MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. - A national culinary school that's trained some of the best chefs in the country is closing its doors for good.
Le Cordon Bleu -- which has a location in Mendota Heights -- announced Thursday it will begin the process to cease operations for all of its North America colleges.
The school won't accept any new students after January 2016 classes begin. The campuses are projected to be open until September 2017.
President and CEO of Career Education Todd Nelson said the closure is due to the difficulty to maintain high operating costs.
"New federal regulations make it difficult to project the future for career schools that have higher operating costs, such as culinary schools that require expensive commercial kitchens and ongoing food costs," Nelson said.
"Despite our best efforts to find a new caretaker for these well-renowned culinary colleges, we could not reach an agreement that we believe was in the best interests of both our students and our stockholders. As discussions progressed, we continued to evaluate the decision taking into consideration factors including the economics between a sale and teach-out, impacts to students and stockholders and execution risk. By moving forward with a teach-out process we are better able to protect student interests and also retain all of the rights that we currently have to the Le Cordon Bleu brand. We will continue with our plan to refocus Career Education's resources on predominantly online university education as we endeavor to provide students attending schools in 'teach-out' with appropriate resources to complete their program of study."
Notable Twin Cities chefs like Jamie Malone (Sea Change, upcoming Brut) and Adam Vickerman (Cafe Levain) were graduates of the Mendota Heights culinary school.
There are 16 colleges throughout the United States.
