International Culinary Center

The International Culinary Center is a private, for-profit culinary school in California and New York City. The school was founded in 1984 as The French Culinary Institute. The facilities focus on culinary education, with professional kitchens for hands-on cooking and baking classes. However, they also have specialized wine-tasting classrooms.

When the school first opened, it was visited by chef Julia Child, and one of its first graduates was Bobby Flay.

As a regionally accredited college, ICC is a small institution with an enrollment of 242 undergraduate students. However, as a wine school, it is one of the largest. Their Career Sommelier Program is a 10-week wine course taught by a Master Sommelier (ICC has 11 Master Sommeliers on staff). It is the only program approved by the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas. Students learn how to taste and evaluate approximately 300 wines worldwide. Students can also attend classes on viticulture and enology.

The International Culinary Center (ICC) merged with the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this transition, ICC shut the doors to its NYC campus. The future of their sommelier programming is still up in the air.