Denver, CO (population: 609,651) has three cooking schools within its city limits. Emily Griffith Opportunity School, the highest ranked school in the city with a cooking program, has a total student population of 2,230. It is the 2063rd highest ranked school in the USA and the 22nd highest in the state of Colorado (#1 is Colorado College).
Cooking students from Denver schools who go on to become chefs, cooks, sous chefs, line cooks, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 94,300 people working as chefs and head cooks alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $44,240. Also, Cooks, private household make on average $27,720 per year and there are about 770 of them employed in the US today.
Denver lies in Denver county, which is one of the 55 counties in Colorado. Overall, the Denver-Aurora area has 1,218,790 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $23/hr average worker wage, and a $48,560 average annual salary.
After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Emily Griffith Opportunity School comes out as the most expensive ($/yr) for cooking students, with Johnson & Wales University-Denver as the lowest, reported at only $23,765/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Denver |
| Commerce City | CO | 46,807 | 0 | - | 0 | 6.9 miles |
| Aurora | CO | 334,924 | 11 | 27.59 | 204 | 8.5 miles |
| Thornton | CO | 120,487 | 4 | 21.9949 | 44 | 9.6 miles |
| Greenwood Village | CO | - | 2 | 15.5036 | 87 | 11.4 miles |
| Westminster | CO | 109,334 | 7 | 21.6728 | 184 | 12.2 miles |
| Lakewood | CO | 142,294 | 13 | 20.2254 | 326 | 13.7 miles |
| Highlands Ranch | CO | 129,817 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.1 miles |
| Lone Tree | CO | - | 1 | 9.20591 | 39 | 16.2 miles |
| Parker | CO | 47,600 | 0 | - | 0 | 18.9 miles |
| Castle Rock | CO | 49,815 | 0 | - | 0 | 27.0 miles |
| Boulder | CO | 95,721 | 5 | 25.2105 | 131 | 27.0 miles |
| Longmont | CO | 88,962 | 0 | - | 0 | 30.5 miles |
| Greeley | CO | 94,780 | 4 | 31.0251 | 125 | 45.5 miles |
| Loveland | CO | 68,614 | 0 | - | 0 | 46.2 miles |
| Fort Collins | CO | 141,921 | 5 | 27.6422 | 154 | 55.7 miles |
| Colorado Springs | CO | 388,306 | 17 | 23.417 | 343 | 63.2 miles |
| Cheyenne | WY | 58,067 | 4 | 11.724 | 116 | 95.5 miles |