Institute of Culinary Arts debuts new cooking program: curriculum to focus on ethnic cuisines and U.S., overseas internships

Nation's Restaurant News, April 14, 2003 by Carolyn Walkup

AURORA, ILL. -- The Institute of Culinary Arts, a nonprofit, fully accredited, private college, is scheduled to open this summer at Robert Morris College's DuPage campus here, about 40 miles west of Chicago.

The curriculum will reflect America's melting pot of cooking styles, which have been influenced by the cuisines of several continents. Enrollment at any one time is expected to be between 75 and 100.

Executive director Nancy Rotunno has recruited experienced chef-instructors and an advisory board of high-level restaurant and foodservice professionals to help develop the curriculum.

Full-time tuition will cost $4,550 per quarter. Students will earn either an associate of applied science degree in culinary arts after six quarters or, if they also fulfill college-level academic requirements, a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in hospitality management.

Internship programs at Chicago-area and other restaurants and hotels and a placement bureau for graduating students also will be integral parts of the program, Rotunno said. She also expects to arrange two-week stints or entire quarters for students who want to experience the Ritz-Escoffier in Paris, Apiclus, The Art of Cooking in Florence or The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Two state-of-the-art kitchens were added to the building at a cost of about $3 million. The demonstration kitchen has the capacity for 24 students, and each station has its own custom range and oven, built-in refrigeration and storage.

The second "real life" commercial kitchen has professional-grade equipment configured around a U-shaped cooking line that allows students to see what their peers are doing. Other facilities include a dining room, which doubles as a wine-tasting room with climate-controlled storage.

Advisory board members include Gale Gand, partner in Tm restaurant, Chicago; David Kile, managing chef, Bahama Breeze; Pierre Pilloud, professor, Valencia Culinary Institute; Maurice Woll, vice president, Sysco Food Services; CLTV cooking-show host Steve Dolinsky; and former Chicago restaurateur Gordon Sinclair.

Eight working chefs will constitute a chefs forum of mentors who also will host demonstrations and discussions. Many will offer internships to culinary students.

Those chefs, along with the advisory board, will share their vast culinary knowledge with the students. "Based on their guidance, we will explore every cuisine of the world, be it Asian or African, French or Italian, and even immigrant foods that passed through the portals of Ellis Island," Rotunno said.

For more information concerning RMC Culinary, call (877) 266-5762.