When The Institute of Culinary Education was originally founded in 1975, it consisted of a single cooking class held in Peter Kump’s tiny uptown apartment and was aptly named Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School. His core belief was that students should learn the key aspects of taste and how to improvise the components of a dish without the assistance of a formal recipe. Rather than ask students to learn recipes by rote, Kump taught the skills necessary to create a dish with available ingredients. Kump’s vision inspired so many students that in just a few years he expanded from one class to a full school. In 1983, the professional school was created for aspiring chefs and shortly thereafter, in 1985, Peter Kump went on to co-found the James Beard Foundation with Julia Child.

The New York Cooking School continued to expand with the addition of the pastry program in 1986. In 1995, Elm View Culinary Enterprises acquired the school and renamed it The Institute of Culinary Education, often referred to by its cool acronym, ICE. Tremendous growth soon followed, with the opening of a second location in the Flatiron district in Manhattan.

Located in the heart of New York City, ICE offers a dynamic culinary education based on student’s individual needs. Several programs are offered, from Culinary Arts to Management to the new Center for Food Media, where they can choose classes to create a custom curriculum.  Even better, with over 42,000 square feet and twelve teaching kitchens, ICE is one of the country’s largest and most respected culinary schools. ICE offers six- to eleven-month diploma programs in three areas: Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, and Culinary Management. Classes at ICE are designed to be intimate, with an average of 12 to 16 students per class, and are taught by chef instructors hailing from all corners of the culinary arena. Chef instructors have years of experience at top restaurants, apply the latest culinary techniques in their classes - from sous-vide to foam - and participate in top industry competitions across the globe.

Not to mention, in 2006 ICE was honored as one of the three finalists in the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Culinary School of the Year award. And in 2008, ICE was awarded the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ (IACP) Award of Excellence in the Vocational Cooking School category.