More than a cooking school - CIA Sizzle

CIA Restaurant Receives Prestigious Ivy Award

Apple Pie Bakery Café is the College's Record Fifth Ivy Winner

The Apple Pie Bakery Café at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a recipient of the prestigious Ivy Award for 2009. The Apple Pie Bakery Café becomes the fifth CIA restaurant to receive an Ivy. The 2009 award will be presented to the CIA in Chicago on May 17, in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Hotel-Motel Show.

The Ivy Awards are presented annually by Restaurants & Institutions magazine to honor operations that foodservice professionals believe embody the highest standards in food, hospitality, and service. Since 1971, about 300 operations have earned Ivy Awards.

The CIA is the only organization to earn five Ivy Awards. Previous Ivy-winning CIA restaurants are: Escoffier Restaurant (1981), American Bounty Restaurant (1987), Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant (1999), and Ristorante Caterina de' Medici (2004). The Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant is on the college's Greystone campus in St. Helena, CA, and the other restaurants are at the CIA's main campus in Hyde Park, NY.

"This important recognition from fellow foodservice leaders is testament once again to the CIA's outstanding faculty and curriculum," said college President Dr. Tim Ryan. "We serve 1,200 people daily in the Apple Pie Bakery Café, and we have been proud of its level of excellence since opening in 2000. It's gratifying to have the industry recognize the Café's superb food and hospitality, especially since both the bakeshop and dining room are classrooms for our students."

Students train in the restaurants on the Hyde Park and Greystone campuses at the end of their sophomore year. At the Apple Pie Bakery Café, students majoring in baking and pastry arts put their first two years of CIA study to practical use. Other CIA restaurants are staffed by culinary arts majors. Students hone their skills in the back- and front-of-the house for three weeks each before earning their associate degrees. The quality and consistency of the food and service in CIA restaurants is even more impressive given this constant staff "turnover."

New Study Finds Dollar Signs Reduce Sales

CIA and Cornell Faculty Research Effects of Price Presentation on Menus

An academic study by faculty members at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration has found that restaurant customers spend more money when no dollar sign precedes prices on a menu.

Sybil Yang, a former CIA instructor and Ph.D. candidate at Cornell; Sheryl Kimes of Cornell; and CIA Associate Professor Mauro Sessarego conducted the research in 2007 at the CIA's St. Andrew's Café in Hyde Park, NY. Lunch guests at the on-campus restaurant were randomly given one of three menus: prices in a $xx.xx format, prices with just the number and no dollar sign, and prices spelled out (e.g., "twenty dollars").

Using a statistically significant sample of 201 dining parties of various sizes and demographics, the researchers found that menus "without an overt reference to money" resulted in an 8.15% increase in average spending per person. Their second finding was that there was no real difference in spending between the menus that used the word "dollars" or the "$" symbol.

The study's authors concluded that seeing repeated references to dollars may have "acted as an unintentional prime and activated concepts of cost or price, initiated a pain of paying, and subsequently caused guests to spend less." While the authors acknowledge there are other ways for restaurateurs to increase sales, dropping the dollar sign "is easy to do, and there is very little downside to form a typographical strategy for the menu."

Support for the project came from the CIA's Menu Research and Flavor Discovery Initiative (http://menuscience.ciachef.edu/research/mrfdi). The research paper will appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Hospitality Management.

CIA's 2008 Dining series is the perfect antidote to winter

A winter festival of themed lunch and dinner events at The Culinary Institute of America.

Come in from the cold and warm your spirits with The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) 2008 Dining Series. The world's premier culinary college is now taking reservations for its 18th annual festival, which features 60 dining and learning events that take place January through March at its Hyde Park, NY campus.

Cuisines from around the world are the focus of many of the series' lunches and dinners, including specialties from Italy, France, and Southeast Asia. Also on the menu this season are tapas from Spain and dishes from Argentina and Columbia. Closer to home, the series includes favorite American regional menus from the Southwest, New England, and New Orleans, as well as those prepared with local ingredients from New York State.

The 2008 CIA Dining Series hosts special events that feature the vintages of famed international and American winemakers, such as California's Iron Horse Vineyard. Great brews are celebrated at both the wildly popular Festival of Beers and the special Oktoberfest - in March.

New 2008 offerings like Hudson Valley Cheeses, The Best BBQ, Whiskey for Winter, Food of Our Mothers, and Chocolate Lover's Lunch, join such classic favorites as Someone's in the Kitchen With... and Two-for-Tuesday Lunch. Because the dining rooms and kitchens of all campus restaurants are also classrooms, Dining Series meals are prepared and served by CIA students under the leadership of our chef-instructors.

For a complete 2008 CIA Dining Series schedule, visit www.ciachef.edu/restaurants/events. For reservations, call 845-471-6608, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

CIA gift certificates are available in any dollar amount. To purchase a gift certificate, call 845-451-1588 or visit the CIA's Hospitality Office in Roth Hall, Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CIA gift certificates may be used for Dining Series events and for lunch and dinner at all on-campus restaurants. To make a reservation or purchase a gift certificate online, visit www.ciachef.edu/restaurants.

The Culinary Institute of America announces 2008 Winter Prix Fixe menus

Back by popular demand: world-class cuisine at great prices.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) has announced the return of its annual fixed price or "prix fixe" menus for lunch and dinner at the college's award-winning, student-staffed restaurants.

With a three-course lunch for $22 and a three-course dinner for $32, this special promotion offers Hudson Valley residents and visitors an extraordinary value. Offered in all four of the college's fine-dining restaurants; The American Bounty, Ristorante Caterina de' Medici, Escoffier Restaurant, and St. Andrew's Cafe, prix fixe menus at the CIA give diners the opportunity to taste the cuisine of tomorrow's great chefs, today.

