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Challenge yourself and stretch your skills. Make the industry take notice of your expertise. Move your career forward. Whatever your personal and professional goals, ProChef Certification can help you achieve them. Combining hands-on training, an approach to learning that’s both stimulating and supportive, and the flexibility to work only on the skills you need to, the ProChef Certification program is perfect for busy foodservice professionals. And when you’re done, you’ll have not only a valuable new credential—you’ll have a whole new outlook on what it means to be a professional chef.
In 2023, ProChef Certification celebrated its 20th year validating competencies and issuing credentials to culinarians around the world. To date the CIA has certified over 1,700 culinarians. ProChef Certification is active in the US, Brazil, Jamaica, and China.
The ProChef Certification program was created by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the world’s premier culinary college, to provide hands-on skill validation, recognize professional achievement, and give you the knowledge and credentials to advance your career. Certification from the CIA provides the ultimate stamp of approval.
ProChef Certification acknowledges your proficiency in culinary arts, personnel management, and financial administration at three levels, each supporting a specific stage in your career. After successfully completing each level, you will receive a certificate from the CIA. Which level of ProChef Certification is right for you?
These hands-on, 30-hour courses offer a dynamic gateway into the essential skills, methods, and flavor systems that define global culinary excellence. Designed for culinary professionals seeking to deepen their technical mastery, each course focuses on one key component of foundational technique to demonstrate how skills like developing global soups and stocks, creating international sauces, applying core cooking methods, working with grains and plant-based ingredients, and composing globally inspired salads, sandwiches, and breakfasts reflect the ways that cuisines take shape across the globe.
These courses also offer an interconnected foundation that supports the advanced global expectations of the ProChef Level II and III exams. More importantly, they help chefs think like global culinarians by strengthening their ability to recognize patterns across cuisines, adapt techniques with intention, and bring cultural awareness to the plate—all in an engaging, hands-on environment that encourages curiosity and growth.
These courses are taught by an exceptional team of CIA chefs whose global expertise brings each topic to life. Chef Phil Crispo, Chef Bruce Mattel, Chef Rebecca Piezer, Chef Hinnerk von Bargen, Chef Victor Gielisse, and Chef Howie Velie draw on careers that span international culinary research, global curriculum design, plant-forward innovation, and cross-continental teaching. Their experience ensures that every course is grounded in authentic technique, cultural context, and advanced professional skill.
George Shannon
845.905.4413
The Culinary Institute of America is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. Read more here.
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