Letter from the President
In August of 2000, my dad, Harold Meyberg, and my mom, Lili, founded the San Diego Culinary Institute with a handful of students and one very important idea: to build a better culinary school.
They wanted to build a school that taught technique, not recipes; that required each Chef Instructor to possess no less than 5 years as an Executive Chef in a fine dining environment — an astonishing minimum requirement for any culinary school. Finally, they insisted that their program offer extensive hands-on training, with limited class sizes, in well-equipped kitchen classrooms.
They began with just a handful of students and a firm commitment to this straightforward set of ideals.
Since they founded the school, we have doubled our classroom space and expanded our program to teach the Commis program to our students. My dad isn't here to see what his school has become, but we carry on in his name and with an unwavering dedication to our initial ideals.
Welcome.
David Badagliacca
President
San Diego Culinary Institute
Mission Statement
We at the San Diego Culinary Institute dedicate ourselves to providing aspiring culinarians the best education available at a reasonable cost. Through our network of employers, we help our students and graduates find employment opportunities in some of the finest kitchens in the world and assist them as they establish and build their careers. Through the standardized curricula of our programs, we ensure the employers in our network that the graduates they employ are well-trained with a thorough background in basic, professional culinary and baking and pastry skills.
To these ends, we commit ourselves to the following standards:
- We, as an organization, are committed to raising the standards of American
culinary education. In doing so, we seek out the finest instructors in
the business and commit ourselves to continually review and elevate our
standards of excellence and our skills as educators.
- We utilize the same top quality ingredients found in fine dining establishments
all over the country so that our students understand the flavor profiles
of exotic, high quality ingredients and how to use them to produce the
finest dishes.
- We ensure that our kitchen classrooms are always well-stocked with the
tools of the trade so that our graduates leave us with the confidence
they need to perform for the most demanding employers.
- We have created a well-defined curriculum, designed to ensure that every
student learns the skills necessary to excel in the workplace and that
every student receives a consistent standard of quality in their education:
Every graduate of SDCI reflects this high standard and meets the weight
of expectations of their employers. We do this not only for the sake of
our students, but also with an eye to their employers. All employers can
expect every graduate of our program to possess a certain set of skills
and to perform to a high standard of excellence.
- Overall, we continuously challenge ourselves to improve, to elevate
our standards of education, performance and service to our students and
alumni. In doing so, the San Diego Culinary Institute continues its mission
to offer the finest culinary and pastry arts education to aspiring culinarians
and become the finest culinary school in the nation.
We base the course curriculum on teaching the fundamental cooking techniques
that any student must master to perform effectively in a fine dining environment
working in any national cuisine. In addition to cooking skills, SDCI emphasizes
professionalism and teamwork throughout the program. The ability to master
the basic tools of the kitchen combined with cleanliness, organizational
skills, and the ability to work effectively with others has proven to
be a successful formula to the many world-renown chefs that employ our
graduates.