Overview

How to Start a Food Business: Get Training, Mentorship, and a Plan for Your Food Startup

Do you want to become a food entrepreneur? Do you have an idea for starting a food truck, opening a restaurant or bakery, or creating a new packaged food business?

Escoffier’s online food entrepreneurship programs are designed to be high-impact, exploring the skills food entrepreneurs may need to prepare for careers starting or running small food businesses. You can get an opportunity to explore digital and traditional marketing concepts, business planning methods, and core culinary principles and techniques.

Our online food entrepreneurship programs are designed for you to study without quitting your current job. In addition to live classroom instruction, recorded sessions and interactive lesson materials allow you to complete your coursework on a more flexible schedule.

Two young men standing inside their food truck and a smiling man standing in his street kitchen
Food Startups

Get Started on a Business Plan for Your Food Startup and Entrepreneurship Training for You

Escoffier’s Food Entrepreneurship curriculum includes training on business planning concepts such as vetting your food business idea, pitching investors, forecasting, and more. Get critical feedback on your idea from an Escoffier instructor with a professional perspective on food startups and business operations.

Food startup concepts and ideas you might explore include:

Ready to Start Your Entrepreneurial Journey?

Objectives
Objectives

Food Entrepreneurship Program Outcomes

The goals of the Food Entrepreneurship Diploma and the Food Entrepreneurship Associate Degree online programs are to prepare students in these areas:

Food Entrepreneur Career Preparation

Acquire foundational knowledge to pursue a career as a personal cook or chef, caterer, food truck owner, restaurant cook, and more.
Explore core business essentials such as cost control, supervision, and menu design, in addition to culinary techniques.
Examine marketing concepts for food startups and small businesses through the lens of social media content creation, food writing for blogs, food styling and photography.

Food Business Operations

Apply business principles in the management of operations and private practice.

Additional Objectives - Associate Degree Program

The Associate Degree program shares the same goals as the Diploma program with the addition of the following:

Foodservice Accounting

Use foodservice accounting and mathematical concepts in business operations.

Food Culture and History

Discuss the role of food and its contribution and influence over history, culture, religion, economics, and politics.

Managerial Principles

Apply managerial principles to the workplace.
An African-American woman with a big smile clasping her hands in front of a computer laptop and a man chopping vegetables while filming himself with a smartphone Excited food entrepreneurs working on laptop and filming a food demo
Courses
Courses

Food Entrepreneurship Courses

Escoffier’s online Food Entrepreneurship programs include industry-relevant courses designed for students to explore how to start and/or manage a small food business.

Instruction leverages culinary foundations, core business essentials, and marketing and promotion practices specific to restaurants, food trucks, home-based catering businesses, food blogging, private chefs, and similar fields.

As part of the curriculum, students participate in hands-on industry externships with a food business of their choosing. This allows students to build upon and enhance principles covered in live virtual lessons and instruction, gaining experience with various aspects of restaurant, food truck, or other food business operations.

A young man standing in a bakery smiling with folded arms and a woman writing notes on a piece of paper inside her bakery

DIPLOMA AND DEGREE PROGRAM COURSES

DEGREE PROGRAM - ADDITIONAL COURSES

Accredited and Respected Worldwide

The reputation of the institution where you earn your degree or diploma is an important measure of value. Escoffier is recognized industry-wide as a leader in culinary education. The Boulder, Colorado campus develops and delivers Escoffier’s online programs and is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training (ACCET) and the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

#1 in the world
Ranked best culinary school in the world by Chef’s Pencil.1
LARGEST IN THE USA
Escoffier is the largest culinary school brand in the United States.2
TOP 10 SCHOOLS
Top 10 culinary schools in the United States - USA Today.3
BEST ONLINE SCHOOLS 2023
Newsweek 5-star Award: America's Top Online Learning Schools 2023.4
Cost & Time
History, terminology, calculating COGS, profit margins, profit/loss, product waste—there’s so much more to learn than just cooking. I'm already winning contests, and I built my own restaurant. I fast-tracked myself…and I really feel like Escoffier was a huge part of that.”*
Online Culinary Arts Graduate Lance McWhorter
Lance McWhorter
Escoffier Graduate & Executive Chef/Owner at Culture ETX, Food Network “Chopped” Contestant, Cochon 555 Competition Winner, Military Veteran
Cost & Time

Invest in Yourself as a Food Entrepreneur

Knowledge is the most-important asset of any business, but what kind of investment is required to gain the knowledge you need? Fortunately, Escoffier’s programs are designed with affordability in mind.5

The good news: most Escoffier students qualify for financial aid.6 The Boulder campus—including its online programs—is approved for federal financial aid and U.S. veterans benefits.

