The Culinary Institute of America

The Culinary Institute of America is a training institute for culinary arts, located in Hyde Park, New York, a few miles north of Poughkeepsie. The school uses the initials CIA for itself and is sometimes humorously called the "CIA on the Hudson."

The school offers two Bachelor of Professional Studies (B.P.S) degrees—one in Culinary Arts Management, the other in Baking and Pastry Arts Management—or an Associate of Occupations Studies (A.O.S) in Culinary Arts or Baking and Pastry Arts.

Admission requires prior (six months) food service experience, and all programs include a paid period of employment (externship) in the industry. Properly credentialled students may also apply to be tested to be certified as an American Culinary Federation (A.C.F.) master chef.

The school maintains five public restaurants in Hyde Park, New York: American Bounty, Apple Pie Bakery Café, Escoffier Room, Ristorante Caterina de' Medici, and St. Andrew's Café.

In keeping with the possibly tongue-in-cheek acronym for the school, some years ago they also founded a video and book publishing department which they named the Food and Beverage Institute (FBI).

The CIA also maintains a branch campus, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in the Napa Valley in California.