Students at ICE Los Angeles campus.

Welcome to the Institute of Culinary Education in Los Angeles

Ranked No. 1 Culinary School in America*

Welcome to Los Angeles — one of the world's culinary and hospitality capitals, and one of the most exciting food cities in America. Launch your culinary career in this urban oasis for food and restaurant lovers. Our campus features 38,000 square feet of space dedicated to learning, innovation and creativity.

# 1

"America's Best Culinary School"

The Institute of Culinary Education, its faculty and alumni have been awarded top honors by the James Beard Foundation, the IACP, USA Today, The Daily Meal and more. Find out why an ICE education puts you in amazing company. [1]

18 K

Alumni

Our alumni lead the industry — running top kitchens around the globe, winning awards and transforming the future of culinary innovation. 88% report that their ICE education has proved somewhat or extremely important to their careers. [2]

45 +

Years

With more than 45 years of experience launching culinary careers, ICE is among the most respected culinary schools in Los Angeles and in America. In the last two years, ICE placed students in over 300 establishments, prompting praise from industry leaders. [3]

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Earn Your Diploma or Degree at ICE Los Angeles

Continuing Education at ICE Los Angeles

A photo of the busy city lights of downtown Los Angeles at night

A Thriving Culinary Scene

The opportunities to expand your palate in L.A. while studying at ICE are endless.

The culinary world agrees: Los Angeles is one of the most exciting food cities in America. As Jonathan Gold — the prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times restaurant critic — told Food & Wine, “It’s a combination of things: the mosaic of cultures, that we are at the center of a vast agricultural region and the fact that L.A. is very friendly to entry-level capitalism." We’re excited to be hanging our toques in the historic Playhouse District of Pasadena in the City of Angels. Between the delicious cuisine and the vibrant culture, not to mention year-round sunny weather, Los Angeles is the ideal second location for “America’s Best Culinary School.”

L.A. Culinary Community and ICE

With our finger on the pulse of the food and hospitality scene, we help our Los Angeles culinary school students gain access to exciting opportunities in a wide array of businesses, from recognized kitchens to award-winning food media outlets to premier hotels. ICE LA's Career Services department places students in hundreds of establishments each year. Of those externships, the majority have been paid, and more than half of the completed externships resulted in a direct hire by the site or an affiliated location.

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Training for Students of All Levels

Not only will ICE give you the foundation for your culinary future with a diploma or degree, it will help to continue your pursuit of excellence in your chosen path. Whether it’s sommelier training, or bread baking, our continuing education programs will help you stay on the cutting edge in developing your culinary career.

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Tour Our LA Facilities

The ICE Los Angeles campus features 38,000 square feet of educational and administrative space, with seven fully equipped teaching kitchens filled with modern kitchen equipment. These spacious kitchen classrooms range between 1,500 and 1,800 square feet, with 80 linear feet of Ansul protected hood-space for stoves and ovens. The campus also features a dedicated academic classroom and an impressive 2,000-square-foot Learning Resource Center, plus additional tutoring rooms, providing students with community spaces to gather and study or to socialize between classes.

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Take advantage of ICE

Curtis Stone speaking at the Institute of Culinary Education

Network with Experts

ICE offers a unique real-life view into what makes food businesses successful by providing students with the opportunity to network with guest lecturers and to go on field trips to notable locations in Los Angeles.

LA alumni with chef instructor at commencement

Hire Our Alumni

Whether you’re looking to add entry-level staff or source seasoned executive chefs or general managers for your restaurant or food business, the ICE alumni network is your resource for talented candidates.

students at the ICE Los Angeles culinary school campus

Come to ICE

If you have questions about attending culinary school, would like to visit the ICE campus in Los Angeles, or if you are a chef or culinary business owner interested in presenting to our students, we want to hear from you.

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Latest Articles

A bottle of Tahitian vanilla extract, raw vanilla beans and a small bottle of vanilla extract on a blue background

An Introductory Guide to Vanilla

When we think of vanilla, pastry applications that have vanilla as the primary flavor, like ice cream, may come to mind first. However, vanilla is more often used because it’s a flavor enhancer. It...

Start your journey today.

Request free information about our award-winning career training programs, speak with an ICE admissions representative about your goals and questions or schedule a personal tour — however you'd like to start your journey, we're here to help.