Faculty Bio

Kelly Mills is a chef-instructor at The Culinary Institute of America. Chef Mills holds a Culinary Arts Degree from the British Columbia Vocational Institute as well as the honor of earning "Top Apprentice in Canada" from the Canadian Chefs Association. Right from the start, Chef Mills aligned his career with excellence: he began as an apprentice at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver, WA where he worked for two years. Chef Mills moved up the brigade as assistant banquet and sous chef at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago, before taking the position of Executive Sous Chef at the Four Seasons Olympic Hotel in Seattle. In October 1985, Chef Mills took the Executive Chef position at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco where he transformed this classic hotel by creating one of the country's most progressive hotel culinary programs. From the early 1990s until joining the CIA in 2011, Chef Mills was the chef and owner of Kelly's on Trinity, a tremendously successful restaurant in the heart of San Francisco's financial district. (Napa Valley, CA)