where in california? (San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco: schools, campus, suburbs)

[gizmo980]

I don't know if I can answer ALL your questions, but I'll tell you what I know... my cousin is a chef/caterer, and he went to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco (Le Cordon Bleu). It's known to be a very good school, and my cousin's had a successful career! As for the neighborhoods, there are MANY Asian communities in the Bay Area. Highest populations are probably in South San Francisco, Daly City (mostly Filipino), San Bruno, and parts of San Francisco - Sunset District, Chinatown & Japantown, Inner Richmond, etc. In the East Bay, I'd say that Alameda and Berkeley probably have the largest communities. I'm not sure specifically about Vietnamese, but they're likely in most of the same neighborhoods - just in smaller numbers. According to City-Data, the ethnic breakdown of San Francisco itself is 19.6% Chinese, 5.2% Filipino, 1.5% "Other Asian", 1.5% Japanese, 1.4% Vietnamese, and 1.0% Korean. Anyway, my point is that you won't have trouble finding an appropriate location! And Asian restaurants in general are very popular here, among people of all ethnicities... my people (I'm Jewish) in particular are frequent patrons.

If you want to be near the center of action, the San Francisco neighborhoods of SoMa (South of Market), Inner Richmond, and Japantown area might be good... other districts are slightly closer to downtown, but very expensive. Though finding a place anywhere in SF for $500-1200 would be tough!! With a roommate it could be possible, or you might find a studio apt. for around $1000. The East Bay is usually slightly less expensive, whereas the Peninsula varies from less to much more... North Bay is too long of a commute, so I wouldn't suggest that.

There's also a Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, which is a great place to live... plus I've seen the campus, and it's gorgeous! You can see their website here - http://www.ciachef.edu/visitors/gs/. But I'd guess that a chef would have a lot of competition, due to the wineries (which usually have amazing restaurants) and weddings/events around there. On the positive side, it is slightly more affordable than the Bay Area! Anyway, I hope this all helps a little...

[toaster86]

so pretty much san fransico is the spot? no L.A.... SAN JOSE..OC..LAGUNA...OR SAN DIEGO?

[gizmo980]

Hmmmm... why did this become a new thread, with me as the original poster?

Anyway, you're welcome (for the advice)! I don't know enough about Southern California to give you tips on that, but I'm pretty close to San Jose. As another person on the forums said, "it's like the step-child to San Francisco", LOL. It's a fine city on it's own, but not much in comparison to SF... plus I'm not sure about any culinary schools there. But it is part of Silicon Valley, where you could probably make a nice living after finishing school. When my cousin first graduated, he made good money cooking for busy executive families. It also has a large Asian population, especially in the suburbs just outside of SJ... like Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Cupertino (almost 25% Chinese), and Santa Clara (4.8% Vietnamese). According to this site, San Jose itself has a Vietnamese population of 8.8%, which is pretty high!
I'll let you know if I find anything else on the subject...