• The Culinary Institute of America celebrates the role that food—and the sharing of food—plays in our lives as nourishment, a source of enjoyment and community and, often, a triumph of art and craft. At the same time, we recognize food and food systems have a consequential impact on personal and planetary health and can play a role in reinforcing or reversing social, cultural and racial inequity.

    This view of food in our lives—its immense opportunity for positive impact and the abundance of food-related issues that speak to the urgent need for change and innovation—informs our degree programs, our resources for home cooks, and our leadership programs for foodservice operators and food manufacturers. Our industry leadership initiatives center around four strategic pillars:

    Professional Excellence & Innovation

    Health & Wellness

    Sustainability & Food Ethics

    Global Cuisines & Cultures

    We invite companies, organizations, associations, and foundations who recognize the value of driving change and facilitating innovation in the restaurant and foodservice sector around these vital issues and long-term trends to support one or more of our CIA Industry Leadership Programs detailed below.

    However you choose to connect with the CIA, you’ll engage with top leaders, disruptive thinkers, change-makers, and key decision-makers in the food world and beyond—and return to your organization ready to innovate, grow your business, and collaborate more closely with colleagues in our industry.

Healthy Menus R&D Collaborative

January 12–13, 2022 | Napa, CA

June 13–14, 2022 | Hyde Park, NY

This collaborative is a membership-based initiative focused on crafting highly targeted, sector-specific, practical solutions that significantly contribute to expanding healthy menu food and beverage choices within the high-volume foodservice sector.

Operator members—including representatives from top chain restaurants and contract foodservice operations—collaborate with industry partners via working groups.

Members: An invited group of 40 operator members in menu decision-making roles from top chain restaurants and contract management organizations, while 20–25 operator members join us for each semi-annual meeting.

Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives®

February 2 – 4, 2022 | Napa, CA

This conference, jointly presented by the CIA and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—Department of Nutrition provides healthcare professionals with the latest scientific findings about diet and nutrition, combined with flavor strategies from world cuisines that increase the appeal of meals prepared with healthful ingredients for their patients. Nutrition and health research seminars are led by scientists and nutrition experts from Harvard and other leading institutions, while culinary, baking, beverage, and nutrition leaders from the CIA conduct hands-on cooking workshops.

Attendees: 400 physicians, dietitians, and other healthcare professionals. CME credits awarded for participation.

The Flavor Summit

March 1 – 3, 2022 | Napa, CA

This in-depth exploration of the art and science of flavor takes participants to the frontiers of tomorrow’s dining experience. Capitalizing on the unparalleled flavor discovery experience at The CIA at Copia, invited participants examine menu, service, beverage, marketing, operational, design and sustainability trends as they discuss and taste their way through a vital set of flavor, kitchen, dining, and hospitality management issues and opportunities.

Invited Attendees: 30–35 vice presidents and directors of hotel, casino, cruise line, and top-tier restaurant chains.

Global Plant-Forward Culinary Summit

April 26 - 28, 2022 | Napa, CA

This deep dive into culinary inspiration and menu R&D strategy for a significant global food movement is informed by the science—and the translation of that science—of Menus of Change® initiative, jointly presented by the CIA and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and further inspired by the global cultures focus of our long-running Worlds of Flavor® International Conference &

Festival. Dialogues between chefs, world cuisine authorities, tech innovators, and manufacturers focus on how foodservice leaders can help deliciously further the shift toward a health-promoting, environmentally sustainable food system for the planet in the near- and long-term.

Attendees: 300 high-volume chefs, foodservice operators, global cuisine experts, and influential foodservice industry professionals.

Menus of Change®

June 14 – 16, 2022 | Hyde Park, NY

Menus of Change®: The Business of Healthy, Sustainable, Delicious Food Choices works to realize a long-term,

practical vision integrating optimal nutrition and public health, environmental stewardship and restoration, and social responsibility concerns within the foodservice industry and culinary profession. Menus of Change is jointly presented by the CIA and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—Department of Nutrition.

The initiative includes an annual leadership summit, held every June at the CIA’s main campus in New York’s Hudson Valley, and a growing collection of editorial resources that offer guidance around new menu concepts and business strategies, as well as models to support business innovation and entrepreneurship in the foodservice industry.

Attendees: 400 culinary and food & beverage leaders, executives from sustainability and health sectors, researchers, and NGOs.

Menus of Change® University Research Collaborative

October 2022 | University of North Texas

Focusing on accelerating efforts to move people toward healthier, more sustainable, and delicious food choices using evidence-based research,  education, and innovation, this groundbreaking collaborative works to cultivate the long-term well-being of all people and the planet, one student and one meal at a time.

MCURC, a joint initiative of the CIA and Stanford University (Residential & Dining Enterprises and Stanford Medicine/Stanford Prevention Research Center), serves as an accelerator for the implementation of Menus of Change® principles—uncovering the drivers of consumer decisions related to healthy, sustainable food choices.

This unprecedented network of senior university administrators, dining directors, executive chefs, nutrition and sustainability leaders, and academic researchers uses campus dining halls as living laboratories for eating-related behavior change.

Members: More than 220 representatives from college and university foodservice, from 60+ institutions participate in the collaborative, with 80–90 members at the annual meeting representing the most dynamic changemakers in the campus dining sector.

Latin American Cuisine Summit

September 28 – 29, 2022 | San Antonio, TX

Renowned chefs, restaurateurs, and winemakers from Latin America meet with foodservice industry leaders from around the U.S. to focus on the culinary heritage, contributions, and flavor trends from specific countries each year. The four-day summit strongly supports the college’s mission by bringing students together with participants for amazing interactive learning activities.

You can get involved in the two professionals-only event days open to foodservice operators, food manufacturers, industry leaders, chefs, world cuisine experts, and CIA alumni. And, you can engage with students and the public during a program for CIA San Antonio students with many of the visiting chefs, and a Latin American market-style tasting open to the public on the final day.

Attendees: 125 leading chefs and top-level foodservice professionals interested in increasing their knowledge of regional Latin American cuisine

 

Worlds of Flavor® International Conference and Festival

November 2 – 4, 2022 | Napa, CA

The Culinary Institute of America’s Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival is widely acknowledged as our country’s most influential professional forum on world cuisines, food cultures, and flavor trends.

Join us for the 24th edition of Worlds of Flavor as we journey to the mother cuisines of the African Continent, consider their evolution, and learn how they are being renewed and reimagined in the top professional kitchens—from west to east, north to south—on this vast continent. At the same time, we’ll delve into the African Diaspora, and consider how the resulting movement of peoples, foods, and culinary techniques shaped the cuisines of the Caribbean, parts of South America, the American South and, today, restaurants led by Black chefs across the United States. 

Join us for this landmark gathering—Africa and the World: Reclaiming the Past, Crafting the Future—to celebrate the people, the flavors and cultures, the streams of culinary innovation—and the urgency of change—that together present such abundance of possibilities for our collective future.

Attendees: 600 leading chefs, foodservice executives, global cuisine experts, and influential foodservice industry professionals.

Healthy Kids Collaborative

December 6 – 8, 2022 | Napa, CA

This unique collaborative inspires school nutrition professionals, school chefs, and suppliers to create and advance culinary-driven, healthier foods in K–12

schools; discover flavor and menu strategies; highlight successes and best practices; and develop training protocols. In short, it seeks to create a new culinary culture in school food. It’s a year-round invitational initiative capped by this annual leadership gathering, which brings its leaders together to share progress and menu insights, along with best practices for addressing challenges and opportunities.

Members: 30–35 leaders from K–12 schools and contract management organizations.