A woman with pink hair and a bandana talking inside of her food truck
Food Entrepreneurship Diploma
Tuition: $21,501
Program Length: 60 Weeks
Food Entrepreneurship Associate Degree
Tuition: $32,785
Program Length: 84 Weeks
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How Much Per Month?

The U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard calculates that the median monthly loan payment for the typical Escoffier student is just $91 per month for about 10 years after graduating. Be sure to check with an Escoffier financial aid representative to understand what costs, loans, and loan repayments might be for your specific situation.

In other words, you typically don’t have to pay for your tuition all at once: most Escoffier students qualify for financial aid, which can include a combination of Pell grants and student loans.

Most of Escoffier’s Boulder campus students (including online programs) who entered post-secondary education for the first time received some financial assistance in 2021-22 (for those who applied and qualified).6

An African-American Escoffier student applying egg wash to bread in her home kitchen and a male Escoffier student taking notes in front of his computer laptop

Your Online Food Entrepreneurship Training Includes

  • Livestream Instruction and Recordings
  • One-on-One Instructor Access
  • Actionable Plans and Templates
  • Entrepreneurship Training
  • Mentorship Program (via Escoffier Alumni Association)
A collage of Escoffier online programs interface on a desktop computer and two screens on a smartphone
Admissions
Admissions

Food Entrepreneurship Program Admissions Requirements

Escoffier’s admissions requirements include a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma (GED). You do not need any specific work experience, nor do you have to take the ACT or SAT to be admitted to any program at Escoffier.

Get Your Enrollment Checklist

Get a step-by-step guide to enrolling at Escoffier.
See Checklist

Get Your Questions Answered

Talk to an Escoffier Admissions Representative.
Contact Admissions

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Online Food Entrepreneurship Programs

Culinary School Was Critical to Their Entrepreneurial Success

The most successful entrepreneurs understand the importance of education and mentorship. Check out these Escoffier graduates who were able to grow their businesses with the skills they learned from their culinary school courses and from their network of Chef Instructors.

The instructors are like rock stars. They truly care about you as a student and as a person. I opened a food truck while enrolled, and the long hours had me falling behind in my classes. My instructor called me personally, and we worked on balancing the schoolwork with my work schedule, AND she helped me with great advice for my business. If you’re thinking about culinary school–DO IT!"*
Quinten Adcock headshot
Quinten Adcock
ESCOFFIER GRADUATE & OWNER, QDOG CAFE FOOD TRUCK
Seeing how I defied the odds, owning my own small business, working as a shift-lead, as a cake decorator, and being successful, I see what people were talking about two and a half years ago when I initially started researching [culinary schools]."*
Cassie Wallace headshot
Cassie Wallace
ESCOFFIER GRADUATE & OWNER, JOAN & PEARLS BAKERY
Escoffier has helped me to achieve my goals. By the time I graduated, I was so confident to start my own restaurant."*
Arnold Safari headshot
Arnold Safari
ESCOFFIER GRADUATE & OWNER, EAT ZAWADI RESTAURANT
I wanted to enroll in culinary school to refine my skills, with aspirations to expand the food truck business. I needed more training in restaurant management, efficiency in the kitchen, cutting skills, and all other proficiencies that come with working in a professional kitchen. [Escoffier] also helped me feel more comfortable working with such respectable chefs at a very early stage with business."*
Nahika Hillery headshot
Nahika Hillery
ESCOFFIER GRADUATE & OWNER, KREYÓL KORNER CARIBBEAN CUISINE FOOD TRUCK

Don’t leave your food business idea up to chance: get a plan for your business idea and entrepreneurship training for your future!

Next Start Date
Oct 4
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