Our Insights
What’s Special
Strong culinary arts; industry internships
The Downside
Not many advanced courses
For students serious about learning to cook, Food and Finance High School offers a hands-on introduction to cooking and the restaurant business. Students learn to prepare, cook, and present food. They also gain experience in kitchen management, such as ordering supplies and running a business.
In partnership with Cornell University's Cooperative Extension, students earn science credits by growing herbs and vegetables in the hydroponics lab and studying fish in the aquaponics lab. They use their homegrown products in recipes for catered events.
Students also have opportunities for internships and jobs in the food and finance fields. For example, through the Food Education Fund, they manage and work at School Grounds, a food stand at the Barclays Center, earning both experience and money for college. They may also participate in cooking competitions and earn certifications like ServSafe, ProStart, and NYC Food Handlers, which boost job prospects and may count toward culinary school credit, after graduation.
Seniors with food handler’s licenses intern at NYC restaurants. The school’s catering service provides meals at events like the Citywide Legislative Breakfast, where city officials meet with students and community leaders to discuss education. Juniors also prepare up to 50 dishes for a showcase meal in May, inviting officials, school staff, and even the chancellor.
Throughout the year, the school invites chefs to discuss careers and give cooking lessons on dishes like Mexican chicken tinga tamales and French pommes dauphine.
In academic classes, students work in small groups. Project-based learning is woven into lessons. For example, one lesson uses VR to simulate air traffic control, where students calculate airplane time frames. Other lessons apply math to tasks like budgeting, portioning, and scaling recipes. In English, students tackle an activity in which they analyze characters by creating visual representations such as drawings or relationship maps.
Although nearly all students graduate on time, only a small percentage take advanced high school and college-level courses. Students take at least one year of art and one year of music. The school holds several concerts, dance performances and film showings each year.
Many graduates go on to work in culinary fields, notably Food and Finance alum Lazarus Lynch, a soul food chef who won Food Network’s Chopped competition, according to a Wall Street Journal article. Some also attend culinary schools like the Culinary Institute of America.
The school is located in the Park West Educational Complex in Hell’s Kitchen, sharing facilities like cafeterias, gyms, an auditorium, and a library with other schools. Students in all the schools may participate in campus-wide clubs and sports. The other schools are Manhattan Bridges High School, Facing History High School, The Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction and the High School of Hospitality Management. (Lydie Raschka, web reports and interview, March 2025)
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School Stats
Academics
Students
Race/Ethnicity
Safety & Vibe
Faculty & Staff
Advanced Courses
Calculus
Not offered in 2021-22Computer Science
Physics
Not offered in 2021-22Advanced Foreign Language
Not offered in 2021-22AP/IB Arts, English, History or Social Science
AP/IB Math or Science
Music
College Readiness
Programs & Admissions
From the 2024 High School DirectoryFood and Finance High School (M34X)
Program Description:
Focuses on Culinary Arts in cooking and baking and the financial aspects related to the industry.
Offerings
From the 2024 High School DirectoryLanguage Courses
French
Advanced Courses
Algebra II (Advanced Math), AP Environmental Science, AP Human Geography, AP Statistics, AP United States History, AP World History: Modern, Chemistry (Advanced Science), Other (College Course [Credited]), World Languages (Advanced World Languages)
Boys PSAL teams
Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball
Girls PSAL teams
Basketball, Volleyball
Read about admissions, academics, and more at this school on NYCDOE’s MySchools
Contact & Location
Location
525 West 50Th Street
Manhattan
NY
10019
Trains:
,
to 50th St
Buses: M104, M11, M12, M20, M31, M34A-SBS, M42, M50, M57
Contact
Other Details
This school shares the Park West Educational Campus with four other schools
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