Danny Meyer Wants to Put You Through School

You’ve got until the end of this week to apply for the Union Square Hospitality Group Restaurant Management Scholarship at the French Culinary Institute (FCI) in New York City. It’s a totally free ride, and if USHG boss Danny Meyer thinks it’s a good idea to pay your way to school, who in the restaurant world wouldn’t want to hire you when you get out?

FCI is renowned for preparing its students for culinary careers, but it has branched out into other aspects of restaurant training as of late. Its restaurant management program is designed to get students ready to open their own restaurant as well as to run one for someone else.

“The Restaurant Management Course at The French Culinary Institute takes future restaurateurs from the initial concept scribbled on a napkin through the rigors of navigating day-to-day operations long after opening night,” says the school. “With guidance and valuable insight from key instructors from Union Square Hospitalty Group, respected professors from the Cornell Hotel School of Hotel Administration as well as experts in law, real estate, finance, architecture and marketing, students prepare a business plan they can use to launch their own restaurant or concept.”

Whoever wins the USHG scholarship will have a choice of attending the program on either Wednesday and Friday evenings (starting on Jan. 27, 2010 and ending on May 21, 2010) or all day on Saturdays (starting on Jan 30, 2010 and ending on May 22, 2010). The evening sessions run from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; Saturday classes run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If the scholarship recipient needs a job when school ends, he or she can probably catch on right away with Meyer’s USHG. His company is renowned in New York City not just for its high-end restaurants (Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, Tabla, 11 Madison Park) but also for its flawless renditions of barbecue joints (Blue Smoke), burger-and-fries operations (Shake Shack) and more. USHG just opened its first Italian concept, Maialino, and has many other irons in the fire.

List price for the FCI course is $8,250. FCI itself is offering six half-tuition scholarships for its restaurant management course, and the deadline to apply for both the USHG full scholarship and FCI’s partial ones is Jan. 15, 2010. RH e-newsletter readers can apply by going to www.frenchculinary.com or calling the school at 888-324-CHEF.