Chef's window at the CIA, looking into a bakery classroom.

A glorious September afternoon, it's the eve of graduation weekend at the Culinary Institute of America. A sold-out 4 pm tour of the renowned college will soon commence in the "hospitality house" lobby of Roth Hall. Outside the main entrance, visitors-in-waiting stroll through just-completed Anton Plaza, where a nine-foot fountain encircled by flower-patterned, multicolored brickwork gushes water for the first time. Wrapped in a Mediterranean-inspired balustrade and replete with freestanding pilasters, gazebos, benches, and deftly manicured gardens, the 32,000 square-foot piazza affording magnificent views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains will be dedicated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony the next day.

Anton Plaza (named for donors in the airport-food industry) constitutes the centerpiece of a multi-million-dollar renovation underway at the country's premier culinary university.

Founded in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut, by Frances Roth and Katharine Angell, the CIA moved in 1972 to its current location in Hyde Park, the former Jesuit seminary St. Andrew-on-Hudson. Long-since converted Roth Hall currently houses three of the school's five public restaurants (each run by a duo of am and pm professional chefs, who direct pupils), along with instructional kitchens, a bakeshop and a combined bookstore-gift shop. Complementing this main building's redbrick façade, the newly adjacent plaza's design projects grandiosity yet achieves function, crowning a multi-level parking garage constructed beneath. Above ground, on the north side of Roth, a waterfall engineered six months prior gently cascades. Nearing completion to the south, sandwiched between the CIA's two stand-alone restaurants, the future administration building will house financial offices and a cooking theater, where prospective students will observe demonstrations.

Spearheaded by Dr. Tim Ryan ('77), the first CIA alumnus and faculty member to become president of the college, recent upgrades aim to attract the public as much as students. (Approximately two-thirds of 2,300 enrollees in bachelor and associate degree programs live in the eight, well-appointed residents halls, landscaped with gazebo-dotted recreation areas, including a roof-shaded barbeque pit alongside the river.) Already the third-leading tourist destination in Duchess County, a quarter-million visitors take campus tours or dine in CIA eateries each year. According to senior communications manager Stephan Hengst ('00), the university is continuously honing its community focus. "We want patrons to have a full experience in our five restaurants—from start to finish," he says. The CIA must compete with its own graduates, who routinely open regional restaurants, artisan cheese shops, wineries and catering facilities, enhancing the Hudson Valley's reputation as a culinary locale.

Diners in the special functions room at the Culinary Institute of America.

Acting as my private escort, Hengst leads me away from Anton Plaza along a glossy, copper-hued scored concrete walkway bounded by a row of black stanchions. Frank Sinatra plays on an outdoor sound system as we pass nearby iron benches stationed outside Ristorante Caterina de'Medici (also called Cola Vita Center for Italian Food and Wine), a mustard-colored stucco structure graced with green shutters and a red pantiled roof. A life-size stone lion guards the establishment's foyer as the music shifts to Italian classical and the space opens to a cathedral-ceiling formal room with plush, upholstered chairs surrounding elegantly laid out tables, a reservation placard on each. Authentic, regional Italian cuisine is served in this main dining space, which expands through archways to a connecting chamber. The sumptuously decorated space would seem to indicate fancy-dress dining, but Hengst explains that the CIA's restaurants are more causal than they once were. "It's not like the days when if a man didn't have a jacket we'd lend him one to dine," says Hengst.

Guests also may partake of selected menu items in Caterina de'Medici's Al Forna, a ground-floor walk-in area with causal seating, including a bar that spans an open-kitchen, suitable for chatting-up the chefs of tomorrow. Steps away, alfresco dining is likewise optional in season on an umbrella-appointed terrace that overlooks lamppost-lined Italian herb gardens, Conrad Hilton Library (donated by the hotel-mogul family in 1992) directly in view beyond. Back inside, a private dining room upstairs (standard in all campus restaurants for parties of up to 12), is available in the Tower Room. Featuring operatic balconies and a cocktail alcove, its windows face the latest CIA construction site.

Students studying wine in one of the CIA's stadium-seating classrooms.

Administrative headquarters (slated for December opening) will wrap around the existing Shunsuke Takaki School of Baking and Pastry and adjoining J. Willard Marriot Continuing Education Building. Within these walls, scores of professionals enroll in continuing education courses each year, and more than a thousand additional food enthusiasts take adult education courses under the tutelage of chef-instructors. Tuition ranges from $165 to $1,850. The hands-on curriculum includes a suite of one-day programs (followed by eat-what-you-cook meals), such as culinary foundations, world cuisines, healthy cuisine, garnishing, baking and pastry, and beverages. Two- to five-day intensives known as Culinary Boot Camps raise the culinary bar. For instance, in CIA "Basic Training" ($1,850) recruits learn the fundamentals of kitchen terminology, knife skills and cooking methods. They also dine in four of the CIA's on-campus restaurants, participate in wine tastings and pairings, and take a cooking practicum exam. Young chefs (ages 8 to 18) may enroll in specialized classes, such as Breakfast Favorites (turnovers, pastries, muffins, sweet breads, and quiche) and International Cuisine—from egg rolls to empanadas.

