When you attend a class at ICE, whether it be for a recreational class or as a full-time student, you are often here to prepare food. In most cases your ingredients magically appear and you get busy in the kitchen, forgetting about how they got there. I recently look a trip down to our stewarding department and learned so much about what passes through the school on a weekly basis. This group really acts as the pulse of ICE as they ensure that classes are stocked and ready to go with the finest ingredients in town.

I walked away with a few fun facts to share from our grocery shopping last year:
23,688 pounds of butter passed through the school
16,050 pounds of veal bones were used
17, 136 pounds of chocolate were purchased totaling more than $60,000!
140-170 pull sheets (grocery lists) were submitted each week
3700 ingredients are available in stewarding

I found those statistics fascinating considering all that goes on around the school. While I might find these nuggets fascinating, the group from stewarding said if I really wanted to get a glimpse of the fun down there, I should come back when the pheasants, beef tongue and pigs come through.

 

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Ever wonder what’s cooking at ICE? Five Course Friday gives you a snapshot of what we are whipping up weekly. Whether you pop in to a recreational class, catch a professional demo or watch the transformation from student to chef, there is something scrumptious happening daily.


Lentil Walnut Salad from Culinary Arts students


Stuffed mushroom with spinach, potatoes and bacon cooked in a curry, coconut base


One students approach to sea scallops: Panko crusted with red pepper sauce


Another student’s take: Pan seared rosemary crusted scallops over sauteed spinach with bacon, roasted tomato and garlic


Chocolate cake with praline buttercream

Have a delicious weekend!

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Ever wonder what’s cooking at ICE? Five-Course Friday gives you a snapshot of what we are whipping up weekly. Whether you pop in to a recreational class, catch a professional demo or watch the transformation from student to chef, there is something scrumptious happening daily.


Tarts with goat cheese, herb salad and tomatillo salsa


Divine achiote chicken!


Beautifully stuffed gorditas stuffed with shredded beef


Catfish served in a cork husk


Cupcakes topped with flowers from pastry classes

Have a delicious weekend!

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Ever wonder what’s cooking at ICE? Five Course Friday gives you a snapshot of what we are whipping up weekly. Whether you pop into a recreational class, catch a professional demo or watch the transformation from student to chef, there is something scrumptious happening daily.


Chicken Liver to start


Ragu that leaves you wanting more, more, more!


Artichoke tossed with peas and pancetta


Red snapper wrapped in prosciutto


A decadent Pithivier for dessert

Have a delicious weekend!

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Ever wonder what’s cooking at ICE? Five-Course Friday gives you a snapshot of what we are whipping up weekly. Whether you pop in to a recreational class, catch a professional demo or watch the transformation from student to chef, there is something scrumptious happening daily.

Colorful salad from culinary arts curriculum

A delicious, creamy gorgonzola risotto from proud culinary arts students

Pork chops

Pure heaven! Chocolate banana dessert from pastry and baking students

Who doesn’t love fig this time of year? What a beautiful display from pastry students!

Have a delicious weekend!

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Last night, ICE hosted the 19th annual awards ceremony for the Dessert Professional Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America. ICE Creative Director, Michael Laiskonis awarded the winners which included Sally Camacho of WP24, Craig Harzewski of Naha, Sandro Micheli of Daniel, Marc Aumont of The Modern, Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, Angela Pinkerton of Eleven Madison Park, Damien Herrgott of Bosie Tea Parlor, Nathaniel Reid of Norman Love Confections, Jean-Marie Auboine of Jean-Marie Auboine Chocolatier and Chris Hanner of The School of Pastry Design.

The evening featured a walk around tasting of desserts from these talented chefs and was sponsored by E. Guittard Chocolate and KitchenAid. Leaving on a sugar high, guests packed the house and were eager to sample a dish from each celebrated chef. Some of the delicious highlights are captured below.

Congratulations to all of the 2012 Top Ten Pastry Chefs!

More…

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It’s amazing what can change in a year.

Exactly one year ago today, I began my journey as a pastry student at ICE. I stepped into checkered pants and slip-resistant black kitchen shoes for the first time. I buttoned my white chef coat from collar to bottom and covered my curly hair with a commis hat, having no idea the scope of what I would learn in the nine months of class and three months of externship that were to follow.

