The Institute of Culinary Education

Beware! I registered for a Thai Cooking Class through Vimbly. When we got there they told us to write our names on index cards. However, a few minutes later they informed us that the class was canceled. We were never informed that the class was cancelled! After telling them that we were never informed they said that they knew nothing about Vimbly and could not refund us our $ 240 dollars! Very unprofessional! I will never consider this school or register for another class at this school again!

State of the art cooking facility in the heart of FiDi. They even have their own hydroponic garden and chocolate lab! I am here almost every month to take recreational cooking classes. ICE is my happy place. If you are looking to learn cooking techniques and aren’t afraid to roll up your sleeves, this is the place to do it. The chefs are extremely knowledgeable and are happy to teach to any level of student. I have been a loyal student of ICE, both in the amateur and professional sense. After taking rec classes for about 4 years I decided to attend their Culinary Arts program in ’14-’15; it was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. I learned from leaders in the industry and made impactful and lasting connections. I have recommended their recreational classes to dozens of people and they continue to come back because they love it as much as I do. Some of my favorite instructors include Chef Dan Stone, Chef Melanie Underwood and Chef Renee Marton! Take a class, and you will thank me!

This is the only place you should be taking cooking classes if you actually want to learn and apply your new skills. I’m an amateur chef and have taken classes at various schools around the city… then I took a cake decorating class at ICE. This is what a cooking school should look like – full cooking stations, enough burners and oven space for everyone, comprehensive directions and demonstrations, and top-​notch tools and supplies. Can’t wait to take more classes here!

I graduate from the pastry baking program in 2009. I would not recommend this program to anyone who can take the same time to «intern» on their dime in various NYC restaurants. As a graduate, I was disappointed that in many places (top top places) I was surrounded by people who were learning on the job, what I paid 22K to learn!!!
I wish someone would have told me that. When the industry has such an open door policy I feel they do culinary graduates a great disservice. In one restaurant (Big time French one), the Sous chef was a bank teller before this and was trained on the job. Never attended culinary school. Why did I bother to graduate only to work along side people who last week were accountants? In all the restaurants they were welcomed and trained, however, they did not get paid for interning.
Hardly made me feel better that I earned a whooping $ 10 hr myself. As a graduate, ICE did introduce me to baking basics, something you can definitely do on your own. In fact, most of my real skills were developed at work. THIS PROGRAM IS GOOD IF:
* You can afford it. for fun
* Plan to open your own business
* Are truly aware you will be earning crappy money for a long time. (culinary bug will definitely fade fast)
* Make a real effort to separate a hobby like cooking with the reality of making a living.
*Aware that you don’t need a culinary degree to get into top restaurants. YOU DON’T.

I would not recommend a recreational cooking class at ICE for one reason. It’s not a class.
They give you a packet of recipes and all the ingredients and then tell you to go cook it. You work in teams and in my class there were 13 students and one head chef and one assistant. Definitely not enough «teachers» to help all of us.
I took «essentials in Korean» and while I was exposed to certain things that I wouldn’t have known by just reading a recipe at home, I certainly didn’t learn enough to justify the cost.
It ended up being a really expensive, really stressful late lunch. You will do just as well downloading recipes and watching YouTube tutorials– at least then someone is walking you through the steps.

We were on Spring Break 2016 visiting NYC and decided to take the Pasta 101 class with Peter Berley. We got so much more out of the class than we ever imagined. We now have confidence to make our own dough for all types of pasta and also learned the techniques to succeed! We broke up in groups of 4 and prepared full recipes that we all shared after making. It was so great to be able to walk around and also watch other groups making different pasta from our group. Peter was fully involved with all groups doing additional demonstrations and giving much needed guidance at times. Wine was served during cooking time which was nice. Wish we lived closer and could come back for more classes. We will definitely get Peters pasta/​cooking books on Amazon!

