Student Spotlight: Ben Dorsey

Building Skills, Friendships, and a Future in Food

Meet Ben Dorsey, a Food Business Management major with a Culinary Arts focus at our Hyde Park, NY campus. Originally from Montgomery, PA, Ben shares why he chose CIA, what’s been most rewarding about his journey, and how hands-on experiences are shaping his path toward opening his own restaurant. He also reflects on the friendships, collaboration, and shared passion for sustainability that make the CIA community so special.

1. What program are you studying?

I am majoring in Food Business Management with an emphasis in Culinary Arts. I picked it because I had been cooking all my life, and I wanted to pursue something that I had been learning on my own. It was recommended to me that getting a business degree would be the best way to move up in restaurants and eventually own my own business.

2. What are your career goals, and how do you feel CIA is helping you reach them?

My career goal would be to own my own restaurant, maybe own multiple. I think CIA is helping me by connecting me with incredibly hard-working and talented chefs on our faculty. Connecting with them and learning from them is probably the most invaluable resource we have here.

3. What has been the most rewarding part of your CIA experience so far?

The most rewarding part of my experience has been meeting my friends here. Getting to know so many people and becoming really close with them has been very rewarding.

4. What’s your favorite class or hands-on experience so far?

My two favorite classes have been A La Carte and Meat Identification. In Meat ID, Chef Schneller shared a lot of his knowledge through older meat buyer guides, articles on obscure meats, and research on different kinds of meat and the global meat industry, which was really interesting. The class itself was very hands-on, especially learning different approaches to butchering.

I also loved A La Carte with Chef Ro. It was my first experience working in a true à la carte environment, and she was amazing to learn from. If we showed up prepared and were willing to take on more responsibility, she gave us creative freedom beyond just following the recipe, which made the experience even more rewarding.

5. What’s one thing you’d tell someone considering CIA?

I would tell them to really understand what they want and to be honest with themselves. You don’t need prior back‑of‑house experience to succeed here, but you do need the right mindset—flexibility, openness, and a willingness to fully commit to what you’re learning. The more effort you put in, the more you’ll get out of the experience.

6. How do you plan to use your CIA education to be the next generation of leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs?

One of the ideas that my peers and I care a lot about is sustainability. While we don’t yet have the experience of running our own restaurants, it’s an ideal that really matters to us. It’s something we learn about, talk about, and want to carry forward into our own work. I think it’s about taking what’s been done in the past, keeping what works, and applying it in a way that feels thoughtful and relevant today, without being restricted by ideas that no longer make sense.