Friday @ Napa Valley

A day in Napa Valley: Culinary Institute of America 

Friday March 13th, 2026

Our final Enrichment Week event took us to Napa: The culinary institute of America.

Today we were joined by Mr. Ryan Mingham’s students and our trip was more informational as our students learned about the educational pathway they could take should they be interested in becoming culinary or baking and pastry chefs 😊

Our tour guide, Mauricio, who happens to be the Director of Admissions, shared admission information with our students and we learned the following:

• The building that houses the Culinary Institute of America used to be the Christian Brother’s winery and brandy!

• The Culinary Institute of America offers associates degrees, Bachelor’s degrees and even Masters’s degrees. 

• A huge part of a chef’s job is networking! I.e: attending career events and polishing their LinkedIn accounts

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Curious about what Mauricio told us? Please feel free to watch our videos! :)

We then got to tour the campus and watch students at work! After our tour of the Culinary Institute, we all enjoyed lunch at a nearby Gotts. 

All in all, it was a wonderful Friday and we are extremely grateful to Mauricio and the Culinary Institute of America for giving us a tour of their wonderful campus! Did this tour spark a fire of inspiration for any of our students interested in becoming chefs? Might any of our students enroll in this college and eventually become prestigious chefs? Stay tuned!