Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute

Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute (MCAI), is a private postsecondary school that offers a Certificate in Culinary Arts by the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV). We are located in Arlington, Virginia.

Our culinary training consists of brigade training, cooking fundamentals, multi-cultural recipes, French cuisine, baking & pastry, business P&L, restaurant BOH operations, culinary inventory and culinary math. Students are prepared to become a junior sous cook.

Scheduled programs are:

• 14 week daytime, Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm
• 26 week evening Monday - Thursday 6:00pm - 9:30pm and Saturday 8am-2pm.

Our program was put under a microscope by the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV). SCHEV protects you, the student, and gives you a voice if you have any issues with MCAI. It also makes sure that our refund policy is locked tight and the same for each person. If any issues arise you are protected. Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute strives to take a modern gastronomic approach to culinary education.We are open to  anyone looking to pave a new career path.  

During each class you learn every dish, not just part of the dish that is assigned. Sounds like common sense right? I mean this is what you think you are paying for when you attend culinary school, but at all major culinary schools you learn the French way, which means you could walk out of culinary school not knowing how to make hollandaise sauce because it was assigned to someone else.  We do not do this.  If it's on our curriculum, you will learn how to do it. There is no "luck of the draw" learning. This is just one of the ways MCAI is different. 

The second differentiator is timing--a short comprehensive program will get you working in the industry faster, or starting your business sooner. It's smarter education not harder. The third differentiator is that our tuition is affordable, and now you can get financing.

With the 14 or 26 week programs we offer, we aim to educate our students so that they can reach their creative goals, appreciate the true meaning of hospitality, understand the business complexities of food, wine, spirits and service, and compete for a place on the line.

MCAI achieves this by:

• Small class sizes to ensure personal instruction
• Flexible instruction offering daytime and evening classes.
• Certificate of Culinary Arts
• Teaching with modern gastronomic techniques, tools and ingredients
• National Restaurant Association Textbooks for study and practice
• Giving students a realistic expectation of life after graduation
• Job Placement
• Continuous development through student, faculty, and staff feedback