The Natural Gourmet is more than a cooking school...it's a way of life for more than 25 years The Natural Gourmet has provided education and leadership in the field of health-supportive culinary arts and theory. People around the world have turned to the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health's avocational public classes to learn the basics of healthy cooking. They come to the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Art's Chef’s Training Program to prepare for careers in the rapidly expanding natural foods industry.
Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D. founded the Natural Gourmet in 1977. A "maverick nutritional theorist”, she is an internationally recognized health educator, author, consultant and speaker, specializing in food and its effects on health. She is the author of Food and Healing, which has been translated into six languages, The Natural Gourmet (both from Ballentine Books) and Food and our Bones. She writes a regular column for New York Spirit magazine, and lectures widely.
Natural Gourmet Institute’s 4800 square foot space occupies the entire second floor and most of the third floor at 48 West 21st Street in Manhattan.
Our facilities include two teaching kitchens, one professional kitchen and two lecture rooms. All of our kitchens are outfitted with the highest-grade restaurant quality equipment, including Vulcan heavy-duty restaurant ranges, Vulcan convection ovens and Traulsen and Continental reach-in refrigerators. We also have two large walk-in refrigerators on premises.
NGI’s brand new third floor space consists of a lecture room, new Career Services office and a 648 square foot teaching kitchen equipped with four Vulcan heavy-duty restaurant ranges, 2 Vulcan convection ovens and a granite-topped center island holding 8 Garland burners. Track lights and Halophan pendants provide bright, non-glare illumination.
Our teaching kitchens boast high tech video systems which include Panasonic plasma monitors, closed circuit TV and cameras capable of focusing on the cooking action and providing students with a direct view from anywhere in the room. In addition, we have recently installed a state-of-the-art sound system including Sennheiser wireless microphones, Crown amplifiers and Electro voice monitor speakers. All of our kitchens are equipped with Kitchen-Aid mixers, Cuisinart food processors and All-Clad Master Chef cookware.
