Houston, TX (population: 2,307,883) has three cooking schools within its city limits. Culinary Institute Alain and Marie Lenotre, the highest ranked school in the city with a cooking program, has a total student population of 199. It is the 1635th highest ranked school in the USA and the 72nd highest in the state of Texas (#1 is Rice University).
Cooking students from Houston 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.
Houston lies in Harris county, which is one of the 154 counties in Texas. Overall, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area has 2,563,840 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.7% unemployment rate, $21.58/hr average worker wage, and a $44,880 average annual salary.
Of the 3 cooking schools in Houston, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Culinary Institute Alain and Marie Lenotre comes out as the most expensive ($40,558/yr) for cooking students, with Houston Community College System as the lowest, reported at only $7,796/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Houston |
| South Houston | TX | - | 1 | 23.7623 | 5 | 11.9 miles |
| Pearland | TX | 94,215 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.0 miles |
| Pasadena | TX | 148,101 | 8 | 24.6579 | 264 | 16.3 miles |
| Missouri City | TX | 77,622 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.5 miles |
| Baytown | TX | 71,405 | 1 | 12.8813 | 98 | 25.3 miles |
| League City | TX | 78,312 | 0 | - | 0 | 25.7 miles |
| The Woodlands | TX | 101,065 | 1 | 14.626 | 77 | 27.6 miles |
| Texas City | TX | 44,907 | 1 | 8.31197 | 63 | 35.9 miles |
| Conroe | TX | 61,600 | 0 | - | 0 | 38.3 miles |
| Prairie View | TX | - | 1 | 50.8259 | 82 | 42.2 miles |
| Galveston | TX | 57,154 | 3 | 22.3727 | 45 | 47.7 miles |
| Beaumont | TX | 110,900 | 4 | 27.5152 | 152 | 78.1 miles |
| College Station | TX | 90,406 | 1 | 0.218495 | 0 | 79.5 miles |
| Bryan | TX | 73,832 | 2 | 27.1681 | 5 | 85.5 miles |