overview

No country in the world combines its passion for food, family, friends, and daily life more than Italy. So learning to become a top Italian cook requires intense training in more than just Italian cooking techniques and traditional recipes of Northern and Southern Italy. It demands Total Immersion^SM in the Italian language and culture as well. This is the focus of The Italian Culinary Experience and provides one of the most well-rounded and authentic training programs available anywhere for the aspiring Italian cook.

As a student in The Italian Culinary Experience, you'll find yourself totally immersed in Italian culture, learning to speak and comprehend the language as you also become adept at preparing classic Italian cuisine. You'll learn up close and hands-on from top Chef-Instructors in an environment that's fast paced and inspiring. You'll master fresh and filled pastas, from ravioli to agnolotti to tortellini. Create a variety of fillings and sauces. Prepare risotto and polenta. Pizza and flatbreads. Antipasti and cheeses. Fish and shellfish. And of course, meat, poultry, and game, including recipes from chicken, duck, turkey, and pigeon to quail, lamb, and rabbit. You'll even become highly skilled in the universe of classic Italian dessert and pastry.

Learn Italian cuisine, culture, history, and language in New York City and in Italy

Our unique Italian cooking school curriculum divides your course time between our campus in New York City and Parma, Italy to bring you the most exciting and well-rounded training ever created for the aspiring Italian cook. The curriculum was designed by our Dean of Italian Studies, the renowned Chef Cesare Casella of Salumeria Rosi, formerly of Maremma and Beppe in Manhattan.

Your intensive training will begin with 10 weeks in New York City, learning Italian cuisine, culture, cooking terms, techniques, and language. Then, you're off to cooking classes in Parma, Italy where your tuition includes housing and nine exhilarating weeks of additional training at ALMA, The International School of Italian Cuisine led by Gualtiero Marchesi. Chef Marchesi is the leading representative of Italian cuisine in the world and first Italian to receive three Michelin stars. At ALMA your Total Immersion^SM training takes on an added dimension as you spend your time cooking course side by side with expert Italian chefs in fully equipped, cutting edge teaching and cooking facilities in the splendid Palazzo Ducale in Colorno.

To sharpen your skills even further, you'll spend an additional nine weeks in Italy working in the kitchen of a noted Italian restaurant. Training will be intense, exhilarating, and life changing. Inspired by your depth of understanding, you'll return to ALMA for your finals: a practical exam that will be evaluated by a panel of esteemed Italian chefs and your Chef-Instructors.

If you aspire to create excellent Italian cuisine, the Italian Culinary Experience is the exciting and inspirational solution. With its rigorous training in language, culture, and the cuisines of all regions of Italy, there is simply no other Italian cooking school like this anywhere in the world.

curriculum

Training in New York City

Introduction
An introduction to the professional kitchen and sanitation techniques; Lectures on produce; how to purchase, how to clean, prepare, properly store, and handle; Lectures on oils, vinegars, and vinaigrette

Italian cheeses and antipasti
Italian cheeses, Italian salumi, and Italian specialty items; vegetable, fish, and meat antipasti

Stocks and sauces
An introduction to basic stocks and sauces, including chicken stock, fish/shrimp stock, mayonnaise, pesto, and béchamel. Soups, beans and grains - lentil soup, pasta fagioli, minestrone, zuppa di faro, and several different bean preparations and recipes

Pasta — dried, fresh, and filled
Making fresh pasta, including chitarra, orecchiette, and regional shapes along with discussions of varied sauces to accompany. Filled pastas - ravioli, agnolotti, and tortellini, including fillings, shapes, and sauces. Regional sauces for pastas. Gnocchi gnudi, gnocchi di patate, gnocchi di semolino, gnocchi di spinaci/vegetables, gnocchi di zucca, and i strozzapreti. Risotto and polenta (instant vs. traditional; soft and twice-cooked). Types of rice - arborio, vialone nano, and carnaroli. Proper techniques of risotto and farrotto.

Pizza and flatbreads
Pizza, foccacia, calzone, and grissini

Fish
How to determine freshness, scaling and trimming, gutting, and filleting. How to cook, serve, and plate flat and round fish. Shellfish, including mussels, clams, oysters, lobsters, and shrimp. Octopus, cuttlefish, eel, and calamari.

Meats
How to purchase, fabricate, and store. Chicken, duck, turkey, pigeon, and quail. Beef, veal, pork, lamb, and rabbit. An introduction to the techniques of grilling, broiling, roasting, sautéing, pan frying, deep frying, and braising.

Contorni/side dishes - vegetables, greens, and salads

Italian desserts
Crostate, sweet and savory tarts, pasta soffiata (cream puff pastry), crespelle (crêpes), pasta savoiarda (ladyfingers), cannoli, tiramisu, pasta genovese (sponge cake), pastry cream, crema englese (crème anglaise), gelato, zabaglione, pannacotta, pasta sfoglia (puff pastry), sorbet, and granita.

