Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School Grads to Benefit from Proposed Settlement

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After 10 years of litigation, students of Le Cordon Bleu culinary school are close to reaching a settlement that would compensate them for thousands of dollars spent on a culinary arts degree they say turned out to be worthless.

Plaintiffs Nathan Surrett and Jennifer Adams filed this action in 2008, accusing Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland, Ore. (formerly known as Western Culinary Institute) of overstating the value of its culinary arts training program.

The plaintiffs say students were defrauded into spending thousands of dollars on their education, sometimes by taking out high-interest loans, only to find themselves qualified for nothing but entry-level jobs that require no degree.

Under terms of the proposed Le Cordon Bleu class action settlement, the school has agreed to pay qualifying Class Members 44 percent of the tuition they paid or the amount they took out in loans. The agreement would apply to around 1,000 former students. Students who were subject to a prior arbitration would not be included in the settlement.

According to this Le Cordon Bleu class action lawsuit, the school misrepresented itself as an exclusive and prestigious training ground whose graduates could expect careers as chefs or restaurant owners.

Instead, plaintiffs claim, graduates ended up stuck in career paths that would never earn them much more than minimum wage. Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu say they’ve only been able to find work as bussers, dishwashers or bartenders – all far cries from the careers as restaurateurs they were led to expect.

Some say employers told them their degree from Le Cordon Bleu was worthless.

“[T]hese are jobs people could get off the street without ever going to culinary school that pay minimum wage,” the plaintiffs’ attorney told KGW8 News.

The plaintiffs claim Le Cordon Bleu had no business inducing potential students to take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt that the school knew its graduates might never afford to pay down. At the time Surrett and Adams attended Le Cordon Bleu, cost of attendance was around $40,000– more than the cost of a four-year bachelor’s degree at the University of Oregon.

Le Cordon Bleu had 16 locations across the country when it closed down in 2017. Its parent company Career Education Corporation said the closure resulted from new federal rules limiting funding for for-profit schools.

As proposed by the plaintiffs, the plaintiff Class would include all current and former students of Western Culinary Institute or Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland who enrolled on or after March 5, 2006 through March 1, 2010, and who made tuition payments or incurred financial obligations.

Claim Forms for the settlement are expected to be made available in March. Class Members will then have 90 days in which to submit their claims.

The culinary students are represented by attorneys David Sugerman of David F. Sugerman PC, Amy Johnson, and Tim Quenelle of Tim Quenelle PC.

The Le Cordon Bleu Misrepresentation Class Action Lawsuit is Surrett, et al. v. Western Culinary Institute Ltd., et al., Case No. 0803-03530, in the Circuit Court for the State of Oregon in and for the County of Multnomah.

UPDATE: April 2018, the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.