I’ve taken three different recreational cooking classes at ICE in the past few months, and I’ve got mixed feelings about the Institute overall.
Before I tackle the classes themselves, let me just say that the new facility is gorgeous. It’s not exactly easy to find within the immense complex that is Brookfield Place, but once you do, it’s clean and bright and well-​designed. I may be a food nerd, but I actually got a little excited each time I walked around inside.
I can’t speak to the actual career program here (other than it looks very professional, and people appear to be learning everywhere you look), but when it comes to the recreational classes, it seems that your experience is almost entirely dependent on what class you take, and who your instructors are.
I’ve had three instructors thus far, and I genuinely liked two of them. Those two were fun and knowledgable people, and both extremely funny (intentionally or otherwise*). The third was clearly very experienced, but (1) absolutely humorless and (2) disagreed with Jacques Pepin on certain fundamentals. I can’t really abide either of those things on someone I’m going to spend a few hours with, cooking.
Anyway, here are the classes I took, and a few thoughts on each.
1. Knife Skills 1. Quite honestly, I only took this class because they called it a recommended prerequisite for Knife Skills 2, which I was genuinely interested in. Just so you are aware (I wasn’t), this is an extremely basic course. If you’ve done any cooking at all, you won’t learn too much unless you ask a LOT of questions and piss everyone off. This will just be general practice for chopping onions, peppers, carrots and more. Definitely skills any home cook should have, but if you already know how to do this, you can skip it. If the description of the class was more detailed, I would have.
2. Knife Skills 2: Butchery. The description of the class reads in part: «You will learn to properly debone a raw chicken and fillet a flounder. You will see how to carve a roast chicken to perfection — and more.» Sounds good. A three hour course, I expected to get a lot out of this one.
Unfortunately, we neither learned how to carve a roast chicken, nor how to debone a raw chicken. We did learn how to break down a chicken, but I already knew how to break down a chicken. On the bright side, I did get a lot out of the experience of filleting a fish, and I did pick up some useful pointers, but I’m not sure what happened to the rest of the class (and the ‘more’).
Further, we spent the first two hours of the class on butchery, and the last hour «cooking» the chickens and fish we fabricated. What I signed up for was instruction on butchery; if I wanted to learn how to grill a chicken breast, I would’ve picked a different class. I can appreciate the fact that ICE may have wanted to offer more value, but send us home with the raw fish/​chicken, and teach me for the whole class please, as opposed to ²⁄₃ of it.
3. I signed my wife and I up for the Italian Cooking Party. Sometime after I paid and before the class happened, it turned into the Italian Cocktail Party. I thought it was my mistake at first, but the handouts for the class still read «Italian Cooking Party» and a couple of the other attendees told me that they were also expecting a cooking class. It seems as though we should’ve been informed of the change. Don’t get me wrong, I love cocktails, and I had fun learning about the history and technique behind a few classics (although two of the three were Prosecco based, and extremely simple). But again, I didn’t sign up to learn how to make cocktails.
Happily, I thoroughly enjoyed the food provided as well, and please believe I ate my fill.
However, I want to know how to make that beautiful porchetta. The new pizza ovens they have are amazing, and I’m glad the chefs allowed us to check it out and throw a pie in ourselves, but I would’ve much preferred to be learning how to make the dough and topping them ourselves, rather than mostly sitting around with strangers, waiting for our turn to make cocktails. It was a fun party, but with two of us, a pricey night out for something I wasn’t trying to do in the first place.
As I’m writing this out, I’m realizing that my main issues with ICE are actually administrative. The website is awful, but my real problem is that the descriptions (in each of the three classes I took) were either incorrect, imprecise, or both. The classes themselves were great for who they are geared toward… but they are not cheap, and I must say that when I drop cash and I get something different than what I paid for, there is a lot of room for disappointment.
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*At one point my Knife Skills 2 instructor was showing me something on a chicken and she said, «Peter, I have a little bone. Touch it.» This had me and a couple of my classmates giggling uncontrollably for the duration of the class because we are 12 years old, emotionally.

Simply Vegan: Suppers with Food52! It was a great 4 course cooking sesh with Gena Hamshaw — friendly, intimate and super organized. You can chhose your course. I picked the chili station. Other options were tofu scramble, cauliflower and oyster mushroom taco, tempeh snow pea cabbage salad, and mexican choco date truffles. All served over wine chatting about what we made, while tasting everything else. And an added bonus was her autograph cook book! Funnn!

We had a party at ICE. I didn’t think we would have as much fun as we did. But the welcoming staff, talented teachers and phenomenal support staff made sure we did. Each lesson was engaging (we mad a multiple course meal). The best part was eating our creations, delicious! We got the recipes to take home. Lucky, grateful and perfectly pleased.

Excellent date night as ICE. Cuban surf and turf. Red snapper, ropa vieja, tostones, flan and 4 other dishes. Delicious. I didn’t think we could do it but Chefs Loren Banco and Robert Ramsey were awesome!!!

