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.

ICE graduates have entered the workplace with the foundation and skills to gain experience under culinary leaders as exceptional as Michael Anthony, Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Danny Meyer, Missy Robbins, Marcus Samuelsson, Ivy Stark and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

In Downtown Manhattan, ICE’s New York City location was 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. New York City is the home of acclaimed international restaurants, gourmet markets and leading food media outlets.

An ICE education includes a real-world externship. In the past four years, 1,500 students externed at more than 300 establishments. 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 guiding graduates who want a job in the field to 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, regular pop-up recruiting events on campus and an annual alumni party. Career Services hosts two career fairs a year 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. Their 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 — or their own Hydroponic Garden!

Cooking and baking can be creative forms of expression and pleasing guests can be gratifying for those in the hospitality sector. 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 New York City as a classroom with guest lectures from industry leaders and field trips.

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).

Esteemed chefs — like Michael Laiskonis, former executive pastry chef at the acclaimed Le Bernardin; Kathryn Gordon, named a Top Ten Pastry Chef in America by Dessert Professional; 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. It isn’t easy to earn a position instructing at ICE. They set high standards for skill, knowledge, expertise, passion, and of course, a love for teaching. In their management programs, many of the instructors are active consultants and have held management positions in the field.

ICE is grounded in culinary and pastry career training, but over the years, the school has added specialized diploma programs in management and hospitality. The Hospitality & Hotel Management program prepares students for diverse career paths in hotels, restaurant groups, special events, tourism and more. In 2019, ICE introduced Health-Supportive 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. They regularly host demos, guest lectures and greenmarket tours, and there are regular opportunities to volunteer with chefs at external events or venues like the James Beard House, where guest chefs from around America are invited to cook.

ICE offers morning, afternoon, evening and weekend class schedules starting every month throughout the year. These unique schedules 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.