Institute of Culinary Education

Founded in 1975 by Peter Kump, the school offers highly successful 6- to 11-month career training programs in culinary arts, pastry and baking arts, and culinary management. In 2008, ICE won the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Award of Excellence for Best Vocational Cooking School and ICE was also a finalist and winner of the IACP 2002, 2003 and 2006 Awards of Excellence. Finally in 2006, New York Restaurant Insider Magazine called ICE one of America's top three culinary schools.

Students and alumni are regularly nominated for, or win top industry awards, such as James Beard Awards, Food & Wine's Best New Chefs in America, and Pastry Art & Design's Ten Best Pastry Chefs.

ICE offers diplomas in three areas of study:

• Culinary Arts
• Pastry & Baking Arts
• Culinary Management

The culinary arts and baking arts programs each include a 210-hour off-site externship, typically in a highly regarded New York Restaurant, including famous kitchens such as Restaurant Daniel, Nobu, Aquavit, Gramercy Tavern, Le Bernardin and Per Se. Students who elect externships outside of New York take advantage of ICE's national connections and reputation to get into the best kitchens. After graduation, ICE offers on-going job placement assistance.

ICE's intensive diploma curriculum enables students to enter the culinary world in as few as 7 months. This efficiency does not come at the expense of thoroughness; small class sizes and experienced chef-instructors enable each student to reach her or his potential swiftly. Maximum class size is 16 students in culinary arts and pastry and baking arts, and 20 students in culinary management.

ICE also offers 1,700 hands-on recreational cooking, baking and wine education classes to 26,000 students each year. Additionally, ICE hosts hundreds of corporate and private hands-on cooking events each year.

Diploma in Culinary Arts

In the Culinary Arts Diploma program, students learn the theory, practice and art of cooking. The 650-hour comprehensive curriculum is grounded in ICE's five-point model of skill development: theory, technique, palate training, speed and teamwork. This approach assures that students move quickly yet thoroughly through the program, while learning the elements that are essential for a successful culinary career.

Each class is designed to teach specific skills, which gradually become more complex as the program progresses. ICE begins by training students how to taste. They learn to appreciate the subtleties of a wide variety of foods--from herbs and condiments to vegetables and meats. As the course continues, students are immersed in techniques, such as knife skills, dry- and moist-heat cooking methods, sauce making, restaurant simulations, and pastry and baking, among others. As students grow more confident, they build upon skills they've mastered in earlier classes to create increasingly complex dishes and, later, menus. By graduation, they're able to approach any cooking task with ease.

While the culinary arts curriculum is grounded in classical French technique, food trends are decidedly global. To that end, ICE designed the program so that students work with ingredients and techniques from countries around the world, including India, Japan, Thailand, China, Italy and Spain. The small class size (never more than 16 students) ensures individual attention, which helps each student progress through the program and gain confidence and proficiency.

After completing their 440-hours of in-class training, students move off-site to participate in a 210-hour externship. They put their skills to the test, continuing the educational process in a restaurant, hotel, catering kitchen or other culinary enterprise.

Learn More