(3.5 stars) Do you ever wonder what it’s like to work in a real restaurant? In ICE’s classes, you get a real taste of that environment. However, despite being labeled as «recreational,» be aware that you are going to work– and work hard– for several hours.
We took a Sushi & Sake class at their new downtown location, which is pristine and absolutely gorgeous. The kitchens are stocked with every piece of equipment you can imagine, most of which you won’t use (but was still cool to see). Our instructor started us with an hour of safety tips, a tour of the kitchen, and a general overview of the recipes we would be making. On for tonight: tempura vegetables, chilled soba noodles, steamed dumplings, and of course, lots of sushi.
Here’s where things started to (literally) get messy. Our class was divided into teams, each responsible for about a third of the menu. Despite having simple recipes, cooking was really rigorous. I constantly felt like I was in the weeds (like in a real restaurant!) and couldn’t pay detailed attention to what I was actually doing. The instructor/​assistant did a good job of making the rounds and helping us along, but we still ended up making a lot of mistakes when following the recipes.
After prepping everything to the final stages of cooking, we all joined together and created a sushi-​making factory, which was the best part of the night. We had a variety of simple ingredients (kani, crab, tuna, salmon, cream cheese, avocado, etc.) and created a ridiculous number of different maki rolls.
You finish the cooking class with a big family-​style dinner, complete with plenty of alcohol. The food wasn’t restaurant quality at all, but then again, none of us were restaurant chefs. It was still delicious, and there was plenty to take home afterwards. The sushi was unsurprisingly my favorite part of the whole class; I doubt I would try and cook any of the other items again.
I had a good time, but there was a lot of things I wasn’t expecting or wish I could have changed. First, I wish the menu had been smaller or a bit more focused on sushi; the class was stressful trying to get everything done in a short time period, particularly since most of us had never cooked this cuisine before. Instead of having 1 or 2 quality dishes, most of what we put together was a little sloppy because we simply didn’t have time to focus. Additionally, I wish that everyone in the class could have had a hand in making every dish. I know this wasn’t possible from the work required for each and the number of people in the class, but there were a few things I wanted to make that I didn’t touch at all.
On the plus side, I want to hold my own sushi making party at home now that I know the basics. This was a fun night and great for bonding (or a great relationship test, depending on how well you and your significant other cook together). Now that I know what to expect and the pace of the classes, I’d consider trying another down the road.

ICE new location is amazing! We took a cooking class on Tuscan cuisine. The instructor, Melanie Cecilio was great. The facilities were spectacular, and the overall experience was perfect.
I’ll definitely be back for more classes.

I took the Essentials of Tuscan Cooking course with Melanie Cecilio and it was truly fantastic. The menu was diverse and well planned. Chef Melanie walked through the menu — imparting tips, techniques and recipe medications before we manned our cooking stations. During class she was incredibly helpful and engaging, spending time with the various teams, giving advice and teaching knife skills from her wealth of culinary knowledge. We had a great time and incredible meal.
The new location at Brookfield place is fantastic. We were fortunate enough to take a quick tour of the hydroponic gardens, chocolate and pastry facilities. The new space truly promotes growth and innovation. My sister and I will be back and definitely recommend!

I went to the Croquettas & Cava class this week and had an AMAZING time! The chef, Anthony was very helpful — taught us techniques and was very patient with all the students. I learned a lot but I also had a ton of fun. It is something different to do in NYC. The new building is also AWESOME. I will absolutely be back to take another class!!!

Cannot recommend ICE enough — had an amazing time spending the evening with Chef Peter teaching our class all the tips and tricks we could ask for. We started with a group presentation on braised beef (very informative as he covered how to select, trim and prep the meat). We then split into groups to make a variety of items (two salads, two sides, one soup and two desserts). Peter was always on hand to answer questions and had many practical suggestions on improving our food preparation which I’ll definitely be using in the future at home. Lastly, he lead the class through a presentation on the teriyaki salmon dish (using an entire half a salmon) which was really a treat as we got to observe exactly how he would approach this dish. Peter was also very open to editing the recipes as we saw fit and allowing us to experience some creativity and experimentation in our cooking.
At the end of it all, the class sat down to an amazing dinner — complete with wine — and wer even able to each take home some of what we had prepared as there was a ton of food! ICE definitely did not skimp on the portions. I can’t wait to take another class!

I was a career student almost a decade ago at the old location on 23^rd and I came back for a fun weekend with 3 classes. What a stunning new space. Great kitchens, delicious recipes, fun instructors, and well worth the time and money. I love the recreational classes and will be back for more… next time I’m bringing friends too!

