CIA goes west

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 8, 1996 by Alan Liddle

One look at The Culinary Institute of America's new continuing-education campus in St. Helena, Calif., and it becomes instantly clear that The CIA'S facility planners and acquisition scouts kept in mind four key tenets of foodservice: location, location, location -- and don't underestimate the importance of packaging.

At the heart of the months-old facility in the Napa Valley is the majestic, 117,000-square-foot, three-story Greystone Winery building, which was crafted from hand-cut blocks of local volcanic rock in 1889. Renovations to the vineyard-encircled structure and its transformation into a working culinary-arts center cost $14 million, school officials say.

Greystone's debut in August marked the end of a decade of planning; CIA officials say their master plan has included references to a West Coast facility since the mid-'80s. The school's placement in a renowned wine-producing region north of San Francisco is no accident, Greystone managing director Roger John Riccardi said.

"We see every indication that Northern California is going to be the major hub of food and wine in this country; the elements are all here," Riccardi said. "It has the agricultural product, whether you are speaking of food or wine; it has the educated and interested consumers; and it has the artisans - chefs and vintners."

Greystone's location, he added, offers students and clients an "energizing environment" and easy access to the impressive agricultural, natural and cultural resources available in the Napa Valley, nearby Sonoma County, the Northern California Coast and Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

One of Riccardi's marketing missions, he said, is to dispel misconceptions that Greystone's curricula are targeted solely at sous chefs and executive chefs from independent, white-tablecloth restaurants. He said the St. Helena school offers courses accommodating a wide range of individuals, from line-level or lower cooks working for large chains to food photographers and food writers.

Custom courses geared toward the needs of specific clients are also a specialty of the school. "We've gotten off to a great start with those," Riccardi said.

"The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute wanted a custom course focusing on utilization of five different species of salmon and other wild product, we've done a course for Foods of Spain and Stanford University brought in its executive chef and line personnel."

Riccardi said The CIA is looking forward to the February launch of a new 30-week baking-and-pastry program at Greystone. Students who complete the course will receive a certificate verifying their proficiency.

"This is a zero-based course that can lead to employment and the start of a carcer," Riccardi said.

Greystone won't be the only culinary-arts school offering such a course in the region. The California Culinary Academy in nearby San Francisco has had a baking-certification program in place for some time.

Though the Greystone Winery was valued at $14 million at the time, its previous owner, Heublein, donated all but $1.7 million of that amount to The CIA. With the estimated value of the land and buildings, renovation budget and "millions of dollars" in equipment donations from manufacturers, Greystone represents a total investment of about $30 million.

The school isn't likely to break even during its first few years of operation, CIA officials said, and when it does, its nonprofit nature dictates that all proceeds will go back into programs.

Riccardi said Greystone expects to instruct 3,000 to 4,000 students annually through a variety of courses, including week-long classes and three-day programs taught by visiting professionals. Tuition schedules for 1996 call for fees of $650 to $750 for week-long courses and place the cost of the baking program at $12,000.

Projections call for annual operating expenses ranging from $3 million to $4 million, Riccardi says.

Among Greystone's major components:

* The 15,000-square-foot, top-floor teaching kitchens "with a view. " Moving away from the stainless-steel ambience of most commercial kitchens toward an environment that encourages interaction among students in different classes and disciplines, Greystone's teaching kitchens are "open," with no walls separating the distinctive instructional areas, and incorporate a variety of "warmer" surfaces, including granite, stone, tile and wood.

Custom-built Bonnet cooking "suites," combining implements as diverse as gas-fired vertical 'hanger" rotisseries and magnetic-induction cooktops, are among the key teaching aids. In the baking section a variety of new-generation equipment, including a Bongard stone-hearth oven, Vulcan convection ovens and Hobart mixers, is available for students to finish off the dough and pastries they perfected on long tables of flecked granite and oak.

* The Ecolab Theater for cooking demonstrations, lectures, food-and-wine tastings and other special functions. The facility rises dramatically through the first two floors of the building to seat 125 people in amphitheater fashion.