Meet the Founder
Dorothy Cann Hamilton, Founder and CEO, The International Culinary Center

A passionate entrepreneur, award-winning educator, and gastronomic visionary, Dorothy Cann Hamilton is one of the most influential forces shaping the American culinary landscape today. Her lifelong passion and relentless pursuit of culinary excellence across the globe inspired the creation of The International Culinary Center, launching over 15,000 careers, including many of America’s most prominent chefs.

Inspired by the premier vocational schools in Europe she visited in the early 1980s, Dorothy Cann Hamilton founded The French Culinary Institute in 1984. Since then, the school has evolved from a small, well-respected French cooking school to The International Culinary Center—a world-class educational facility where Chef-Instructors impart their craft to the next generation of elite chefs, food professionals, and cooking enthusiasts.

With locations in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Parma, Italy, the culinary elite gravitate to The ICC because of its 27-year commitment to world-class culinary thought leadership.  With education in a variety of International cuisines—including French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and American—and intensive, Total Immersion^SM  training  developed in conjunction with the world’s leading culinary experts, the school has become known world-wide as the destination where successful chefs and other culinary experts get their start.  Programs offered at The International Culinary Center embrace both classic culinary technique and the culinary zeitgeist with specialty topics including culinary technology, farm-to-table cooking, cake technique and design, charcuterie, food journalism and blogging, food styling, school meal planning, as well as offering Intensive Sommelier Training—the first wine program in the world to be approved by the Court of Master Sommeliers®. The Center has also gained a reputation as being the go-to host for a number of International symposia including the Word Wine Summit, the International Day of Italian Cuisine, Spain’s 10: Cocina de Vanguardia, and the Japanese Summit, among other culinary events, book launches, and conferences.

Hamilton’s distinguished career in vocational education and her outstanding reputation for creating innovative programs in gastronomy has earned her numerous awards including a Silver Spoon award from Food Arts magazine; the 2006 and 2010 IACP Award of Excellence for Vocational Cooking School; Chevalier du Mérite Agricole (Agricultural Merit Knighthood) from the French government; a knighting by the Association Internationale de Maîtres Conseil dans la Gastronomie Française; the Outstanding American Educator award from Madrid Fusion, the Diplôme d’Honneur of the Vatel Club des Etats-Unis, and Dame de l’Anée of the Académie Culinaire de France in 2006.

In 2001, Hamilton received the prestigious Ordre National du Mérite (National Order of Merit Award) from the French government, a designation second only to the legendary Legion of Honor. A past Chair of the board of the James Beard Foundation, and Chair Emeritus of the American Institute of Food and Wine, she was most recently inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America by the James Beard Foundation and was nominated for the Entrepreneur Award of Excellence by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Hamilton was also the creator and host of Chef’s Story, a 26-part television series, which debuted on PBS in April 2007, and the author of the companion book, Chef’s Story. The textbooks she conceived for the school—The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine and The Fundamental Techniques of Pastry Arts—both received James Beard Foundation Awards for best professional cookbook. Her book on culinary careers, Love What You Do: Building a Career in the Culinary Industry was published in the fall of 2009. In 2011, sensing a void in the United States in the field of contemporary private service, Hamilton launched Bespoke, compromised of Bespoke Institute, a school providing the tools, techniques, and organizational skills to manage the estates, homes and needs of today’s successful modern families; Bespoke Consulting, a division offering customized expertise onsite at a client's residence or estate; and Bespoke Placement, which will match those possessing elite training and experience with suitable clients.

After graduating with a B.A. honors degree from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, Hamilton spent three years in the Peace Corps in Thailand where she was first introduced to Asian cuisine and fine French dining. She earned an M.B.A. from New York University. Currently, Hamilton is on the board of Abraham House, a renowned incarceration alternative program and is a Trustee of the Pomfret School in Connecticut.