‘Cooking School’ lessons

If you’re looking to carve out a career as a top-flight chef, the Art Institute of California in Santa Monica is a splendid place to learn your chops. But who would have guessed it would also be a great place to base a TV show?

“Cooking School Stories,” a weekly series that can be seen tonight at 9:30 on the Food Network, is from Pie Town Productions, which provides the channel with such programming as “$40 a Day” as well as “Design on a Dime” and “Designers’ Challenge” for HGTV. But “Stories,” which follows nine culinary students over a year of instruction, blending in intriguing glimpses of their personal lives for good measure, may be the best of the lot. Each episode focuses on a type of cuisine (sushi tonight) and spotlights two or three students.

There’s Joey, a 17-year-old wunderkind whose talent has earned him a free ride at the $20,000-a-year school. There’s Shannon, 24, the single mom of a 4-year-old who left the Postal Service to give cooking a try. Then there’s Jessica, 23, whose favorite food is cake. Tonight, Shannon finds it tough to concentrate because she’s in a court fighting over custody of her son.

For another student, 21-year-old Joe, the financial pressures on his young family (baby will make three any day now) seem to point to quitting school and getting a job.

Design or food programs that try to be hybrids of something more (design-dating or food-fashion shows) can come off as something less, but that isn’t the case here. The stories melt right into the mix.

One quibble: The techno background music is enough to make you lose your appetite. How about some tasteful classical sounds to go along with the classic cooking?