Mission Statement

L’Academie de Cuisine transforms your passion for cooking into the ability to prepare great food, whether as a professional chef, or simply to please the people you care about. Because L’Academie isn’t just about learning about cooking or the restaurant business, it’s about cooking. Both the professional curriculum and recreational classes train students to use classic technique and craft. In the spirit of the Swiss culinary tradition of our founder, Francois Dionot, you receive the most uncompromising culinary training, in which practical skills become second nature. L’Academie’s small classes make this experience possible. Students practice, practice, practice, using the finest tools and ingredients, under the practiced eyes of professional instructors. Professional students all serve externships at the DC area’s finest kitchens, where many of them stay on as professionals, bringing their disciplined technique with them. Indeed, over its more than 30 year history, L’Academie has both benefited from the growth of the DC food scene and contributed significantly to it. In DC, serious cooking has a home at L’Academie.