Rich Coppedge is a professor in Baking and Pastry Arts at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Chef Coppedge currently teaches Advanced Baking Principles to students pursuing their bachelor’s and associate degrees from the CIA. During his tenure at the CIA, he has taught various bread baking courses.
Chef Coppedge is the author of Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America (Adams Media, 2008). He also helped develop and provide content for the CIA’s bread baking instructional video series.
Prior to joining the college’s faculty in 1992, Chef Coppedge held positions in such prestigious properties as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Walt Disney World. Chef Coppedge was also the bread baker for The Dunes Club in Providence, RI and the Narragansett Bay Baking Company in Newport, RI. For 10 years he was an assistant professor in the baking program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence.
The CIA Faculty Member of the Year for 1994, Chef Coppedge is a member of the Bread Bakers Guild of America and the Retailer’s Bakery Association. He received First Place for Pastry Grand Buffet, and a Silver Medal, Bronze Medal, and Judges Award at the Boston Food Show. Chef Coppedge earned awards for his bread displays at the New York Food Show from 1993 to 1995. He was a member of the CIA faculty team that won the coveted Marc Sarrazin Cup, grand prize of the Société Culinaire Philanthropique’s New York Culinary Salon, in both 1996 and 1997.
Chef Coppedge is a Certified Master Baker (C.M.B.). He holds an associate degree in culinary arts and a Bachelor of Science degree in food service management from Johnson & Wales University.
