When Peter Kump launched his culinary classes in 1975 out of his apartment on 110th Street, his method of teaching cooking through techniques was revolutionary, said long-time associates Richard Simpson and Anita Jacobson. “This was before Jacques Pépin’s La Technique,” explained ICE® Director of Education Simpson, who obtained a culinary degree from Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School in 1985 and has been working at the school since then. “Peter was a teacher by training, so he was first and foremost an intrinsic educator who brought these skills to the culinary world.”

“ Technique is the current buzzword,” Kump himself explained in a 1984 New York Times article. “Students are seeing that a class that is merely a set of recipes is a dead end. That doesn’t mean we’re not doing recipes, but we’re also learning the technique behind a recipe that relates it to lots of different dishes.”

ICE® Chef-Instructors still follow these guiding principles today when teaching the 700 professional and 20,000 recreational students who take classes annually, under the leadership of Rick Smilow, who acquired the school from Kump’s estate in 1995.

Kump, who had a first career as a theater director, worked as national director of education for the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute. Soon his interests evolved to cooking, and after a crucial encounter with James Beard, he studied in New York and Europe with Beard, Simone Beck, Diana Kennedy, and Marcella Hazan.

Initially, Kump taught out of his apartment and in kitchens he rented around New York. “Then he had the idea to build a school on 92nd Street,” said Simpson. “To raise money, he had a demonstration class series with Madeleine Kamman, which allowed him to build it.”

Jacobson, an ICE® chef-instructor who graduated from the first professional program offered by Kump in the early 1980s, explained Kump initially set up three kitchens and an office on one floor up a long flight of stairs at 307 E. 92nd Street. When the apartment above became available, Kump expanded, and later opened a pastry kitchen down the street. Before he died, Kump built a demonstration kitchen at 50 West 23rd Street, which was officially inaugurated shortly after Smilow took ownership, in September 1995. For a few years the school was split between the two locations; in 1999, the 23rd Street facility was expanded, and the 92nd Street kitchens closed. In 2004, a 16,000-square-foot expansion brought its total space to 42,000 square feet, spread among five floors, twelve kitchens, four lecture rooms, and a wine studies center.

Since 1995, the school’s career program has grown tremendously. Offering diplomas in Culinary Arts, Pastry and Baking, and Culinary Management, ICE® attracts students from around the country, including a large group of career changers. “ICE® has somewhat of a chef-driven, liberal arts approach to culinary training,” commented Smilow, “which both feeds on and greatly contributes to the rich culinary landscape that New York City provides.” In recent years, alumni of the school have received national awards as well as local acclaim as chefs, restaurateurs, pastry chefs, culinary entrepreneurs, and food writers.

Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School was renamed the Institute of Culinary Education in September 2001 because, as Smilow said at the time: “The school has grown tremendously over the last five years. Essentially, we have outgrown our original name.” By offering the diploma programs, more than 1500 different courses a year, and a well established private cooking party program, “ICE® is one of the largest and most diverse culinary education centers in the world,” Smilow said more recently.

Kump was very committed to the culinary community and helped establish some of its cornerstones. He was a founding member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and, with Julia Child, raised the money needed to buy James Beard’s house and start the James Beard Foundation. Today, through active participation, volunteering, and scholarship programs, Smilow and ICE® support a large number of charity organizations, including Careers through Culinary Arts Program, International Association of Culinary Professionals, Womens’ Chef and Restaurateurs, The James Beard Foundation, The American Institute of Wine & Food, City Harvest, Action Against Hunger, City Meals On Wheels, New York City Board of Education, Les Dames D’Escoffier, and Black Culinarian Alliance.

“It’s very rewarding to be able to build upon a legacy,” said ICE® Vice-President Stephen Tave, “and Peter left a wonderful legacy. If he looked down, he would be very proud of the high standards we adhere to and the excellence of the students we send out to the industry.”

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