Pastry & Baking Arts

Drawing from the pastry arts training and baking arts traditions of France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland, as well as contemporary American variations, our Pastry & Baking Arts program is both international in scope and constantly evolving with modern global influences. Our award-winning curriculum has been shaped by Nick Malgieri, renowned pastry chef and author of 12 cookbooks, as well as Chef Michael Laiskonis, former Executive Pastry Chef at three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin and winner of the prestigious James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef.

Pastry and baking combines art and technique unlike any other field of the food industry. Your hands-on education starts with our chef-instructors, who will guide you through the crucial components of this craft and lead you on the path to becoming an accomplished professional. You'll cover a wide range of pastries and breads, including flaky croissants and crusty sourdough, beginning with an exploration and tasting of ingredients to study how flavors and textures combine. Instructors cover a wide range of dough-based products, from strudels and tarts to puff pastries. Our bread curriculum, designed by Chef Sim Cass, the founding baker of Keith McNally’s Balthazar Bakery, will teach you to prepare yeast-raised classics like bagels, brioche, pizza and baguettes.

With a strong emphasis on theory, our baking arts and pastry arts curriculum will teach you the essential techniques of cakes and chocolate, highlighting the key ratios and methods that allow you to go beyond recipes and produce unique creations. You'll practice decorating cakes by hand until inscriptions and piping become second nature. Ultimately, students have the opportunity to apply these skills to design and produce a tiered cake of their own creation. Chocolate confections are also part of the curriculum, from the simple truffle to intricate showpieces. What's more, Pastry & Baking Arts students in New York have access to the ICE Chocolate Lab, where they can learn more about the bean-to-bar process of chocolate production.

Your education is our main focus. By the program’s end, you will have handcrafted everything from cakes and confections to classic breads and elegant desserts, preparing you to create intricate and imaginative recipes of your own.

Your dedicated Career Services Advisor will meet with you regularly throughout your time as a student to introduce you to the wide variety of career paths based on your unique goals. Beginning with the one-on-one guidance to help you find the right fit for your industry externship, this same team will be with you as an Alumni. After you graduate, you’ll receive on-going job placement services including weekly emails highlighting interesting job openings, career fairs, and various networking opportunities.

After 400 hours of careful instruction and practice, you are ready for the exam that matters most: working in a professional kitchen. Through our externship program, you will spend 210 hours on-site in a restaurant, bakery, hotel, catering kitchen or other culinary business. A wide variety of externship options demonstrates the diversity and caliber of our professional network. Best of all, externships often result in job offers and can provide students with invaluable contacts for the rest of their career. Explore culinary careers inside and outside the kitchen.