Available from January 4th until April 30th, Monday through Thursday, guests can enjoy a three-course lunch for $22 or a three-course dinner for $32. Both include coffee or tea. Selected dishes from each restaurant's menu are included in the prix fixe offerings. Prices do not include tax or service and cannot be combined with other offers or discounts.

Dinner at the CIA's restaurants begins at 6 p.m., and lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tables are available, although reservations are suggested. To make your reservation today, call 845-471-6608, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., or visit www.ciachef.edu/restaurants.

The Culinary Institute of America celebrates twenty-five "bountiful" years

The college's American Bounty Restaurant celebrates 25th anniversary with special fixed price menus.

To celebrate The Culinary Institute of America's (CIA) American Bounty Restaurant 25th Anniversary, this famous restaurant on the Hyde Park campus is offering special fixed-price lunch and dinner menus for a limited time only.

The CIA's current President, Dr. Tim Ryan, was the creator of the American Bounty and served as its Executive Chef when the restaurant opened in 1982. Ever since, the restaurant has garnered numerous awards and honors, including an Ivy Award from Restaurants & Institutions magazine, Three Stars from Mobil Travel Guide, and a Top of the Table Award from Restaurant Hospitality.

The special anniversary menus were developed by current chef-instructors, Chef Bill Phillips and Chef Anita Eisenhauer, and feature a variety of favorite dishes from the original menu. At opening, the American Bounty menu spanned the United States, and included items like the New England Shore Dinner, New Orleans-style Gumbo, and Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Soup. Many of these American regional classics then inspired CIA chefs to create modern variations of these specialties for local residents and college visitors to enjoy.

Start your anniversary lunch with Gumbo z'herbs, a gumbo that is made with bell peppers, Tuscan kale, Swiss chard, mustard greens, spinach, and red kidney beans. This gumbo is unique because of its vegetarian ingredients, and it is rarely enjoyed outside of New Orleans. Next, savor a traditional New England Fisherman's Dinner, an adaptation of the classic fried fish platter that includes favorites like scallops, shrimp, clams, and oysters, as well as lobster bisque. For dessert, delight your palate with a cobbler made with local apples and topped with fresh-made vanilla ice cream.

The anniversary dinner begins with an autumn squash soup with maple yogurt garnish, followed by beef braised in Yuengling black and tan beer from Pennsylvania, accompanied by smoked local fingerling potatoes and braised red cabbage. A warm pear and fig cobbler, baked daily in the pastry shop of the American Bounty restaurant and served with cinnamon ice cream, is the perfect finish to your meal.

As part of the celebration, all guests enjoying the special anniversary price fixed lunch or dinner in the American Bounty will receive a parting gift of chocolate truffles, prepared by students in the CIA's Baking and Pastry Associate Degree program. Also included is a choice of a Sparkler, coffee, tea or iced tea with your meal.

Fixed prices are $30 for the three-course lunch and $40 for the three-course dinner. Perfect for fall dining, these special menus are available Tuesday through Saturday from November 1 through December 20, 2007. Prices do not include tax or service.

Three-course Nuevo Latino lunch at The Culinary Institute of America

As interest in Latin culture continues to grow in the United States, the American Bounty Restaurant at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is now offering a special three-course Nuevo Latino lunch menu that will be available for a limited time only. Blending new world ingredients with innovative techniques, the menu includes a choice of starter, main course, and dessert for $30, not including tax and service.

This special menu was developed by recent CIA graduate Eduardo Morali, a native of Mexico, who is continuing his education at the college while serving as a teaching assistant in the American Bounty Restaurant. The American Bounty showcases the wealth and diversity of the cuisines of all the regions in the Americas, including Nuevo Latino, which is quickly gaining popularity.

Menu selections include a pan seared sea scallop with tamarind-piloncillo glaze, watermelon two ways, and coconut "bubbles" as a first course, as well as a cocoa nib crusted flat iron steak, accompanied by yucca stuffed tempura squash blossoms, and served with a cabernet-black currant sauce as an entrée. Desserts include traditional churros dusted with cinnamon and vanilla sugars and served with goats milk caramel ice cream and mexican chocolate fondue, or a sweet corn trio that features a sweet corn biscuit, purple corn sorbet, and caramel heirloom popcorn.

The prix fixe special is available for lunch Tuesday through Friday until July 5, 2007, after which the college closes for summer break. The CIA's restaurants will reopen on August 1.

Lunch is served at all four of the CIA's student-staffed fine-dining restaurants from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Reservations are suggested, and can be made by calling 845-471-6608, Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. or visiting http://www.ciachef.edu/restaurants/.

Cooking School Serves Up a New Breakfast Menu

Morning commuters in the Hudson Valley can now stop in to The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park for a hot breakfast. The college's Apple Pie Bakery Café has launched a new breakfast menu featuring Brioche French Toast with or without Bacon and a Grilled Breakfast Burrito, with new items being added in the coming weeks. This is a first for the famed cooking school.

These new offerings are in addition to the cooking school's traditional morning fare at the bakery café, such as muffins, scones, pastries, yogurt parfaits, and breads accompanied by specialty coffees, teas, and juices. Both the hot and cold breakfast items at the Apple Pie Bakery Café can be enjoyed in the dining room or taken "to-go," for those who don't have time to linger over a morning meal.

If you're in the Hyde Park, NY area, stop in and see what our students are cooking up.