A history of The Culinary Institute of America: 2001-11

During a decade that witnessed constant and outlandishly varied change in the culinary realm – this was the time of both the bistro-pub and modernist cuisine … and everything in between – The Culinary Institute of America continued to develop along the same track as traditional academic colleges and universities, while also absorbing and addressing the myriad influences of the modern restaurant and food realms.

In 2006, building on a partnership initially forged three years earlier, The Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and the CIA introduced a collaborative degree program in hospitality management and the culinary arts.

That same year, the pilot program for the Center for Foods of the Americas kicked off in San Antonio's historic Pearl Brewery, paving the way for the CIA’s Texas campus. Launched in earnest in 2008, The Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio today offers courses in Latin American cuisines and serves Latino foodservice professionals, including a certificate program in culinary arts and cuisine programs for foodservice industry professionals and enthusiasts.

Meantime, the school’s physical facilities and available extracurricular diversions continued to expand: A renovation to Farquharson Hall in Roth Hall at the Hyde Park campus created a venue for graduations, student dining, banquets, and other special events. The school also launched an intercollegiate athletic program and incorporated additional, Adirondack-style housing. At Greystone, the Ventura Center for Menu Research and Development opened to advance menu-development research and education for the foodservice industry.

During this time, furthering the CIA’s place as not just a learning institution, but an influential force in its own right, the school also launched the Industry Solutions Group, which in time became CIA Consulting. This division guides leading foodservice companies, manufacturers, and restaurateurs with product development and menu enhancement.

These years also witnessed even greater symbiosis between the Hyde Park and Greystone campuses: In fall 2006, the college began offering a proven associate degree program in culinary arts at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, enabling students to earn this degree on either coast. And in 2009, the CIA established an AOS degree program in baking and pastry arts at the CIA at Greystone based on the one taught at Hyde Park. The school also ushered in a new chapter in its global presence, with the launch of the first international campus at The Culinary Institute of America, Singapore in 2010. (Today, via the CIA’s partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology, students at the Singapore campus can earn a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree in culinary arts management in the college’s 30,000-square-foot facility on the campus of Temasek Polytechnic.)

The evolution of the CIA in this period not only transcended the bounds of what might have been imaginable at the time of the school’s founding; it also blew past the implied limitations of the Institute’s very name with facilities and partnerships not just in multiple locations across the US, but around the globe. As technology and increased ease and affordability of travel made our world – and with it the food community – more interconnected, the CIA was poised to extend its mission and influence, uniting people of disparate backgrounds in the common goal of advancing culinary knowledge and ability.