The Culinary Institute of America has been in existence for more than 50 years and has been largely instrumental in setting the standards of excellence in culinary art. The faculty at the Culinary Institute of America as well as its facilities and academic programs inculcate the ability to enable its students to think in a creative manner, solve various problems, and comprehend what needs to be achieved in order to become a leader in the art of culinary cooking.
Given the immense popularity of cooking as a career field, thanks to cooking shows like Martha Stewart and celebrity chefs stacking the shelves of local bookstores with cookbook after cookbook, not to mention endorsing lines of home furnishings and even clothing, it’s no wonder that spots at the Culinary Institute of America are in high demand.
At the Culinary Institute of America the student will get to know all that is needed to have a broad understanding of culinary techniques, and have the confidence as well as skill to be able to enter the culinary sphere as a chosen career and achieve success. Its campuses are located at New York and California. In New York’s bucolic Hyde Park, by the east banks of the Hudson River, the Culinary Institute of America’s main campus is just about one and a half hours from New York City, and can be accessed by U.S. Route 9.
The New York campus has five very highly awarded restaurants staffed by its students and includes St. Andrew’s Café, Ristorante Caterina de Medici, the Escoffier Restaurant, American Bounty Restaurant and the Apple Pie Bakery Café. Besides these restaurants, the New York campus also has public tours conducted by its students as well as a bookstore that contains gastronomical delights, books on cooking, souvenirs, and a number of different cooking utensils.
California Campus
The California Culinary Institute of America’s campus is located in Napa Valley, and features some very interesting professional development courses. There are very professional educational facilities as well as teaching kitchens and a demonstration center that are all part of the around 15,000-square-foot teaching area. In addition, there is a 15-acre vineyard, the Ruud Center for Professional Wine Studies, the Sutter Home Organic Garden and many other attractive restaurants, theaters and cafes that emphasize the cooking and baking traditions spanning many cultures.
Besides the above-mentioned attractions, the Napa Valley campus also boasts of hot air ballooning that is second only to South Africa’s hot air ballooning capabilities. Also, the Napa Valley campus is home to an Old Faithful Geyser, being only one of the three that are found anywhere in the world.
