Career Training Path › Culinary & pastry schools › Arizona
Culinary & pastry schools in Arizona
Arizona has 12 accredited campuses awarding culinary credentials. If you finish and work as a chef in Arizona, expect to start around $33,970–$38,480 and reach a median of $59,890 with experience; the top quarter earn $74,990 or more (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, Arizona). Graduates of these Arizona programs — every graduate, whatever job they took — earned a median of $27,618 in their first year, against $24,208 nationally; that is the figure used to rank campuses below.
What chefs and head cooks earn in Arizona
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025; 4,080 employed in Arizona. National median: $62,470.
Campuses in Arizona, ranked by what their graduates earned
Cities: AvondaleCoolidgeKingmanPhoenixPrescottScottsdaleSierra VistaSomertonThatcherTucsonYuma
| Campus | City | Type | Grads / yr | Earnings, yr 1 | Program debt | Completion | Cost / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Culinary Institute | Scottsdale | for-profit | 121 | $27,618 | $9,500 | 91% | $43,363 |
| Estrella Mountain Community College | Avondale | Public | 84 | not reported | not reported | 32% | not reported |
| Central Arizona College | Coolidge | Public | 63 | not reported | not reported | 27% | not reported |
| Yavapai College | Prescott | Public | 56 | not reported | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Scottsdale Community College | Scottsdale | Public | 35 | not reported | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Cochise County Community College District | Sierra Vista | Public | 19 | not reported | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Arizona Western College | Yuma | Public | 13 | not reported | not reported | 20% | not reported |
| Pima Community College | Tucson | Public | 13 | not reported | not reported | 28% | not reported |
| GateWay Community College-Central City | Phoenix | Public | 3 | not reported | not reported | 55% | $17,257 |
| Mohave Community College | Kingman | Public | 3 | not reported | not reported | 38% | not reported |
| Eastern Arizona College | Thatcher | Public | 1 | not reported | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Regional Center for Border Health | Somerton | non-profit | 1 | not reported | not reported | 87% | not reported |
Earnings are median wages and self-employment income reported to the IRS (W-2 and Schedule SE) for graduates who received federal aid and were working and not enrolled, measured in the calendar year after finishing. They are pay only: health insurance, retirement contributions and other benefits are not included.
Ranked by median earnings of this program's graduates one year after completion (College Scorecard field-of-study, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 2022-23 Completions survey; College Scorecard June 2026; Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP), September 2026); campuses without a reported figure follow, by credentials awarded. "Program debt" is the median federal loan debt for graduates of this program at this campus. Completion is the campus-wide 150%-of-time rate. "Not reported" means the federal file suppresses the value for privacy.