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Magazine
Nuances of an intricate art
VIJAYA BALASUBRAMANIAM
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The Culinary Institute of America is the premiere institute of chef certification in the United States.
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FLAVOURS OF THE WORLD: THE CIA CAMPUS.
Flavours of the world: The CIA Campus.
Cooking is an art, but you eat it too,” says Marcella Hazan, the well known Italian cookery writer, a quote which could not ring truer during our visit to the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (with the somewhat cryptic acronym, CIA). It all started with an invitation from our friend Vijay Kumar, who had reserved a table for us to lunch at one of the Institute’s restaurants, St. Andrew’s Cafe. The Institute’s idyllic, sprawling Hyde Park campus lies nestled by the bank of Hudson River, about two hours north of New York City. As we drove up the sweeping driveway of Roth Hall, the main campus building, I was struck by the majesty of the brick facade that seemed to hold within its 41 teaching kitchens and bakeshops all the secrets of culinary success.
At the restaurant, we were introduced to the resident chefs who took us on a brief tour of the Institute’s sparkling facilities. Gigantic kitchens superbly designed to accommodate every imaginable culinary gadget, gleaming pots, ladles and refrigerators that were rooms in themselves. Vast stock rooms held every kind of gourmet produce sourced from all over the world and finally, dedicated facilities known as bakeshops housed pastry chefs who teach baking and pastry arts to students. From making perfectly flaked pastry to creating the most delicately textured torte, it is all taught here.
The Culinary Institute of America has one of the largest faculty of teaching chefs and certified hospitality educators on one campus, with 125 chefs and instructors from 16 countries. For all its growth today, the Institute sprang from humble beginnings in 1946 as the New Haven Restaurant Institute, a small cooking school in downtown New Haven, CT, with an enrolment of 50 students and a faculty consisting of a chef, a baker and a dietician. The Institute, at that time a vocational training school for World War II veterans, offered a 16-week programme featuring instruction in 78 popular menus of the day.
Members of the New Haven Restaurant Association sponsored the original school, whose founders, Frances Roth and Katharine Angell, served as its first director and chair of the board, respectively. As the foodservice industry grew, so did enrolment, necessitating a move in 1947 to larger quarters: a 40-room mansion adjacent to Yale University and in 1951 it became known as The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), reflecting the diversity of the student population. In 1981, the CIA became the only school authorised to administer the American Culinary Federation’s (ACF) master chef certification exam. The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone (a branch campus located inCalifornia’s Napa Valley) opened its doors to food and wine professionals in 1995.
A range of courses
The Institute offers two degree options: a four-year bachelor’s degree and a two-year associate degree. A student at the CIA has a diverse curriculum with courses ranging from Mathematics, Nutrition, Organisational Psychology, Principles of Design, History and Cultures of the World, and even a course on Professional Food Writing to name a few. In addition students receive more than 1,300 hours of hands-on kitchen training in every aspect of food preparation and management, from perfectly dicing vegetables to developing their aesthetic sensibility in presenting and plating dishes.
One’s sense of smell, taste, eye for detail and ability to multitask are all honed and challenged here and the students’ proficiency and diversity are showcased in the Institute’s six Student staffed public restaurants.
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