The question most students leave ICE with is “What Next?” It’s the natural evolution of going through an educational and vocational program that inevitably leads to a change in the course of your career path. For me, when I started the program, my goal was to use my experience as a way to improve my ability to advise students who were going through the same thing. Of course, I was also looking forward to learning how to make a tasty pastry! Through it all, I promised myself to take my own advice and be open to anything that came my way. As much as I warn students that it happens, I truly can’t believe how much my goals and plans changed. In the past year, I fell in love — with working with my hands to create something that others can enjoy, with the thought of having my own food business and with a boy. All of a sudden, my goals and plans changed.

As a Career Services Advisor, I always believed that what I spoke to students about was much more than just their job — what you choose as a job and career path needs to fit your lifestyle and make sense for your career goals and life goals. Last week at the James Beard Awards, I listened to one of the winners as he quoted the saying, “If you love what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life.” It made me realize again just how much of an impact your job can have on your everyday life. I do love my job. I love to meet chefs, listen to their passion for creating a certain type of food and experience and then have the opportunity to taste their expression. I love going to restaurants and watching how well a service staff works in making sure each guest is refilled, cleared and reset. I love sitting down with students and seeing their eyes light up when they verbalize their dream of opening a bakery, working with a chef they’ve looked up to or discovering that there are so many other options in the industry outside of a kitchen. More…

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I’ve helped over 300 students select their externship in the time that I’ve been at ICE. So, when it came time for me to decide, I thought I had it pretty much covered. I decided to challenge myself in a restaurant where I imagined I would learn speed and be in a place that feels familiar to me given my past front-of-house experience. My decision was a Spanish restaurant on the Upper West Side named Graffit. Aside from loving all things Spanish, I had known Chef Jesus Nunez for some time and was really attracted to his philosophy of combining food and art as well as building a family-like team. So, I informed my advisor of the details, an agreement for my 210-hour externship was put in place, and I was ready to embark on my first professional back-of-house experience.

All I really remember from my first day at Graffit is that I felt hot. As I made my way up to the kitchen in my checkered pants, an unmarked chef coat and my big black kitchen shoes, I was introduced to my new pastry mentor, Rachel, and instantly felt myself start to sweat. I had a sudden flashback of walking into the kitchen at Extra Virgin, seeing the line cooks with beads of sweat rolling down their faces as they worked through our Friday night rush. At that time, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what it was like to work in a kitchen. Even in my role at ICE, I have visited numerous kitchens and learned about the lifestyle of a cook by reading books like Kitchen Confidential and having countless conversations with chefs. I knew from these experiences, that life in the kitchen was hard and meant long hours. I had stood for hours greeting and seating guests while working front-of-house, but working in a kitchen is just so much more physical than I ever expected — up and down the stairs to the prep area, back and forth to the walk-in, moving in the rhythm of a kitchen that during service is nothing short of organized chaos. Within a week, I learned my first lesson: front-of- house is not back-of-house. More…

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Well, it’s done. We’ve decorated our fondant cakes and invited our friends and family to our Senior Reception (check out the photos of all our cakes above). Nine months and 100 lessons later, what have I really learned through taking the Pastry Arts & Baking Arts program at ICE? Back when I wrote my very first post, before I knew how to tare a scale, I couldn’t have even imagined that I’d be able to make flowers out of gumpaste. But I also took away a lot more than just recipes and techniques. I agree wholeheartedly with what I wrote then — I did learn much more than what was included in the curriculum. I think we all did.

I asked some of my classmates what they learned, including what they would do differently knowing what they know now. Here is a look at the unexpected lessons my fellow classmates and I gained during our time as pastry students.

Humility
As you can imagine, in a three-night-a-week evening class, most of us held full-time jobs. As a career changer, Ivana was learning a whole new set of skills. She shared, “What a humbling experience it is to start something new after working towards one career for 15 years.” More…

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I was never one for flowers. This Valentine’s Day, knowing that I have a strong dislike of the traditional red roses overpopulating deli storefronts and florists on February 14, my boyfriend surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of plum-colored tulips. They were beautiful — they were a surprise, they were gorgeous and they even smelled good. But later in the evening, after leaving pastry class, I said to him, “Next year, if you’re going to get me flowers, I think you should make them out of gumpaste.”

Since I last wrote, that’s what I’ve been doing — making flowers out of gumpaste. At the start of each class, I find myself wondering how we’re going to spend the entire class just making flowers. But four hours later, I realize we have kept ourselves happily busy. The process is as tedious as it is relaxing, and as time-consuming as it is rewarding. What starts as a simple bud, comes to life a little more each day as we add petals, leaves and a final touch of petal dust that adds the perfect amount of color, dimension and magical shimmer. At least, that’s the goal. More…

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