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Chef's Training

Internship & Career Services

The objective of the 100-hour internship portion of our Chef's Training Program is to provide students with practical experience in a real-life kitchen environment under the supervision of qualified professionals in the culinary field.

The internship affords students the opportunity to apply, fine tune and augment the skills acquired in our Chef’s Training Program. It enhances the learning process by allowing students to become actual players in a professional kitchen.

During the internship, students build confidence by successfully completing assignments at the workplace. They become more aware of the value and degree of skills acquired during the program and less apprehensive about seeking employment.

Finally, the internship allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of the training provided to students. Through feedback from both cooperating sites and students, we can evaluate and implement changes in curriculum or teaching methods which will best accomplish the ultimate goal of student employment.

Because the Natural Gourmet is a small school, we can offer students personalized counseling sessions to determine the best fit for internship. Goals, interests, skills and dietary preferences play a key role in selecting an internship. Since many of our students come from out of state, geographic locations are also taken into consideration. Students may arrange internships without the assistance of the school if they so choose, as long as the site is approved by the Internship Coordinator.

Most internships take place in restaurants, and many result in job offers. Our students fulfill their internship requirements in both mainstream and natural foods restaurants. Although we strongly recommend restaurant internships, some other options are available.

The following list represents a sampling of establishments that accept our interns and hire our graduates.

Restaurants in NYC
ABC Kitchen
Al Di La
Aquavit
Applewood
Annisa
A Voce
Back Forty
Blue Hill
Craft
Dirt Candy
Five Leaves
Gramercy Tavern
The Green Table
Hearth
Il Buco
Le Verdure
Marlow & Sons
Mas
Megu
Mesa Grill
Mercer Kitchen
Oceana
Ortine
Per Se
Pure Food and Wine
Rouge Tomate
Spice Market

Restaurants in Other Cities
Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Pocantico Hills, NY)
Café Flora (Seattle, WA)
Carmelita (Seattle, WA)
Due Mari (New Brunswick, NJ)
Eno Terra (Kingston, NJ)
Frontera Grill (Chicago, IL)
Good Karma Cafe (Red Bank, NJ)
Greens Restaurant (San Francisco, CA)
Green Zebra (Chicago, IL)
Inn Season (Royal Oak, MI)
Local Burger (Lawrence, KS)
Lula Cafe (Chicago, IL)
Millennium (San Francisco, CA)
Ninety Acres (Gladstone, NJ)
The Ravens (Mendocino, CA)
Serenade (Chatham, NJ)
TW Food (Boston, MA)
Uproot (Warren, NJ)
Watercourse Foods (Denver, CO)
White Dog Cafe (Philadelphia, PA)
Zen Kitchen (Ottawa, Canada)

Media
Cook’s Illustrated (MA)
Good Housekeeping (NYC)
The Food Network (NYC)

Other
Amy’s Bread (NYC)
Bouchon Bakery (NYC)
Cedar Cirdle Farm (VT)
Center for Discovery (NY)
Cleaver Company (NYC)
Food Share (Toronto)
Golden Door Spa (CA)
New Age Health Spa (NY)
Omega Institute (NY)
Pie Corps (NYC)
Regency House Spa (FL)
Sullivan Street Bakery (NYC)
Three Stone Hearth (CA)
Wellness in the Schools (NYC)

CAREER SERVICES
Clearly, the demand for health-supportive cuisine has greatly increased during the last decade, due to rising rates of obesity and other diet-related ailments. As the leader in health-supportive culinary arts, the Natural Gourmet Institute prepares students to meet this demand. Our evolving curriculum provides them with the skills necessary to remain on the cutting edge of the food and health connection. What differentiates our program from others is this: in addition to acquiring the skills necessary to become chefs, our students also learn about the medicinal and nutritional aspects of food and how they can be used to promote wellness using a variety of dietary paradigms. That kind of knowledge enables our graduates to carve out successful career paths.

Many of our graduates become chefs or pastry chefs in restaurants, bakeries or catering companies. Many more become personal chefs, working with clients who have special dietary needs or simply want fresh, local, seasonal, health-supportive meals prepared for them on a daily basis. Others become yacht chefs or retreat chefs. Not everyone who takes our program, however, becomes a chef. Some grads become cooking instructors, product developers, food writers or cookbook authors. And, of course, there are the entrepreneurs who start their own businesses, like one who founded a non-profit organization to educate low-income youth about healthy cooking and nutrition. Others use our program as an adjunct to what they're currently doing. Doctors, nutritionists, nurses and fitness instructors have enhanced their practices by incorporating the knowledge they’ve acquired here at NGI.

Questions? Contact Rosemary Serviss- 212-645-5170, ext 103 Rosemary@naturalgourmetinstitute.com