See Where These 15 Famous Chefs Went to College

By Alex Hawkins

As young adults, college students understand the pressure of decision-making. If you ask anyone still living the dream, most of us have thought about what we want to do after these four short years.

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And actually, if you think about it, we’ve been asked this question since the day we could talk, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

If you’re lucky, you’ve always known you were going to be a doctor. Or a conservation biologist. Or the first female president of the United States (unless Hillz snags that from ya). Or, you’re like me — undecided, just hoping one day you’ll figure out who exactly you’re meant to be.

Although we may put them on pedestals, many celebrity chefs and tv personalities didn’t know that they were going to be famous foodies one day. Surprisingly, many of them used to be just like us college kids simply getting a degree in something that interested them.

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Whether or not they completed their degree, or even still use it, doesn’t really matter (they’re doing alright either way, right?). What really matters is if you and your alma mater can claim any of these famous chefs as one of your own. #braggingrights

Don’t see your favorite chef? Check out the full list here.

Barnard College (New York, New York): Martha Stewart & Alex Guarnaschelli

Martha Stewart is famously known for her television show and magazine, titled Martha Stewart Living, and infamously known for receiving jail time for insider trading.

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However, before she decided to leave her day job on Wall Street to pursue her love of cooking in the 1970s (self-taught by reading Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking), she attended Barnard and graduated with a degree in European and architectural history.

Who knew that degree would be useful in creating a million dollar business based on cookbooks and entertaining?

You know Chef Alex Guarnaschelli as a judge on Iron Chef America and Chopped, the host of the television show Alex’s Day Off, and the winner of Next Iron Chef in 2012.

She climbed her way to foodie fame by going to culinary school in France and then working for esteemed restaurants Guy Savoy, Daniel, Patina and Butter.

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But before that? She graduated from Barnard in 1991 with a degree in art history.

Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts): Joe Bastianich

Most recently recognized as a judge on MasterChef and MasterChef Junior, Joe Bastianich is commonly referred to as the Simon Cowell of the food industry due to his brutally honest and snarky remarks.

More notably, Bastianich owns an Italian food and wine empire with Mario Batali and his mother, Lidia Bastianich, consisting of Eataly, Del Posto, Babbo, Lupa and three wineries in Italy.

MORE: 9 Ways to Become a Culinary Master Like Julia Child

But he didn’t always want to be a part of the food world. In fact, he sought out to separate himself from his Italian upbringing by studying philosophy and political science at BC, and then went on to pursue a job on Wall Street.

Clearly that didn’t last long, and soon enough he was partnering with good friend Mario Batali to take over the Italian-American food scene.

Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts): Rocco DiSpirito

Rocco DiSpirito is an American celebrity chef, radio and television personality, cookbook author, and proclaimed “Sexiest Chef” by People Magazine in 2002.

He got his start in the food industry by attending the Culinary Institute for America in Hyde Park, NY, at the age of 16. Following his graduation, he traveled to France to continue his culinary studies at Jardin de Cygne. He then came back to the US to get his bachelor’s degree in business from BU.

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After working in several restaurants and starting his own, Union Pacific (now closed), DiSpirito appeared on The Melting Pot, starred on his own reality tv show The Restaurant, and wrote ten very popular cookbooks. Maybe these should be your business class textbooks instead?

Canisius College (Buffalo, NY): Anne Burrell

Anne Burrell is the spiky blonde, insanely cool Food Network star that we all know and love. However, it wasn’t until after she earned her degree in English and Communications at Canisius that she decided to join the food scene.

Shortly after graduating college, she attended the Culinary Institute of America and then spent a year in Italy at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners. When Burrell returned to the States she worked at several restaurants, taught at the Institute for Culinary Education in NYC, and then joined the Batali-Bastianich empire.

While working at Italian Wine Merchants, she became good friends with Mario Batali (#casual). When he was asked to be on Iron Chef America, he took Burrell with him as his sous chef. The rest, my friends, is history.

Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts): Padma Lakshmi

Unsurprisingly, the drop dead gorgeous host of Top Chef actually started her career as a model at age 14. Four years later she decided to put modeling on hold to attend Clark University, first as a psych major, but later graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theater.

After college she continued her modeling career, making headlines as the first Indian model to be successful in Paris, Milan and New York.

Her beauty led to acting jobs, and one of those roles had her gain 30 pounds. She was clearly able to shed the weight, and to prove how she published a cookbook called Easy Exotic. Food Network loved it so much they offered to give Lakshmi her own show titled Padma’s Passport. Now you can watch her on season 13 of Bravo’s Top Chef.

Don’t feel so bad about switching majors now, do ya?

