My Day at the Culinary Institute of America
When people talk about learning to cook –seriously learning to cook– one of the first places that comes to mind is the Culinary Institute of America. With three locations, it covers most of the United States — Hyde Park in New York, on the East Coast, San Antonio, Texas, in the South, and finally Napa in Northern California’s Wine Country, in 2016. And with dozens of instructors, it covers virtually every cuisine.
My introduction to the CIA was on a crisp December day at the Copia campus in Napa. The Copia campus is large and modern and a major destination for food and wine enthusiasts. A second campus, the CIA at Greystone is housed in the historic tk monastery and where aspiring chefs tie their apron for a perhaps lifetime of cooking.
CIA at Copia is where food enthusiasts come to level up their skills. Besides one-day classes there are three-to-five-day boot camps, offering intensive training in one cuisine.
Step One: Introduction
The Copia campus is located in a large modern building with a spacious lobby opening to a curving staircase to the second floor. One wall pays tribute to winemakers who helped make Wine Country famous, while upstairs a museum is dedicated to Chuck Williams, founder of Williams Sonoma, world-class collection of cookware. My destination the commercial kitchen with its wall of windows showcasing the culinary transformations taking place within.
Eleven students take seats on stools surrounding a wooden island. The chef of the day introduces herself, and we each share why we are here. The theme of the class is holiday entertaining, but it isn’t until we get the handout with our assignments that we know what we will be preparing.
Our own version of Top Chef.
The immaculate kitchen with its commercial Wolfe stoves holds little clue that the CIA came from humble beginnings. It was founded in 1946 as a vocational training institute for returning World War II veterans. Originally called the New Haven Restaurant Institute, it had a faculty of three: a chef, a baker, and a dietitian. And 50 students, and funding from Yale University.
In 1951 it became CIA, and by 1969, the school had grown to 1,000 students. A year later the CIA moved to Hyde Park, New York. and in 2008, opened a second campus in San Antonio. The CIA at Copia followed several years later.
Step Two: Fire up the Burners
We are divided into four groups, with three or four recipes assigned per group. The goal is to juggle multiple dishes at one time, as you might in a professional kitchen: grill meat, puree vegetables, grate cheese, knead dough.Our recipes are grilled lamb chops, palmiers with Parmesan and prosciutto, tk and tk.
In front of me are six beautiful grass-fed masterpieces begging to be browned. I fire up two burners on the massive gas stove and pour oil into large frying pans, then wait for the oil to heat. When the stoves are cranked up, they produce massive heat and the oil is hot quickly. It is important to keep a pan of hot oil filled with meats or vegetables to reduce the chance of flames, since oil exposed to air at high heat could ignite.
The chops are beautifully browned, and I flip to the next recipe: palmiers. These dainty savories call for puff pastry dough, rolled out to a rectangle, then spread with tomato paste, sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, layered with prosciutto slices, and rolled inward to form a log. If the dough softens, we pop it back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Remove and slice the filled dough into spirals and bake on lined cookie sheets. My cooking mates make palmiers in lieu of pizza on casual Friday nights.
Step Three: Organized Chaos
The clock is ticking. We get the 10-minute warning. Our own Top Chef. Everyone scrambles to finish up, then plate their dish. No formal lessons on presentation, it’s somewhat instinctual. A little green for color, a little yellow for contrast. Soon, every platter is lined up on a long table and students grab plates to sample these goodies.
Seating is around the island, and we enjoy a glass of carefully curated local wine. The food is amazingly good. There are toasts. We aspiring chefs have prepared our banquet. The world may never enjoy our talent There eal talent in this kitchen — talent that might never be discovered beyond the lucky family and friends who would enjoy the results at home. Of course, a few dishes missed the mark, but there were more than enough successes to compensate.
Step Four: The Birth of a Chef
By the end of the meal, we were full, happy, and ready to leave. The classes are intense and nonstop. You work alongside a team of strangers, all trying to create the best dishes and each student with their own way of doing things. When I finally stepped outside the building, I was grateful for the fresh air and beautiful surroundings. I carry a large doggie bag of leftovers to share with my patient and hungry husband, who had spent the day exploring Napa on his own but would now enjoy the fruits of my labor.