Whether as chefs, cake decorators, specialty food purveyors or caterers, ICE alumni are finding success in a plethora of different avenues in the food world. Check out just some of the alumni finding success and making recent headlines.

*Michelle Bommarito (Culinary ’97) and Alumni Hall of Achievement inductee Elisa Strauss (Pastry ’01) were named two of the 2011 Top Ten Cake Artists by Dessert Professional magazine.

*Alumni Hall of Achievement inductee Dan Segall (Culinary ’02) will be featured in a new Food Network Asia series, A Culinary Coup: The Launching of Ku De Ta, which follows the daunting task of developing this high-profile Singaporean restaurant’s menu and kitchen team, completely from scratch, within eight weeks.

*Alumni Hall of Achievement inductee Caryn Stabinsky’s (Pastry ’02) new venture, Loaf, was highlighted in the New York Times. Chef Caryn is also an ICE Chef Instructor.

*Allison Fishman (Culinary ’01) has published her first cookbook, You Can Trust A Skinny Cook. She was featured on the Today show on Monday, April 18, and on will be featured on The Early Show on Saturday, April 23. Allison is also a Chef Instructor in ICE’s recreational division.

*Kelly Senyei (Culinary ’10), Content Producer at Gourmet Live, visited Luke’s Lobster in the debut of Gourmet Live‘s Pic a Dish segment on NBC’s NY Nonstop Foodies.

To connect with these ICE alumni and many more, join ICE’s network on LinkedIn, or follow ICE on Facebook and Twitter.

Chef Rachel Binder Helping a Student in Class

Last week, DICED told you about the new Chef Instructors in our Culinary Arts classrooms. But ICE also recently hired a team of new Chef Instructors for our Pastry & Baking Arts program. With their wide and varied backgrounds, they are sure to bring a plethora of skills and techniques to their ICE students.

Vicki Wells comes to ICE from a role as Executive Pastry Chef at Buddakan. Chef Vicki is already a member of our Advisory Board and has an impressive background. Inspired by the legendary Madeleine Kamman, Wells left Emerson College to study under Kamman. Upon completing her studies, she went abroad to study with the French masters at La Varenne. In the ensuing years, she gained experience while working in the kitchens of some of New York’s finest culinary masters, including Sarabeth’s Kitchen, Hotel Plaza Athenée, Maxim’s, Montrachet, Rakel’s, Metro, El Dorado Petit, Le Bernardin and Trattoria Dell’Arte. In 2000, Bobby Flay invited her to take over the pastry departments of his restaurants, Mesa Grill and Bolo, and eventually Bar Americain. Chef Vicki has been one of Flay’s sous chefs on Iron Chef America five times and won every time! She was listed as on of Pastry Art and Design’s Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America in both 2002 and 2003.

Rachel Binder joins the ICE Pastry & Baking Arts team from her prior role as Executive Pastry Chef at Tabla, where she worked since 2009. Chef Rachel credits her love of food to baking with her mother and grandmothers in Jerusalem where she was raised. A graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, Rachel studied pastry at the New York Restaurant School and externed at Union Square Café. Under Chef Peter Hoffman of Savoy, she developed a passion for seasonal, local and sustainable food which she has continued to nurture and develop. More…

When ICE President Rick Smilow and Anne E. McBride wrote Culinary Careers: How to Get Your Dream Job in Food they discovered a plethora of food jobs they had never heard of before. Since the book’s release, they have been discovering even more interesting career paths in the food world. DICED shares some of them with you in a reoccurring feature, “Unique Culinary Careers.”

Among the chefs and entrepreneurs profiled in the book, there are several culinary careers in education. There are a multitude of career paths for instructors and teachers working in colleges or culinary schools, whether teaching career programs, recreational cooking classes or even working with private clients. In the culinary industry, an important part of education is invaluable experience that comes with working in restaurants. ICE’s Chef Instructors have worked in some of the country’s most prestigious restaurants. Recently, ICE welcomed alum (and Alumni Hall of Achievement inductee) Caryn Stabinsky to our roster of dedicated and experienced Chef Instructors. Chef Caryn first completed the Pastry & Baking Arts program at ICE before working at Oceana and wd-50. She is the Executive Pastry Chef at Monkey Bar, where she was part of the opening team. Before she starts using all that experience to help shape the next generation of pastry chefs, we asked her about her experiences in industry and designing a pastry menu.

How would you describe your job?
At Monkey Bar, I was the opening chef. I started here when they had nothing on the walls. One of the very first things I did was spend 2 weeks testing and developing recipes. The owners had a very clear idea of what they wanted in the dessert menu. The style is simple Americana. It was great because I’m a person who starts with a recipe and plays and messes with it until I get what I want. I did everything from scratch. Now, we make our own bread from our own recipe and an array of plated desserts. We make everything ourselves, including fresh ice cream and sorbet. More…