Recreational Cooking Classes: New England Culinary Institute

The New England Culinary Institute (NECI) in Montpelier, Vermont, was founded in 1980 by Francis Voigt and John Dranow as a residential, coeducational culinary school. Instruction was initially provided in the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Montpelier, but the school is now housed on the campus of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to classroom instruction on the main campus, instruction is provided in retail outlets owned by the school, a white-tablecloth fine dining restaurant, NECI on Main, and a retail bakery, La Brioche. NECI differs from most other culinary programs by offering classes in a rotational production block system as opposed to the linear curricular model used in most culinary programs. NECI offers certificate, associate, and bachelor-level instructional programs in culinary arts, pastry arts, and hospitality management and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). Nonresidential bachelor degree programs are taught online in the areas of hospitality and restaurant management. NECI’s most famous alumnus is Alton Brown, a program host on television’s Food Network. NECI reports the smallest class sizes of the major culinary schools, with an average of ten students in a production block, and it is the smallest of the major culinary schools, with an annual enrollment of five hundred.