Career Training Path › Culinary & pastry schools › Kentucky
Culinary & pastry schools in Kentucky
Kentucky has 9 accredited campuses awarding culinary credentials. If you finish and work as a chef in Kentucky, expect to start around $31,550–$36,850 and reach a median of $48,070 with experience; the top quarter earn $66,770 or more (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, Kentucky). Graduates of these Kentucky programs — every graduate, whatever job they took — earned a median of $23,826 in their first year, against $24,208 nationally; that is the figure used to rank campuses below.
What chefs and head cooks earn in Kentucky
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025; 1,790 employed in Kentucky. National median: $62,470.
Campuses in Kentucky, ranked by what their graduates earned
Cities: AshlandBowling GreenElizabethtownLouisvilleMadisonvilleMaysvillePaducahSomerset
| Campus | City | Type | Grads / yr | Earnings, yr 1 | Program debt | Completion | Cost / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sullivan University | Louisville | for-profit | 79 | $23,826 | $14,727 | not reported | not reported |
| Ashland Community and Technical College | Ashland | Public | 74 | not reported | not reported | 51% | not reported |
| Elizabethtown Community and Technical College | Elizabethtown | Public | 56 | not reported | not reported | 60% | not reported |
| Somerset Community College | Somerset | Public | 49 | not reported | not reported | 43% | not reported |
| Jefferson Community and Technical College | Louisville | Public | 46 | not reported | not reported | 36% | not reported |
| West Kentucky Community and Technical College | Paducah | Public | 38 | not reported | not reported | 50% | not reported |
| Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College | Bowling Green | Public | 31 | not reported | not reported | 58% | not reported |
| Madisonville Community College | Madisonville | Public | 30 | not reported | not reported | 49% | not reported |
| Maysville Community and Technical College | Maysville | Public | 25 | not reported | not reported | 57% | 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.