Delicious smells fill pathways as Hengst and I next head for a courtyard that connects several buildings, including freestanding St. Andrew's Café. "One of the popular misconceptions about CIA restaurants is if you don't have a reservation six months in advance you won't get in. That's simply not true anymore," Hengst explains. True, the eateries quickly fill during peak-season foliage-gazing months, but from November through August one can call and get a reservation the same night, he assures me. Contrary to another popular misnomer, children are also welcome in all CIA restaurants, though the communications director recommends St. Andrew's, which features family-friendly menus, service, and prices. "It also caters to walk-ins, knowing families may make last-minute decisions about going out to dinner," he says.

Wheat-stenciled glass on the entrance doors, rattan furniture, potted plants in corners, blue-tinted accents, and jazz music gives the square-shaped dining room of cozy St. Andrew's a tropical, casual feel. The fare mirrors the philosophy of fit-looking Chef Mike Garnero, who characterizes himself as "professionally and personally focused on nutrition."

CIA's Apple Pie Bakery Cafe.

Across the public square from the eatery, a set of stairs leads back inside Roth Hall, where chandelier-lit, sparkling linoleum corridors wend past skills kitchens mounted with large "show" windows that allow visitors to look upon chefs-in-training. One of two dozen work-study students employed as professional guides, C. J. Austin, clad in check pants, her name stitched in Tuscan blue on her starched chef's jacket, is conducting a tour, paused in a sun-splashed hallway beside a glass-covered model of the CIA campus. Fielding questions with ease and confidence, she explains the history of "flavor profiles," using sarsaparilla as an example.

Hengst and I meander past display cases lined with institutional memorabilia and peek in on several skills classes in progress, including the daunting Asian Cuisine. We then duck into Apple Pie Bakery Café, a relaxed, folksy décor no-reservations restaurant. Open weekdays until 6:30 pm, it serves soup, salad, sandwiches, and baked goods to the breakfast, lunch, and early-dinner crowd. Patrons place orders at a counter and then CIA waiters deliver the food. This low-key atmosphere underscores the fact that along with celebrity alumni such as Sara Moulton ('77, executive chef and television host) and Anthony Bourdain ('78, bestselling food writer and television host) CIA graduates include executive chefs of Burger King and McDonald's as well as CEO and founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill chain Steven Ells ('90).

The remaining four restaurants serve between 150 and 200 patrons per night, he tells me, as we make our way to the oldest—the red-leathered, red-carpeted Escoffier. Featuring classical, multiple-course French cuisine served tableside off guéridons or under plate-cover clouches set down and lifted in unison, it also boasts a wall-size show window set in a yellow-brick arch. I watch enviously as a student expertly fillets a fish, a task that has always flummoxed me.

To top off my tour, I meet a companion at the recently redecorated American Bounty Restaurant, specializing in seasonal dishes made from fresh, regional ingredients. I'm especially interested in pm head-of-command Anita Eisenhauser, the first female chef to run a CIA restaurant and touted as culinary revolutionary. Asked her vision, the 38-year-old answers: "To have a modern and dynamic education for the students, meaning I teach them the basics but allow them creativity in making contributions to the menu."

The restaurant's efficient maitre d' leads us through the oak-themed club-chair bar to the long, main dining room, where arched floor-to-ceiling windows flanked by stately drapery reveal a courtyard with a simple fountain. A stained-glass window depicting a fall-harvest cornucopia anchors the wall nearest our stand-alone, scotch-plaid banquette. In an adjoining eating area to our rear, tables face a show window, where a few feet away pâtissiers fashion the night's dessert offerings.

Architectural detail of the just-completed 32,000-square-foot Anton Plaza at the CIA.

From more than 3,000 bottles on hand, all from American vintners, we select Leap Frog, a crisp, dry Napa sauvignon blanc. One of a team of student servers next bids us choose from a basket of artisan breads. Then a trio of cold soups (avocado, melon, and gazpacho) soon appears at our table, courtesy of the chef. We especially delight in the gazpacho, pine nuts providing nuanced flavor. For the next course we split a lobster salad, presented with peaches on a bed of seasonal greens and lightly drizzled in lemon-infused olive oil. My good-tasting entrée of salmon stuffed with spinach and marscapone cheese and poached in a sweet reduction is nicely paired with lightly fried sections of lotus root. My companion's medallions of lamb (cooked to perfection) wrapped in chicken and accompanied by pureed potatoes is inventive, though less satisfying.

Feeling full but not overly satiated, we decide to skip dessert and sample from the cheese cart, featuring artisan offerings from local producers Coach Farm, Old Chatham Sheepherding Company and Sprout Creek Farm. Dried cherries, apricots, grapes and almonds enhance the distinctive tastes of each variety, as do cups of strong coffee. Happy and well served, we exit American Bounty, heading for the parking garage. Above Anton Plaza an orange-wedge moon smiles in the sky like a symbol of hospitality.