New York City practical review and final exam
Kitchen management and practical review. For the final exam you will be assigned two recipes to execute which will be judged by an outside panel and your Chef-Instructors.

Training in Italy

History of Italian Cuisine
The birth and development of regional cuisine, understanding the basis of the regional products and traditional Italian recipes and the relationship between different regional food lore.

Guest Chef Demonstration
A one or two star Michelin^® Guide Guest Chef will show you techniques of how to prepare some of the most significant traditional recipes of the Region. Throughout your time in Italy, you will learn firsthand from a minimum of 16 Guest Chefs, each running 6 hours of demonstration.

Products and Raw Materials
Italian cuisine is strictly related to the availability and to the quality of raw materials, as well to regional Italian products. Knowledge and direct experience of both will be delivered to you through lectures and product tasting.

Cooking Practice and Recipes
This is the core course of the program and it is directed to providing you with the capability to prepare, cook, and present in a professional way Italian dishes based on regional recipes. This particular Italian cooking course focuses on techniques and recipes and is organized through a continuous process of demonstrations and hands-on training in order to involve you in a very practical immersion in Italian cuisine.

Wines
Wine is an integral part of Italian gastronomy and its relationship with the territory, products and habits is as direct as food and cuisine. In this course you will explore the technological aspects, the regional characteristics, and the role wines play in creating the perfect match between food and wine.

Pastry
Pastry plays an important role in the Italian menu. The objective of this course is to teach you how to prepare a wide range of the most significant Italian pastry, including sweets and cakes, such as tiramisu, zuccotto, zuppa inglese, cassata siciliana, cannoli siciliani, pastiera napoletana, panettone, pandoro, and many more.

On-site visits
5 days of your training will be devoted to visiting some of the most important production sites. These will include:

• Truffles: visit the truffle museum at Alba (Piemonte)
• Parmigiano Reggiano: visit a production plant and to the Museum
• Parma Ham: visit a production plant and to the Museum
• Culatello: visit a pig farm and to a production plant
• Wine: visits to Chianti, Montalcino (Toscana), and Barolo (Piemonte) wineries
• Pecorino Cheese: visit a production site in Toscana
• Olive Oil: visit olive oil mills in Toscana
• Chianina steak: visit a butcher in Toscana
• Pasta: visit a production plant and briefing on pasta technologies
• Balsamic Vinegar: visit an “acetaia”

On-stage*
After the in-school chef training, you will be placed in a selected restaurant for a stage period nine weeks long. The objective of the stage of your Italian cooking course is to apply, in a "real life" context, most of the methods and cooking techniques learned during the periods spent in New York and Colorno. You will experience in-depth a specific regional cuisine and will learn to work under pressure.

Return to ALMA

Experience at ALMA, International School of Italian Cuisine

Imagine it. You, living in Italy, learning to prepare fine Italian cuisine…in an actual palace! The Italian Culinary Experience takes you to ALMA, International School of Italian Cuisine to train up close and hands-on under top Italian Chef-Instructors in fully-equipped, modern training kitchens. Inspired by ALMA’s sweeping gardens and gorgeous fountains, you'll be fully immersed in Italian culture and cuisine, living in beautifully appointed student housing and enjoying nearby Parma’s local cafes, old-world style Italian markets, and out-of-this world gelato.

Click here to join an Admission representative on her visit to ALMA in Colorno, Italy.

Learn more about Emilia-Romagna, home of ALMA, the region that brought some the best food in Italy to the world.

calendar + fees

Please note: If the class you select is full, we'll enroll you in the next available class with the same schedule.

Check back frequently since we are constantly updating our course schedules. Or contact us at 888-324-CHEF for additional start dates. 

Italian Culinary Experience

(Approximately 1,057 hours - 291 hours in New York, 402 hours at ALMA in Italy, and approximately 360 working at a top Italian restaurant)

Class hours and schedules vary. Please contact the Admission Office for details.

Start	End	Cost
March 15, 2010	October 6, 2010	$ 39,500

The total cost for this program is comprised of a fee of $19,850 to The International Culinary Center, LLC and $19,650 to Culinary Explorations.

Please note that tuition does not include the cost of housing in New York City or airfare to Italy.

Can't make it to Italy? Ask your Admissions representative about how you can immerse yourself in Italian culinary techniques and tradition without leaving New York City.

*All students who are not citizens of the European Union will be required to obtain a visa in order to attend classes at ALMA. Students are responsible for providing all documents necessary for the visa application to The Italian Culinary Academy on a timely basis, and responsible for all costs associated therewith. In the event that a student is unable to secure a visa to complete the optional stage in Italy because the Italian government has limited the number of available visas, the student shall be eligible for placement in a stage in New York City.  Placement assistance shall be given to students wishing to complete a stage in a United States location other than New York City but placement is not guaranteed.  Housing will not be provided for stages in the United States.  No other refund or compensation will be provided.