Explore ICE

Over the past 40 years, ICE has educated more than 14,000 alumni, and our diploma programs have an established reputation among chefs, restaurateurs, pastry experts, food publications, hoteliers and culinary professionals around the world. Our courses, connections and unique focus on the student experience make ICE an ideal place to start a culinary, pastry or hospitality career.

In 2016, ICE’s New York campus was ranked “The Best Culinary School in America” by The Daily Meal, awarded the same title by The Best Schools and Edinformatics, and listed as one of America’s top culinary schools by FSR Magazine. The New York campus was also named Culinary School of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) in 2015, 2011, 2008 and 2003.

Los Angeles campus graduates have entered the workplace with the foundation and skills to gain experience under culinary leaders as exceptional as Dominique Ansel, Nobu Matsuhisa, Thomas Keller, Zoe Nathan, Christina Tosi and Wolfgang Puck.

Opened in 2018, ICE's Los Angeles campus is located in Pasadena's historic Playhouse District and features spacious teaching kitchens and a stimulating environment for studying, professional development and community. ICE LA students have access to the city’s vibrant and trendsetting food scene, which offers opportunities for endless culinary exploration.

In Downtown Manhattan, ICE's New York City location was also designed with community and creativity in mind. ICE students experience distinct opportunities for culinary discovery and innovation in our bean-to-bar Chocolate Lab, Hydroponic Garden, Mixology Center and Culinary Technology Lab.

An ICE education includes a real-world externship. ICE's Career Service advisors support students in the process of identifying potential externship sites to fit each student’s personal and professional goals. This in-the-field training consistently proves to be an exceptional opportunity for hands-on experience, networking at the heart of the industry and concrete references for job interviews. Often, students get job offers from their externships.

The ICE Career Services department has a full-time staff dedicated to helping graduates who want a job in the field, get a job in the field and that alumni careers stay on track, even long after graduation. This includes weekly alumni emails with dozens of job openings and career fairs on campus with leading restaurants, bakeries, hotels and other employers interested in meeting ICE students and graduates. It’s an investment we believe is a crucial part of the recipe for success that you should expect from a culinary school.

While ICE’s culinary curriculum is grounded in classic French technique, it also offers the opportunity to explore global foods, including the cuisines of Italy, China, Thailand, India and more. Our strong emphasis on quality sourcing means that you’ll cook these dishes with ingredients from the same local purveyors who cater to the city’s finest restaurants.

Cooking and baking can be creative forms of expression. However, long-term viability depends upon a sound business plan. ICE’s Restaurant & Culinary Management program is accredited and designed to prepare students to own, manage or operate a food business. Taught by former restaurant owners and managers who are still active consultants in the field, the program treats Los Angeles as a classroom with guest lectures from industry leaders and field trips.

We teach how to write a business plan and navigate the basics of human resources, public relations, restaurant finances, marketing and more. We carefully schedule our programs and offer dual diploma discounts so that students can combine Restaurant & Culinary Management with Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts or Plant-Based Culinary Arts to earn two diplomas at ICE in as little as a year.

For decades, ICE alumni have won local, regional and national awards from a broad range of organizations, magazines and trade groups. The list includes the James Beard Foundation, Michelin Guide, Food & Wine magazine, Dessert Professional magazine, Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, Forbes, the American Culinary Federation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

Awards, honors and recognition

Esteemed teachers — like Mauro Rossi, who was an executive chef with the Patina Group, and Mishel LeDoux, who was a general manager at Jose Andres and Wolfgang Puck restaurants — are just a few of the experienced professionals instructing in ICE's kitchen classrooms. We set a high standard for skill, knowledge, expertise, passion, and of course, a love for teaching.

In 2019, ICE introduced Plant-Based Culinary Arts, based on the Natural Gourmet Institute’s plant-forward curriculum. The program's food-and-healing coursework focuses on the nutritional aspects of ingredients and cooking techniques and how to use those to best benefit health.

In addition to career training programs, ICE offers regular events and demonstrations featuring leaders in the industry and experts in specialty areas. Students at our Los Angeles campus have opportunities to attend workshops, guest lectures, skills enhancement classes and field trips and to volunteer with chefs at external events or venues like LA Chefs Conference and LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade. We also host dozens of recreational classes on campus, which have included some of the most popular curriculum from the New York campus: knife skills, techniques of fine cooking, wine essentials, and exclusively in L.A., a five-part sushi course.

ICE offers morning, afternoon and evening class schedules with eight to nine class starts a year. For students who are unable to attend classes on campus in NY or LA, ICE offers an online culinary diploma program as well as an online management program,  These unique offerings are designed to make it as easy as possible for you to fit culinary or management training into your busy life and accommodate families, jobs and other obligations while earning a diploma in as little as seven months. This flexibility also makes dual diplomas a convenient option.