Smilow Sees Education Being Key To Success As Nation’s Restaurant Industry Re-Emerges

ICE Institute of Culinary Education Rick Smilow
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Rick Smilow is optimistic about the future of the restaurant industry after the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Culinary Education, he’s giving thousands of eager students hoping to break into the business reason to be optimistic, too.

With campuses in New York City and Los Angeles, the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) is one of the largest culinary schools in the country, offering intensive 8 to 13-month diploma programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, Health-Supportive Culinary Arts, Restaurant & Culinary Management, and Hospitality & Hotel Management. Additionally, ICE provides a broad selection of recreational classes for cooking enthusiasts looking to sharpen their skills.

As the end of the pandemic draws closer, Smilow wants to assure those considering a career in the culinary arts that a year of closed doors and nightly takeout orders shouldn’t dampen their plans to enter the field. In fact, this might even be the perfect time for prospective culinary students to take the leap and enroll.

Smilow notes, “If you start your career training now, the pandemic will be in the rearview mirror by the time you are entering the workforce.”

As for the job search in today’s world, Smilow recommends casting a wide net. Last fall, when the school reopened for hands-on classes, his team worried that students would struggle finding externships in the area — a requirement with most of ICE’s career curriculum. Soon they came to find that the wider NYC market, including the tri-state suburbs, were still able to absorb ICE externs and former students, even deep in the throes of a devastating pandemic.

The key to finding work, according to Smilow, has been adapting expectations. A student may not be able to snag a job at a big-name, fine-dining restaurant in Manhattan that is temporarily closed given the lack of business and tourist diners. But there may be openings at smaller venues closer to home that could prove equally valuable learning opportunities for students looking to gain experience.

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For those who have already taken the plunge into the business, Smilow believes that the past year was an invaluable crash course in the most important tool a culinary hopeful can have: flexibility.

“Takeout dining, home meal kits, selling special provisions, social media campaigns, all of these were potentially good tactics for restaurants before the pandemic, and the last year has shown that flexibility and creativity can be the key to survival,” he says.

In his time at ICE, Smilow has been no stranger to guiding students through challenging times. Since he joined the school in 1995, Smilow has led ICE through 26 years of twists and turns and has always managed to advance the institutional growth of the school.

That has been especially true the last six years. In 2015, Smilow developed and moved to a 74,000-square-foot facility in Manhattan’s Brookfield Place. In 2018, the school’s first out-of-state campus opened in Pasadena, CA, at the site of the former Le Cordon Bleu. In 2019, ICE signed a licensing agreement with the closing Natural Gourmet Institute and started offering its plant-based diploma program. And in 2020, ICE acquired by license the New York City-based International Culinary center, formerly known as the French Culinary Institute.

Beyond his work with ICE, Smilow remains committed to giving newcomers a leg up in the business, releasing his book Culinary Careers: How to Get Your Dream Job in Food in 2010. And in 2011, he was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

As vaccines continue to roll out and restrictions on dining are lifted, Smilow is confident that independent restaurants will weather the storm and enter a golden age of dining and culinary development. He notes that the recently passed $28 billion Restaurant Relief Fund will truly help thousands of operators “make it to the other side.” And as for the public, “2020’s prohibitions led us to discover why we like restaurants, why we need restaurants, why we go out,” Smilow added. “If restaurants only existed for nourishment, they wouldn’t exist.”

Students entering ICE’s programs can expect to receive the same education enjoyed by their pre-pandemic predecessors. “COVID-19 didn’t change the fundamentals of a career path,” Smilow says. “For a long and promising culinary career, it’s proven helpful to gain the foundational knowledge and confidence that comes from studying at a top culinary school.”

  • AyrKing Mixstir
  • T&S Brass Eversteel Pre-Rinse Units
  • BelGioioso Burrata
  • RATIONAL USA
  • DAVO Sales Tax
  • Imperial Dade
  • Texas Pete
  • McKee Foodservice
  • Day & Nite
  • RAK Porcelain
  • Simplot Frozen Avocado
  • Red Gold Sacramento
  • Atosa USA
  • Inline Plastics Safe-T-Chef