1012 Corridor

The state’s largest private chef training program, the Louisiana Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge, is nearing completion of a $5 million new facility in the city at Airline and Jefferson highways. The 29,000-square-foot space features test kitchens, a baking lab, classrooms and a 70-seat elevated amphitheater overlooking a live demonstration area.

The new location more than triples the size of the school’s current Essen Drive facility, but there are no plans to expand enrollment, says LCI Public Affairs Director Charlie Ruffolo. “Our goal is quality over quantity,” he says. “We want to produce the best chefs in the state. We are not going to be a diploma mill.”

Currently, the school accepts about 90 students a year, (30 in each of three semesters), but eventually, that will number will fall to 12 to 15 per semester as the school continues to raise admissions standards, Ruffolo says.

The privately-owned LCI was founded in 2003 by Gonzales businessman Keith Rush, and is not affiliated with the now-shuttered Culinary Arts Institute of Louisiana, which closed in Baton Rouge the same year. LCI offers an accredited associate’s degree program compressed into 16 months for $28,000, about half the going rate of schools like the Hyde Park, the New York-based Culinary Institute of America. One-third of the LCI student population is from out-of-state, and while most end up in South, some have landed jobs in New York, Boston, Colorado and Hawaii, Ruffolo says.

In the past, LCI featured a restaurant arm, serving lunch to the public between July 2003 and August 2004. Ruffolo says it helped raised revenue in a period when the school was building enrollment. The new facility will not include a restaurant, so that students can focus solely on training. However, locals can see and taste what’s going on at LCI through leisure classes launched later this spring. Ruffolo says the first round will cover pastry, chocolate and king cakes.

“Baking seems to be a popular theme right now,” Ruffolo says.

It’s part of a push to build awareness about the school. Similarly, the LCI web site includes instructional videos covering how to work with avocado and how to make pastry cups. Students have also been encouraged to cook in regional competitions and through in-house “Iron Chef”-style events.

Right now, they’re engaging in a single elimination competition to earn a spot to cook at France’s Cannes Film Festival, May 9-25. The winning LCI student will join the American Pavilion catering team and will help cook 1,000 meals a day and prep for cocktail parties.

For more information, see www.lci.edu.