ICE’s new location is beautiful, with great Hudson River views in the Brookfield Place complex. Very polished and fancy. But the spirit of the school remains the same. So my daughter and had a great time taking «Essentials of Indian Cooking» with Daniel Stone. He runs a terrific class — well organized, informative, fun, delicious.
If you want to know what this class is like, check out my blog post about the experience:
Btw, ICE classes are great for bonding with someone special — significant other, bff, sibling, etc. In our class, there were a couple mother-​daughter-​or-​son pairings. Try to arrive at least a few minutes early so that you can get two seats together at the classroom tables.
If you’re planning to drive down to ICE, there’s plenty of garage parking. I’ve also found street parking for morning weekend classes and sometimes, for weekend evening classes.

Last night my husband and I, along with another couple (and a whole bunch of strangers) took the class Entertaining: Dinner Party. It was awesome! The chef Peter was so informative and helpful. We made amazing dishes: Arugula Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette and Warm Panko-​Crusted Goat Cheese (AMAZING!), Jamaican Butternut Squash Soup (Least fav but still good to learn how to cook); Deconstructed Caesar Salad (YUMMY! And awesome presentation); Carbonnade de Boeufm-​Belgian braised beef in beer (ERMAGHERD! So so great — we paired it with egg noodles); Teriyaki Roasted Salmon Fillets (Delish! We learned very cool techniques!); Garlic Mashed Potatoes (MMMMM); Roasted Root Vegetables (Add some pesto and protein and you have a meal with just this one item!); Clafouti (TO DIE!); and Bananas Foster (Have you ever gotten drunk on bananas? Let’s just say I have!)
This was my third class at ICE but first in their new location downtown which is GORGEOUS! I can’t wait to look at the catalog and pick another class to take!

I never took a cooking class before and, frankly, am not a good cook. I love Asian Food so when my wife suggested we take an Asian Cooking Class I jumped at the opportunity. The School is absolutely gorgeous, state of the art, really, really impressive. There were 6 couples in the class, including my wife and I. As a class we tackled 6 dishes:
— Chinese Pot Stickers
— Bimbimbap
— Pad Thai
— Hot & Sour Soup
— Steamed Whole Fish
— Chicken Curry
— Bulgogi
— Friend Bananas with Vanilla Ice Cream
Since I am quite useless I did most of the prep work for my team. The class was fast paced and I felt like I was working in the real kitchen. Fun and I realized that cooking is not a business for me. Never had any aspirations for it but anyway. It was a good experience, I learned that most of the Asian Dishes I love are not that difficult to make and are more prep than cooking. The Chef/​Instructor was fun to work with and her assistant was very helpful. Most of the dishes came out good and whatever was left over was there to take home. There were some downsides though.
— At times it seemed that there were not enough ingredients.
— We did not have a chance to make the Bananas. Which was fine but they did not have the Vanilla Ice Cream.
— The beer that was provided for dinner was warm.
In the end though it was a good time and I would definitely take another class there.

I did not have a good experience after attending a recreational cooking class. It should have been enjoyable, but was not at all! Instructor was rude and not helpful at all. You would have thought the instructor was volunteering to teach us. The instructor acted as if we owed them for them teaching us. I should have listened to other Unilocal reviews before booking this class. I guess that was my fault. Extremely unorganized as far as booking classes. I signed up for a class that was cancelled and had to fight to get my refund. Never again!

