Explore ICE

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

Over the past 40 years, we've 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 focus on the student experience make ICE an ideal place to start a culinary, pastry or hospitality career.

ICE graduates have entered the workplace with the foundation and skills to gain experience under culinary icons as exceptional as Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Danny Meyer, Wolfgang Puck, Missy Robbins, Marcus Samuelsson, Christina Tosi and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

We also receive rave reviews from our grads: In a 2019 survey of ICE graduates, 89% of alumni indicated that they would recommend an ICE education to someone looking to launch a career in the culinary or hospitality fields, and 90% indicated that an ICE education was important in their culinary careers.

ICE is one of the few culinary institutes in America that is growing, innovating and expanding for the future. Most recently, in July 2020, ICE signed a licensing agreement with the International Culinary Center (formerly known as The French Culinary Institute). In the coming years, this will enable ICE to bring aspects of ICC's expertise, unique offerings and heritage to our campuses in New York City and Los Angeles. The agreement is the fourth major development initiative for ICE in five years.

Since 2015, ICE has opened a second campus in Los Angeles at the site of the former Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, licensed the curriculum of the former Natural Gourmet Institute and successfully launched a plant-based culinary arts program, and in New York City, built and moved to a new 74,000-square-foot home in Brookfield Place, where we're one of the largest culinary schools in America.

For externships and job placement, the ICE Career Services department prides itself on the breadth and depth of its relationships with leading restaurants, bakeries, hotels and other employers interested in hiring ICE students and graduates. In the past four years, ICE students externed at more than 350 establishments, mostly in NYC and LA. This in-the-field training consistently proves to be an exceptional opportunity for hands-on experience, networking and concrete references for job interviews. Frequently, students get job offers from their externships.

For job placement, Career Services is guiding graduates long after graduation. This includes weekly alumni emails with job openings, pop-up recruiting events, an annual alumni party and biannual career fairs. It’s an investment we believe is a crucial part of the recipe for success that you should expect from a culinary school.

In Downtown Manhattan, ICE's New York City campus opened in 2015 and was designed with community and creativity in mind. On the third floor of Brookfield Place along the Hudson River, 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.

ICE's Los Angeles campus opened in 2018 in Pasadena's historic Playhouse Village and features spacious teaching kitchens and a stimulating environment for studying, professional development and community. ICE students in both locations have access to their city’s vibrant food scene, home of many of America’s most highly regarded and trendsetting restaurants.

Did you know that most ICE diplomas can be earned in under one year? And ICE offers morning, afternoon, evening and weekend class schedules starting almost every month throughout the year. These schedules are designed to make it as easy as possible for you to fit culinary or management training into your life and accommodate families, jobs and other obligations. This flexibility also makes dual diplomas a convenient option.

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 that cater to the city’s finest restaurants — or our own Hydroponic Garden!

Cooking and baking can be creative forms of expression, and pleasing guests is gratifying. However, long-term viability depends upon a sound business plan. ICE’s Restaurant & Culinary Management program is 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 New York City as a classroom with field trips and guest lectures from a diverse set of experts.

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 (ACF) and the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

Esteemed chefs — like Michael Laiskonis, the 2007 James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Pastry Chef; Kathryn Gordon, named a Top Ten Pastry Chef in America by Dessert Professional magazine; Barry Tonkinson, who trained in Michelin-starred restaurants in London; and Ted Seigel, who worked with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse — are just a few of the experienced professionals teaching in ICE's kitchen classrooms. Our faculty brings a diversity of special interests, from artisan charcuterie to molecular gastronomy, with them when they work with students in our kitchens and classrooms. It isn’t easy to earn a position instructing at ICE. We set high standards for skill, knowledge, passion, and of course, a love for teaching.

ICE is an institution with a track record of adding programs. The Hospitality & Hotel Management program prepares students for diverse career paths in hotels, restaurant groups, special events, tourism and more. 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 hundreds of recreational cooking, baking, business management, wine and mixology classes each season, in addition to continuing education for industry professionals. Classes have included Essentials of Moroccan Cooking, Gluten-Free Bread, How to Write a Recipe, Cuban Surf & Turf, and Molecular Mixology. We regularly host demos and guest lectures, and there are ongoing opportunities to volunteer with chefs and restaurateurs at external events or venues like the James Beard House.