It’s not your typical school lunch room. Polished dark wood tables, red leather placemats, artfully folded cloth napkins, imported crystal, heavy flatware, sleek leather chairs in contrasting colors of vanilla and chocolate, futuristic layered chrome chandeliers, and an open kitchen staffed with white-jacketed chefs in tall toques all set the stage for the best school lunch ever. We’re in The Bocuse Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America, staffed by ernest students practicing their craft, gaining experience, developing confidence, all doing their best to give us a world class school lunch.

The CIA in Hyde Park, New York, is the home to four restaurants and more than 2900 students from all fifty states and thirty countries in both two and four year programs at a former monastery on a spectacular site overlooking the Hudson River. The school, undisputedly the best of its kind in the United States, also has branches in the Napa Valley and Austin, Texas, but the Hyde Park campus is the mother ship, widely known as the source of most American chefs working today – both the book-writing TV celebs and the hard-working creator of your most recent dinner out.

The Bocuse Restaurant, named after Paul Bocuse, the father of modern French cuisine, was opened in 2013 to showcase the changes in French cooking and contemporary Euro design. The bright, stylish dining room reflects the lighter trend in French cooking and the current increased emphasis on seasonal fresh ingredients.

The American Bounty Restaurant with dressy white tablecloths, brass chandeliers, a wood-timbered ceiling, the space divided by a long line of brick arches, has a warmer, more historic vibe. Opened in 1993 to reflect the evolution of American cuisine emphasizing regional traditions, American ingredients, independence from European cooking and now farm-to-table.

The Ristorante Caterina de Medici, a free standing restaurant in the style of a Tuscan villa, with a two story atrium, venetian glass chandeliers, a wood-fired oven, and views of a formal rose and herb garden, is a place for the study and enjoyment of Italy’s culinary heritage. Opened in 2001, students working in The Ristorante explore one of the world’s important cuisines to the delight of its fortunate patrons. All three restaurants are open year round for lunch and dinner. Reservations are essential and can be made online.

The Apple Pie Bakery Café, a casual, bustling spot filled with a dazzling array of tempting salads, sandwiches and bakery goodies, does not take reservations. When we visited, there was a long line waiting to get in at 12:30 that had only diminished a little by 3:00. A popular choice!

Students staff all four restaurants for both cooking and serving. Those about to graduate hold the more demanding positions of servers and cooks while newer students learn the ins and outs of less skilled jobs. Our server, a few weeks away from getting her two year degree, was friendly, knowledgeable and competent, although she confessed to no dining room experience before coming from Texas to the CIA. For me, part of the charm is to see the new students gaining experience: the struggle to get a roll out of the basket and onto my plate, the forgotten soup spoon, the slightly nervous presentation of the plates all are reminders that this very good restaurant is really a classroom.

The food is excellent: creative, properly cooked, beautifully presented and, of course, delicious. An appetizer of fresh Jonah Crab with Cucumber Foam and Lemon Aioli was eclipsed by its pressed melon garnish, ambiguously named, a tiny game board of colorful squares with overtones of a mysterious herb. It was the most intriguing and delicious element on the plate. Yellow tomato soup with its frozen creamed avocado ball, red tomato foam and pickled cucumber was a garden of flavors. Both appetizers were a promising start to lunch.

Crisp skinned rectangles of Arctic Char alternating with blocks of layered potatoes Lyonnaise, on a bed of bi-color corn, garlic scapes and lima beans, surrounded with a splash of Shishito pepper vinaigrette demonstrated the precise presentation, complex preparation, and attention to detail that characterized the entire menu. Braised and roasted rabbit with carrot egg noodles, tarragon, peas and garden carrots was another challenging dish flawlessly presented.

Desserts were all hard to resist. Our picks were The Modernist Lemon constructed with creme fraiche cake, coconut ice cream and tamarind sauce along with The Mocha a mousse accompanied by sweet butter brioche and remarkable, intensely flavored concord grape confiture. At the next table Mont Blanc was served on a dry ice bed that produced a cloud of mist moving across the table and flowing down toward the floor. Across the dining room ice cream was hand cranked table side, presented in a miniature cone. All this for a Prix Fixe of $35.00 – the price of just the main course anywhere else.

The dining room was full on a beautiful October afternoon. Next to us was a couple from Seattle up from a family visit in New York City, on the way to Lexington, MA. In the corner was a group of 16 in chef’s uniforms wearing name tags: cooking enthusiasts at the CIA for a week-long culinary boot camp, just one of the continuing-ed options for professionals and amateurs alike offered by the school.

The CIA was founded after World War II as The New Haven Restaurant Institute to fill the need for well-trained hospitality professionals. In 1972 it moved from Connecticut to the former St. Andrew-on-Hudson Jesuit novitiate in Hyde Park, NY. The original use of the building is evident in the imposing facade facing the Hudson River and the high-ceilinged gothic student dining hall in the former chapel. Extensive renovation and expansion has created a state of the art foodservice education center.

Students in their chef coats and check pants are everywhere, walking the halls, working in the display classrooms and kitchens, and crossing the campus to dorms and the library. There is, of course a gift shop, if like us, you need more than the memory of a good meal to take home. There’s lots to do in the area as well: The Franklin Roosevelt house and library, Vanderbilt Mansion, nearby Rhinebeck and lots of good places to eat. The Culinary Institute and surrounding Hudson Valley are great destinations, only an hour and a half away. We’re looking forward to going back to try the other CIA restaurants.