We at the San Diego Culinary Institute dedicate ourselves to providing aspiring culinarians the best education available at a reasonable cost. Through our network of employers, we help our students and graduates find employment opportunities in some of the finest kitchens in the world and assist them as they establish and build their careers. Through the standardized curricula of our programs, we ensure the employers in our network that the graduates they employ are well-trained with a thorough background in basic, professional culinary and baking and pastry skills.

To these ends, we commit ourselves to the following standards:
- We, as an organization, are committed to raising the standards of American culinary education. In doing so, we seek out the finest instructors in the business and commit ourselves to continually review and elevate our standards of excellence and our skills as educators.
- We utilize the same top quality ingredients found in fine dining establishments all over the country so that our students understand the flavor profiles of exotic, high quality ingredients and how to use them to produce the finest dishes.
- We ensure that our kitchen classrooms are always well-stocked with the tools of the trade so that our graduates leave us with the confidence they need to perform for the most demanding employers.
- We have created a well-defined curriculum, designed to ensure that every student learns the skills necessary to excel in the workplace and that every student receives a consistent standard of quality in their education: Every graduate of SDCI reflects this high standard and meets the weight of expectations of their employers. We do this not only for the sake of our students, but also with an eye to their employers. All employers can expect every graduate of our program to possess a certain set of skills and to perform to a high standard of ex