The Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, in downtown Pittsburgh, has been acquired by a Chicago-based operator of post-secondary schools for $44 million cash.
Career Education Corp., Hoffman Estates, Ill., operates 10 other culinary schools across the country.
The Culinary Institute, one of the largest such schools in the country, was founded in 1986, has annual revenue of about $26 million and about 1,400 students, said Nicholas Hoban, the institute's founder and, until the sale, its president. The school will continue to operate under the same name.
Career Education is a private, for-profit operator of schools in such disciplines as visual communication, design and information technologies, business and culinary arts. It operates some 40 campuses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
The Pennsylvania Culinary Institute is the largest cooking school that Career Education has purchased. With it, the number of students in culinary schools run by Career Education will be about 6,000.
"More than simply size, the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute provides Career Education with a number of important benefits," said John Larson, chairman, president and chief executive of Career Education.
Larson said the institute has a strong reputation and a strong reach into high schools. Each year, it has seminars and classes in some 3,100 high schools nationwide.
One change Career Education will make at the Pittsburgh school is the introduction of the Le Cordon Bleu cooking program, an internationally recognized method.
"It's sort of like getting the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval," said Hoban, who founded the Culinary Institute in 1986.
Hoban said he is pleased with the sale. "It brings together our strengths and the strengths at Career Education - they are a tremendous company."
Career Education also owns the International Culinary Academy in Pittsburgh, a smaller school that operates in the Omni William Penn Hotel.
