Classic Culinary Arts with French Intensive

Now stop imagining: Our Classic Culinary Arts with French Intensive program means we teach you the fundamentals of cooking—knife skills, stocks, sauces—in New York, but then send you on a seven-day trip to Lyon, France to bring your education alive.

Rhone wine region: You’ll tour an organic wine farm and learn about the method behind organic viticulture. And of course, you’ll have an introduction to wine tasting and taste the famous Vin de Paille dessert wine. Then, you’ll travel across several quaint medieval towns studded with majestic castles and you’ll be stunned by the panoramic views of rolling hills dotted with vineyards.

A cheese tour in Rhone Alps: You’ll taste cheese that is famous to the region such as Ferme des Jawlines, Le Bleu du Vercors, and Le Saint Marcellin. You’ll continue to the little town of Saint Marcellin, where you’ll visit another local cheese farm and taste the famous Saint Marcellin. You’ll finish your cheese tour in Pelussin, home to the cheese, “Rigotte de Condrieu.”

A trip to the famed market, Les Halles: Established in 1859, Les Halles is one of the most famous food markets in the world. You’ll roam through the 56 vendors and be able to feed your gastronomic curiosity.

Valrhona Chocolate tastings: Learn how the high-grade luxury chocolate manufacturer makes their delicate chocolates and taste the difference between handmade chocolate and the stuff you buy in the grocery store.

Visit a poultry farm: Travel to nearby Bresse, home of the famous poultry with the red crown, white feathers, and blue feet—the only poultry in the world to have an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée. While here you will visit a local farm and learn the history and special breeding methods for “Volaile de Bresse,” prized the world over for its depth of flavor and moist, tender flesh.

Tour local markets: Visit markets that house the local products from the Rhone Alps and other French regions. You’ll find local chefs shopping for their restaurants and vendors pushing the day’s freshest products whether it’s fish, produce, or meat. You’ll also have some time to visit Lyon’s historical center and see its Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

And what better way to end your trip, than with a farewell dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant in Lyon?

What You'll Cover in Classic Culinary Arts with French Intensive

You’ll walk out of The International Culinary Center with the skills you need to walk into a successful culinary career anywhere in the world. You begin with knife skills and you end with cooking in a real-life restaurant. In between, you’ll learn everything there is to know about stocks and sauces, vegetables, grains, butchery, technology, poultry and game birds, fish and shellfish, meat and eggs, pastry and desserts, plating, wine, and menu design. You’ll be schooled in the intangibles that come with being a world-class chef. Equally importantly, you’ll also gain the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe® Food Protection Manager Certification.

Small Classes, Great Passions

When you study here, your work is under a microscope. Our chef-instructors are passionate people with world-class standards. That’s why our attention on you has to be personal. Every time a student leaves The International Culinary Center, it is our standards that are put to the test, as well as our students'.

Our chef-instructors are all trained in a program developed by Columbia Teacher’s College. This ensures that they are great teachers, as well as great chefs.

We make sure that classes are of a small size. You’ll get used to the eyes of wise and experienced chef-instructors. They’re on you all the time. That’s what happens in great kitchens. Because passion is the main reason you come here and the same reason that they teach here, you’ll find that knowledge is imparted and absorbed far more quickly and with far more intensity.

A Preparation for Every Western Cuisine

Talk to any great Western chef and they’ll tell you that all the great cuisines of Europe utilize classic French principles. The French took techniques and codified them. Ferran Adrià might have driven the Western world into wild avant-garde directions, but his heroes were the great French chefs who paved his way. Our method of teaching—we call it Total Immersion^SM—ensures that you will not only grasp the very first knife in the right way, but then follow and replicate the greats in the way they treat sauces and stocks or meat and eggs. There isn’t a world-class kitchen anywhere that wouldn’t expect you to have this preparation.

Learn from the Greats

Jacques Pépin, Alain Sailhac, André Soltner, David Kinch. It is their culinary expertise that is at the core of our program. Our deans have an unparalleled reputation for both talent and standards. These are the people who design our curriculums so you can be assured that when you come to The International Culinary Center, you will emerge with the same rigorous principles that were their guiding light.

How We Keep the Classics Contemporary

So many of our alumni have begun with us teaching them these principles and then flown to heights no one could have ever imagined. Wyle Dufresne, Bobby Flay, David Chang, Josh Skenes, Dan Barber, they have shown how you can understand the heart of Western cuisine and then improvise from it. We are lucky that we can gather constant feedback from some of the world’s most famous chefs who make up our Program Advisory Committee. Their input always makes sure we can introduce new elements that are impacting today’s cuisine. No world-class curriculum can possibly stand still. So ours is constantly modified, on the basis of the latest input and the latest culinary developments.

How We Teach

At the beginning of every class, there is a short lesson from the chef-instructor, in which you’ll become familiar not merely with terminology, but with the important reasons why things are done in a certain way. You’ll see dishes being created before being asked to create them yourself. You’ll also see our chef-instructors watching your every move. That might sound daunting, but it’s actually vital. Our commitment lies in ensuring that you grasp these essentials until they are second nature. How better to do this than by ensuring you understand them and that you don’t take on habits that, in a world-class kitchen, will cause the chef de cuisine to raise an eyebrow.

Prove Yourself in Our Michelin®-Rated Restaurant, L'Ecole

One of the joys of studying at our New York campus is that during the last two months of your training, you will cook lunch or dinner in L’Ecole, our restaurant that has received many accolades from organizations such as Michelin and Zagat. The customers are real, hungry, and picky New Yorkers. They come expecting the very best and they might even tell you when they don’t get it. This is a real-life, real-world challenge that no one else can offer.

Make it to Carnegie Hall

This year, our graduation ceremony takes place at a New York iconic landmark, Carnegie Hall. There, you’ll be able to look around, see your peers, as well as outstanding alumni.

You’ll be part of a tradition and a group of people whose main goal is to move world cuisine to untapped levels of excellence.