Guildford College (Greensboro, North Carolina): Todd English

Todd English is best known for his restaurant Olives, which can now can be found in multiple locations around the nation.

Although English began his career at the age of 15, the chef originally attended Guildford College on a baseball scholarship. However, when his injuries got the best of him, English dropped out to attend the Culinary Institute of America.

After graduating with honors, English traveled to Italy where he learned the ways of Italian cooking. At 25, the chef returned to the States and quickly became recognized for his talents.

You can now find him appearing on multiple television shows, hosting Food Trip with Todd English, and as an author to three critically acclaimed cookbooks.

Howard University (Washington, D.C.): Carla Hall

Hootie hoo! Yes, we’re talking about kooky Carla Hall. You know her as the slightly odd but lovable contestant on Top Chef and as current co-host on The Chew.

Before realizing she had a passion for food, Hall received a degree in Accounting from Howard. After working for Price Waterhouse, she decided accounting wasn’t for her so she went to Europe to work as a model. While there, she fell in love with cooking, and shortly after returning to the States she attended culinary school in Maryland.

Now you can buy a little bit of love from Carla through her own company, Carla Hall Petite Cookies.

James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Virginia): Christina Tosi

She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’s… Christina Tosi. As the newest judge on MasterChef, Tosi is boldly dubbed one of the greatest pastry chefs of our time. Known for dropping cookie bombs on fellow food companies and blasting music in her kitchen while baking said cookies, this hardbody seemingly has it all: personality, beauty and talent.

If you’re all about female empowerment, look no further; Tosi claims that her love of baking came from growing up surrounded by matriarchs that all loved to cook or bake. Her mental toughness, which is essential in a kitchen, was shaped by her mother.

Although her parents wanted her to pursue a college degree to have something to fall back on, her passion for oddly powerful food combinations remained. After spending one year at the University of Virgina, Tosi went to Florence for a year. After her time abroad, Tosi eventually graduated from JMU with a degree in Applied Math and Italian.

After graduating, she quickly enrolled in the French Culinary Institute (now the ICC), and went on to work at Bouley, WD~50, and ultimately landed at the Momofuku Empire. With David Chang’s encouragement, her future was sealed.

Her Milk Bar empire now spans 6 NYC locations, one Toronto location, one bakery soon to be opened in D.C., and it undoubtedly will not stop there.

Johnson & Wales University (Providence, Rhode Island): Emeril Lagasse

Famous for his catchphrase, “BAM!” it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know and love Emeril.

He started cooking at a very young age, mastering the art of bread and pastry before graduating high school by working in a Portuguese bakery. Talented in more ways than one, Emeril was offered a full scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, but turned it down to pursue cooking instead.

After graduating college, Emeril went to Lyon and Paris to learn the art of French cooking, and when he returned he honed his skills in several cities in the Northeast. Eventually, Emeril found his way down to New Orleans and worked for just over seven years at Commander’s Palace.

Following his time there, he opened a few places of his own, and after receiving great reviews quickly climbed to the top. Most famous for his live cooking show Emeril Live!, Lagasse went on to appear in many other cooking shows, wrote 18 cookbooks, and even has his own line of cookware. Bam!

Pace University (New York, New York): Rachael Ray

For all of you considering dropping outta school, Ms. “30-Minute Meals” proves that you don’t need a college degree to make a living.

Rachael Ray always knew how to cook because her family owned several restaurants in Cape Cod before they moved to upstate New York. Apparently her first word was even “vino.”

After high school, Ray decided to pursue a degree in literature and communications at Pace, but dropped out after two years to focus on her career and to save money. Shortly after she moved back upstate, she was recruited to be a food buyer by a large gourmet market in Albany.

During the holidays, Ray decided to host “30-Minute Mediterranean Meals” to boost sales. The class was so popular that the local CBS station signed her on to do 30-Minute Meals during the evening news.

She won two regional Emmys for the segment in its first year. The rest is history (orrrr just the same show just on a larger network).

Reed College (Portland, Oregon): James Beard

The man, the myth, the legend: James Beard. To (sort of) share an educational background with the one and only is a huge bragging right.

Not only is there an entire foundation named after him that is revered in the culinary world, but he has also been titled “Dean of the American Cookery” by The New York Times in 1954, and is commonly referred to as the father of American-style gourmet cooking.

Like many cooks, Beard grew up around food but didn’t begin a career in the food industry until much later. Expelled from college during his freshman year because rumor had it he was gay, Beard then traveled to Europe with a theater troop to pursue a career in acting and singing.

