51³Ô¹Ï

Whole, fresh, seasonal, traditional, balanced, local and delicious.

These are the founding principles of ICE’s Plant-Based Culinary Arts program. This program has evolved and grown from its roots when it was founded in 1977 at the Natural Gourmet Institute to the kitchens at the 51³Ô¹Ï’s NYC and LA campuses.

Now students can access ICE's plant-based education online through the new Online Plant-Based Culinary Arts & Food Operations diploma program.

While many think of a plant-based diet simply as a means of living a healthy lifestyle, our proprietary Plant-Based Culinary Arts program offers so much more. With a focus on well-rounded nutrition, classic professional techniques and well-developed flavors and textures, this popular program holds a unique place in the culinary world, well beyond major metropolitan hubs. 

With fully online classes including chef-led demos, discussion forums and live feedback from ICE’s Chef-Instructors, students can feel confident they’re getting a full, professional-level education without the stressors of getting to campus and the costs of relocating. Like our online Online Culinary Arts & Food Operations program that came before it, our Online Plant-Based Culinary Arts & Food Operations program is specially tailored to ensure students can create complex, delicious and nutritionally balanced dishes all while using basic home kitchen equipment and widely-available ingredients. 

Classes cover such topics as making your own tofu, vegan cheeses, fermented foods and much, much more. Baking is also an essential component of a well-rounded culinary education, which is why a portion of the online program is fully dedicated to baking with whole grains and alternative flours, natural sugars and non-dairy ingredients.

While refined cooking technique is the cornerstone of our training programs, the overarching theme of every course in Plant-Based Culinary Arts & Food Operations is how to ground all you do in wellness and nutrition. Lectures dive into specialty diets such as macrobiotic and raw foods, and holistic philosophies such as Ayurveda. 

The well-documented link between diet and health drives all lessons taking place in the kitchen. And our four decades of experience in culinary education has taught us that a foundational knowledge of food business operations is one of the key ingredients to long term success as a culinary professional. To that end, a series of courses within the program are solely focused on food business management, such as concept development and menu design, purchasing and cost control, and foodservice finance.

 With the National Restaurant Association* projecting some 500,000 new jobs in the foodservice industry for 2023, there is no better time to ensure culinarians across the US have access to quality professional education that works around the demands of everyday life. The professional culinary world revolves around people with passion for good food, and chefs with a commitment to wellness and nutrition continue to drive the industry forward into a sustainable future.

*Students are to complete their hands-on externship on site.