A bowl of bouillabaisse at Bocuse restaurant, part of the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park. Credit: Culinary Institute of America “All right,” I said, picking up my spoon.

And the reason for that is, in large part, because of the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, which popped out of the proverbial oven 78 years ago. On May 22, 1946, ...