Institute of Culinary Education - Pasadena, California

James M.

I recently completed the 6 week Wine Essentials class with instructor Paul Sherman and really can’t say enough good things about the experience. Paul struck the incredible balance of being both thorough and entertaining while covering vast swaths of information in a relatively short period of time. Each class featured 8 excellent wines for us to taste and talk through - which Paul sourced through his personal connections. The tastings were also accompanied by charcuterie boards. This class might just be the best value in the world of food and drink…and you’ll learn something!!!

Justin R.

I applied to this school. When I received a call from my advisor, Tammy Polanco, I was very excited. I had tried reaching out to her several times, but she was busy with other students, which is understandable. Due to my zeal to attend the school, I called the main office in hopes of getting some answers. I ended up speaking with Jeff Haines, who was able to answer all my questions.

After my talk with Jeff, I received an email by mistake that was a conversation between Jeff and Tammy discussing me. Jeff had emailed Tammy that I tried calling her "50 times lol," and Tammy replied, "So he was too busy to be transferred? Lol."

I felt that the whole application process was unprofessional. My excitement to attend ICE was significantly diminished.

However, after I emailed the main Director of Admissions, Gabriela Arzate, she was very helpful and apologized for their behavior. She personally handled most of my questions and sent me all the information I needed to apply.

King K.

I would be VERY clear about how you plan to pay your tuition, because we were basically tricked into taking a loan somehow? Even though we explicitly stated we wanted to pay off the cost ourselves in two payments + help from the grant that I was eligible for. I even said "okay, i'm not signing anything that involves taking out a loan right?" and was told no- The bursar was in agreement that we could pay with two checks and get the amount of money off the total from the grant paying for the rest. We also had an issue with the total coming out to be different than what was initially given to us on paper, so they made us overpay the 2nd half of the tuition payment AND then after I graduated they claimed I owed them money still... It just isn't a good look when you're lying to your students and preying on them when their family is putting forward no paltry amount of money to even enroll.

Be wary of instructors who don't notice in-class bullying between students, also. You pretty much have to handle stuff on your own. Don't be afraid to switch classes if people are ignoring you and refuse to work in groups.

Lisy H.

I applied for this Institute not too long ago and I found it extremely unprofessional how they handled my application process. Not only did they stopped replying after I emailed them for more assistance but they wanted me to apply again and pay another application fee after I just applied. Terrible service.

Laura W.

We have just enrolled and Mike Acuna was amazing! We called at 8pm and he picked up, answered all of our questions. The curriculum is impressive. So excited !

Josh E.

It’s pretty crazy to me they’re charging 3 times the amount of average tuition (total for a bachelor in America) for a diploma in a major that’s going to offer an average annual salary of about 20k after graduating from a culinary program at this school.

ashton W.

From what I’ve heard about this school I really can’t wait to attend 🥳‼️

Jonathan S.

Excellent school.. thoroughly enjoying my program