California Culinary Academy Goes On-Line; Renown professional cooking school offers new approach to culinary education; New WEB site wins critical acclaim.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 27, 1995--In response to the ever-increasing demand for its services, the California Culinary Academy (NASDAQ:COOK) has joined the exciting new world of the Internet, with its own site on the World Wide Web.

Culinary enthusiasts around the world now have instant access to the vast resources of one of the world's foremost professional cooking schools at http://www.baychef.com -- all with no membership fees other than the regular cost of connecting to the Internet.

Conceived as an on-line community, the Academy's WEB site, known as On-line SPICE (Superior Products in Culinary Education), is a comprehensive location with over 35 separate departments. Culinary professionals to serious home cooks will find the location packed with information, all of which is easily accessible through the site's graphically interactive spice rack format.

The recipe database grows daily as the Academy's faculty of 45 chef-instructors add their treasured creations, and a research staff is busy answering questions from enthusiasts around the world through the Culinary Queries department.

"On-line SPICE gives the California Culinary Academy the opportunity to be the culinary information provider to the world. Through our WEB site, Academy chefs will answer questions on everything from pairing food with beer or wine to how to get your souffle' to rise just right," said the site's creator, Andrew E. Feinstein, the Academy's director of multimedia.

Feinstein, who was a foodservice management instructor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, developed UNLV's first CD ROM viewbook for potential hotel administration applicants. As with the work he did for UNLV, Feinstein's goal is to make the Academy's on-line information entertaining as well as educational.

The Academy's WEB site was recently hailed by The Point, the industry's premier WEB site reviewer, in the top five percent of all sites evaluated worldwide. The Academy's site ranked second in the food and drink category on presentation.

In addition to information on the Academy's cooking programs, admissions procedures and financial aid, On-line SPICE profiles chef instructors, offers articles, a recipe database and practical cooking techniques for culinary enthusiasts and provides an interactive culinary help line. Feinstein sees the interactive component of the Academy's WEB site as a tremendous resource.

Browsers of On-line SPICE will quickly notice a culinary theme was designed into the Academy's WEB site. One is greeted by menu options represented by bottles of spices. For example, "clicking" on star annis will take browsers to news of the Academy, and selecting cardamom will move into Gastronomy and recipes, techniques and articles. An easy and convenient "help" function can be reached by "clicking" on a toque, or chef's hat.

On-line SPICE also provides information on the Academy's restaurants, the Careme Room and the Academy Grill, including complete menus and wine lists. Alumni can log-on to the WEB site and find out what fellow Academy graduates are up to, and current and potential investors can review the Academy's annual report along with other investor news.

In designing On-line SPICE, Feinstein sought to ensure that access to the Academy's WEB site was consistent with the quality of the site itself. After careful consideration, Sirius Connections of the Bay Area was selected as the Academy's access provider. On-line SPICE can be reached at http://www.baychef.com.

California Culinary Academy Inc., established in 1977 and headquartered in San Francisco, offers two fully accredited professional education programs including a 16-month culinary arts degree program and a 30-week baking and pastry degree program. Both programs provide students an opportunity to learn in a dynamic, "real-world" environment that integrates hands-on culinary education with the operational side of the foodservice business.

This practical approach to culinary education has created strong industry demand for its graduates. In addition, the Academy also provides a host of weekend consumer education programs and is in the process of acquiring the New York Restaurant School, which further broadens its reach from coast-to-coast. -0-

Note to Editors: High quality transparency for publication available upon request.

CONTACT: California Culinary Academy Inc., San Francisco

Andy Feinstein, 415/771-3536