 9 | Northshore Technical Community College Lacombe, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 37 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 40% | — | — |
| 10 | Baton Rouge Community College Baton Rouge, LA Public · 1 feeder programs | 17 | Culinary Arts/Chef Training | — | 31% | — | — |
All 10 schools in Louisiana
Every school in Louisiana with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOWELA Technical Community College | Lake Charles | Public | 120 | 1 |
| South Louisiana Community College | Lafayette | Public | 114 | 1 |
| Bossier Parish Community College | Bossier City | Public | 67 | 1 |
| Nunez Community College | Chalmette | Public | 59 | 1 |
| New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute | New Orleans | Private not-for-profit | 47 | 1 |
| Nicholls State University | Thibodaux | Public | 46 | 1 |
| Louisiana Culinary Institute | Baton Rouge | Private for-profit | 39 | 1 |
| Delgado Community College | New Orleans | Public | 38 | 1 |
| Northshore Technical Community College | Lacombe | Public | 37 | 1 |
| Baton Rouge Community College | Baton Rouge | Public | 17 | 1 |
What cooks, restaurant earn in Louisiana
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $37,390. Louisiana pays below the national figure.
1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.
Metro areas in Louisiana
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Cooks, Restaurant page.
How to become a Cook, Restaurant
Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0- Typical entry education
- No formal educational credential
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Louisiana
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 2 majors mapped to Cooks, Restaurant2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 12.0500Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General
- 12.0503Culinary Arts/Chef Training
Common questions
Answers for people weighing cooks, restaurant programs in Louisiana.
What degree do you need to become a Cook, Restaurant?+
No formal educational credential is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Culinary Arts/Chef Training, which awarded 537 degrees in Louisiana in 2024-25, 92.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Cook, Restaurant?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Culinary Arts and Related Services. Together they graduate about 584 people a year in Louisiana.
How much do cooks, restaurant earn in Louisiana?+
The median is $29,050 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 22.3% below the U.S. median of $37,390. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for cooks, restaurant growing?+
BLS projects a +14.9% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average, with roughly 250,700 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Louisiana?+
10 institutions in Louisiana reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do cooks, restaurant work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Cook, Line Cook, Grill Cook, Prep Cook (Preparation Cook) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 35-2014.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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