Professional Chef looking for advice on going back to school

[chefpablo]

New to the boards but read everyone's comments on the top schools. I have over 15 years as a professional and have worked 5 years as garde and banquet in a top hotel restaurant and the last 5 years as an Exec Chef for a corporate dining company. Looking to push to the next level and feel like a top quality culinary education might be what my resume needs. Don't care about a degree, but need exposure, the classical education and, quite frankly, something new and positive on my resume. Don't really want to end up in school with people who are fresh from high school or who are career changing and have never worked as a professional chef (no offense of course to anyone). I am in NJ and must be able to commute so I have looked at ICE, FCI and The Art Institute (formerly NYRS). I have also considered doing the ProChef Cert program at CIA. Does anyone out there have any suggestions? It would be nice to hear from anyone who went to one of these programs after more than a decade in the field. Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[Suzanne]

Of that list, CIA is probably your best bet: the others are geared toward beginning cooks or those with some but not much experience. The program at Art Institute is different from when I was there, but it's still only for entry-level professionals, and ICE/FCI are beginner-professional and avocational, but not "continuing ed" for experienced chefs. The materials I've seen on ProChef make it look very focused on specific topics, so you could brush up and/or learn new stuff as necessary. And while commuting for the program might not be possible (depending on where you are in NJ), at least the courses are short intensives, so you wouldn't have to spend a lot of time away.