CulinaryLab Cooking School | Pro Culinary & Pro Pastry School 201 East 4th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701

"I received a Christmas gift last year to improve my baking and pastry skills. After searching online, there was nothing to chose from where I live in San Diego. CulinaryLab came up so I decided to give it a shot. I did the cake workshop last winter and had a great time. After speaking with Sarah the relations manager who is super helpful and friendly, I decided to sign up for the 10 week beginner pastry series. Chef Briana has been great. I have learned a lot during the course. She is very thorough in explaining various aspects of what is being covered that day. I was not sure if I wanted to do the 3-4 hour commute every Sunday but am totally glad that I did :) Big thank you to everyone at CulinaryLab!!!"

"I started my Culinary Journey with Culinary Labs Sept 2022. I was very excited to pursue my passion. I chose Culinary Labs because if offered what no other school was offering which is a paid internship allowing me to possibly cook with some of the best! I quit my job and stepped out on faith, afraid of the unknown but Culinary Labs assured me I had made the right choice. I was determined to be a great student I showed up every day, on time, ready to learn! I reside about an hour away and in my decision making Culinary labs assured me once I got to the internship of the program they had several established relationships in my area! I have finished the first 6 months of the program and my next 6 months of my future has been a disappointment! It started in November 2022 I’ve been waiting for placement and have not been successful! At one point I started looking on my own and providing them with possible restaurants that may be interested in their program! I have been in contact with culinary Labs, not to mention I am responsible for paying a $650 loan every month for something I’m not getting! I asked to just separate my relationship for the remainder part of the program and they are refusing! Now they are blaming me for the reason I’m not in an internship is because I won’t agree to commute over an hour away to make their job easier! I could have gone to a local school Riverside Community College and paid less for the same amount of time. I chose Culinary Labs and it’s been a huge disappointment! I’m writing this for anyone that lives in my area Inland Empire or have any issues please pay close attention! They don’t care about their students happiness what’s important to them is getting paid for as many seats they can fill! If I had it To do over I would not choose this school and I wouldn’t recommend it! Also during my time the student and and staff turn over is extremely high that should have been a red flag!"

"Just finished home pastry class last Sunday. :D Now, I can bake and understand the recipe better. The class is small, and each of us has a station. The instructor chef is helpful and is ready to help me with all my questions from ingredients to techniques. The 10 weeks class give me confidence to bake at home kitchen. Tip: I bough crocs shoes from Amazon. I wear a cook hat to cover my hair. Also, you should buy a 10” cake container and two extra large boxes to carry pastries home every class."

"Whether you purchase home-cook classes or fully enroll for culinary/pastry school, coming here is worth every penny. The chef instructors are patient and absolutely awesome! The 12:1 student to teacher ratio makes it so you interact with the instructor more than attending culinary school at a college where you are easily lost among your peers. The resources this school utilizes to make sure you are successful are unreal, and the 0% financing is absolutely generous! They WANT you to succeed!"

"Their 12-week home beginner course is one of the best decisions I've made to improve myself (and feed myself!). Culinary Lab's team is superb and even amid this 2020 pandemic, they made a wonderful effort to create a cooking environment that feels clean and safe (large monitor with a camera above the head chef's space to watch and learn their techniques, face covers offered for minimal cost, hands free washing station, etc.) They've also been very accommodating. I missed two classes from the original course's run and almost 9 months after the course began, they are still offering me make-up classes at no additional cost. Pretty incredible that a business would honor that, and they've earned a major amount of respect in my eyes for even offering that. The setting itself is great. Loved having a large workspace in the kitchen area with lots of equipment and supplies available. Best part about the beginner course is that some items were already pre-cut and measured for you, so no time was lost as we fit 4 cooked recipes into each week. There's also an edible garden surrounding their outdoor patio, which is neat to pull herbs and other garnishes from. Only small issue I had was that the cooking areas themselves (stoves, indoor grills) would get cramped and could not always allow everyone in the class to use it simultaneously. So sometimes I would fall behind others who just got to the stoves and grills first. But it didn't make much difference in the long run as we typically worked in groups of 2-4 anyway. At first I was honestly a bit hesitant, as I was not that skilled and it looked intimidating to commit to a long course. But our instructor taught us a lot and focused more on skill rather than cuisine, which I honestly found to be much more useful and applicable as a beginner (turns out a good quality knife and techniques on how to use it can make a world of difference in the kitchen). All in all, I don't think anyone would regret a course with Culinary Lab. They have treated me well and I expect them to treat anyone else similarly."