When acting didn’t bring in the money, he started a catering company. Soon after, Beard opened his first food shop: Hors d’Oeuvre, Inc. Following its success, Beard wrote several different cookbooks, and was subsequently featured on NBC’s I Love to Eat once the war was over. Later on he created the James Beard Cooking School in both New York City and Seaside, Oregon.

In 1976, Reed College presented Beard with an honorary degree to make amends for the past. And on January 21, 1985, James Beard passed away, but his legacy remains more alive than ever.

Feeling inspired to learn his ways? Here’s a complete list of his cookbooks. Go ahead, get cookin.’ (Who needs to do homework anyway?)

Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey): Mario Batali

Who says a degree in Spanish theater (the Golden Age, to be specific) can’t make you a famous chef?

Batali is not your ordinary grad. Having gone to high school in Spain, his major makes sense. But he was always passionate about food, so after graduating college he decided to attend Le Cordon Bleu in London, only to drop out to apprentice with the famed Marco Pierre White.

He then trained for three years in a village in northern Italy, where he gained the necessary skills to come back to America to change the Italian restaurant scene.

In 1998, Batali teamed up with good friend Joe Bastianich to open Babbo in NYC. Other restaurants that Batali opened after the success of Babbo include Lupa, Esca, and Otto Enoteca Pizzeria.

Now you can learn how to cook like him by buying any of his ten cookbooks, watch him co-host The Chew, and you can even help him feed and educate children though the Mario Batali Foundation.

Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts): Julia Child

Let’s be real, who doesn’t love Julia Child? You may recognize the name from the 2009 film Julie & Julia, but the movie doesn’t even come close to doing this woman justice.

Another culinary legend, Julia Child greatly changed the face of American food by making the seemingly complex French cuisine approachable to the everyday American.

Julia Child graduated from Smith College in 1934 with a history degree, but she even admits in her memoir that most of her college career was devoted to growing up (sound familiar?). She quickly moved to NYC to become a writer, but then moved back to her hometown in California when her mother passed away.

Suddenly WWII was upon the nation and Child found herself in Washington D.C. as a typist for the US Information Agency. She eventually became a researcher for the division and, later when she was positioned abroad, became the Chief of the OSS Registry. While in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), she also met her future husband: Paul Child.

After the war, Julia enrolled in the Los Angeles cooking school to prepare herself to be a wife, and then married Paul Child in 1946. The year after their marriage, the two moved to Paris for Paul’s job, and after one of her first experiences with French food, Julia enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu.

After graduating, she collaborated with two other French female women to create a cooking school: L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes.

In 1961, the two moved back to Cambridge, MA, where Julia then published her first cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It proved to be a great success, so much so that in 1963 she was given her own weekly thirty-minute television show called The French Chef.

Julia quickly rose to fame, and once she was revered in the industry, nothing could stop her. After many years of receiving prestigious awards and accolades, Julia Child donated the kitchen from her Cambridge home (yes, the entire thing) to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., where is resides today.

So maybe instead of going to Cancun for spring break you and your friends can road trip it to D.C. to honor your fellow alumnae? No? Well, it was worth a shot.

Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York): Ina Garten

Whether you love to hate her or hate to love her, Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa) is the queen bee of food television. Whichever side you’re on, we all know she’s the bomb dot com.

For starters, she graduated from Syracuse with a degree in Economics (although she had planned to study fashion). Then, after Jeffrey’s 4 years of military service during the Vietnam war, they traveled to Paris. Que the “ah ha!” moment.

Once back in the States, Ina cracked open all of Julia Child’s books to learn the ways of French cooking while simultaneously beginning her long tradition of hosting dinner parties.

The next phase of her life was no joke. While working in the White House, Ina was also taking business courses at George Washington University, where she eventually received her MBA.

But let’s back up, she didn’t just work in the White House – she was working in the White House Office of Management and Budget developing nuclear energy policies. Yeah. #casual

Apparently the job wasn’t creative enough for her, so when she saw an ad for a small food shop in the Hamptons she bought it, and Barefoot Contessa was born. Although she sold the store to her employees, who eventually closed the store entirely in 2003, she created a legacy.

With cookbooks and a television show that both have a cult following, Ina Garten has become not only a household name, but a woman who proves that your major and job never have to define what you do for the rest of your life.

Fun fact: She met Jeffrey at the age of 15.

For the full list of celebrity chefs, click here.

Photos and GIFs courtesy of Sophie Herbert, Food Network, Justin Stephens, US News, Eater, Bravo, Ça Va, Greg Powers Photography, Estee Lauder, Emerils, Hit Fix, YouTube, Rachel Ray Washington Post, NY Post, Zemmrate, Quentin Bacon, Food Flaunt, Buzzfeed, & Brigitte Lacombe.

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