Disclaimer: This review is referring to a one-​night (4 hours), open level, recreational class. This was purely for a fun, new experience. No degrees, other than temperature, were involved. Also, this review will focus mostly on the class experience rather than the food (which was also great).
Quick Overview
Experience: A
(This entirely depends on the class and instructor you take. I was fortunate enough to have an awesome instructor and a class I truly enjoyed.)
Price: A
(It isn’t cheap. You would probably find cheaper deals on Groupon. But considering the prestige, location, quality of ingredients, and the amount of learning, it’s fairly priced. Not to mention, you end up with 6 – 7 dishes, wine, and more than enough food to take home.)
Food: ?
(This is entirely dependent on whether you and the rest of the class are good cooks! You eat the food your class prepares. The quality of ingredients and recipes were great!)
Even if it was just for a short 4 hours, in that moment, I caught a small glimpse of what it meant to be a chef. And by small, I mean ¹⁄₁ 000 000 (one millionth) of what it means to be a chef. I can’t speak about the courses that require multiple days, or the quality of education for those aspiring to be chefs as a career. I just took an open level, one night class. And let me tell you, it was intimidating and hectic. But, even with the mild stress and confusion, I was enjoying every minute of it. I was taken out of my comfort zone, and I think I grew because of it.
I took the «Pork Belly Secrets» class taught by Chef Renee Marton. The setup of the class could be divided into three parts:
1. Short introduction/​explanation of the recipes. Ingredients were introduced and techniques were demonstrated.
2. Cooking!
3. Feast! Enjoying what the class created. Anything not finished could be brought home.
The food we made included caramelized pork belly, pork belly buns, collard greens with bacon, Hoppin’ Johns, porchetta, chocolate covered bacon, and tortilla española.
I was mostly concerned about the skill expected to take an «open-​level class.» I wouldn’t say I’m a great cook, but I can definitely boil water, make some decent eggs, and cook my steaks to medium-​rare. I can’t chop vegetables at lightning speeds, nor do I know specific terminology. Fortunately, anything more difficult than measuring liquids and turning a knob was taught and demonstrated.
What I liked the most about the class was that I was actually doing most of the work. I prepped the ingredients and I cooked the food (along with my partner). Chef Renee would walk around from station to station to give some assistance and advice if needed, but the students did most of the work. There is a sense of pride working independently and seeing the fruits of your labor being consumed (and hopefully, enjoyed).
And what made me feel like a chef? Being able to use industrial equipment, sharp blades, and ingredients I wouldn’t normally find in my own kitchen. Even the small things, like how to properly hold a knife and using it as an extension of my arm, made me live out my day dreams as chef. I found that the most difficult thing about the experience would be multitasking. You have one pot on the stove, a roast in the oven, potatoes frying in the pan, and you still have to think of prepping for the next dish. And as stressful and intimidating as it all sounds, it was fun!
Would I come back? HECK YEAH! I’m already looking up classes, I now daydream for a top-​of-​the-​line kitchen, and I foresee myself using these recipes for big events or for when I want to treat myself.

Horribly experience.
After looking into school to attend for cake decoration. I came across Institute of culinary education for professional cake decoration course. This was suppose to fun learning experience. I was extremely happy to start class. After a month into the program the chef started showing her true colors and the class didn’t meet my expectations .Chef Toba is extremely rude, lazy, and not helpful at all. The first day of class i was told she has attitude problem but ignore it i was so excited to start class. DON’T BE FOOLED!
Tuition is $ 12,299.81
uniform 385.00
books written by toba-​95
knives 127
tool kit 585
application fee 85
tax 63.19
total– 13,640.00
the course begin on august 24^th and end on feb 9. this course guaranteed by hours however cancellation and financial aid is calculated by weeks.
Program hours 240
20 weeks
12 hours per week (Classes is cut short occasionally at 8pm) time frame (6−10pm)
3 days per week (due to holidays in September only 9 class was offered)
can only miss 6 class and will be kick out.
only receive a certificate not a diploma!
On October 24^th I had enough of Toba attitude and realize this was a waste of money. For the past 2 to 3 weeks in the class we were taught things «we will NEVER use in real world» Toba actually told us. for example: on October 20^th we started class at 6pm we made royal icing that take 20 minutes then Toba spoke to her favorite students remind you class have 6 students but 4 students receive attitude hopefully you are one of the favorites at 6;30 she spoke about pastillage we did some cut out that take 20 mins and we clean and was sent home. I came to the conclusion to drop out of the program. I spoke to financial aid Brian and told me that I have balance of $ 4,000. So the total for 2 months is $ 7,000. not half way into the program. so I paying 2 hours of class missing days out of weeks
Toba «Buttercream cake is your butter and bread in the cake industry» however you only get to practice on one really cake. every thing is done on Styrofoam cake oh you only get to work with buttercream only in September so that’s 9 class. Hope you a fast learner. The high yield cake is pretty good. But the red velvet cake is disguising taste more like chocolate cake.
Every experience is blessing and a learning experience.
Lisa, thank you for getting back to me. I don’t think neither you nor the school is sorry for the experience: due to the fact that the school is fully aware that Toba have attitude problem and still decide to let her teach a course and rob me of my money.
Hey Unilocalers, The matter was not resolved with the finance department I still had to pay the balance of 4,229.00 an email and a letter was sent to my house that I had 30 days to pay the balance or my account will be sent to credit collections. I did call Lisa regarding additional question at first I was told she was unavailable but she called back and told me she have no answers to my questions and she would have to transfer me to someone else that would be able to assist me. Which I happily declined!!! What’s the point!!! I was so clueless during the 1 minute phone conversation.
Thank you Lisa for your time.
Hope this review help someone save thousands of dollars. Happy Holidays!!!