By Carly DeFilippo

It’s our first full week of classes post-Sandy, but students in the Culinary Arts program are more than making up for lost time.

Chef James Briscione taught an impromptu demo on pork cracklins.

Culinary students mastered signature dishes by Thomas Keller, including this salmon tartare tuile.

Hand-rolled pizzas were a highlight of the week’s bread courses.

Perfecting an American classic: juicy beef burgers.

In the pastry kitchens, students whipped up “Chelsea rolls”, topped with cinnamon, sugar and currants.

If you’re a student, let us know what you’re most proud of cooking this week! Send your pictures (with descriptions) to blog@iceculinary.com.

By Tim Bruderek

This past week I attended ICE’s New Thanksgiving Meal, taught by Chef Anthony Sasso, an ICE alumnus and the chef du cuisine at New York City’s Casa Mono. This fabulous menu featured modern twists on classic Thanksgiving flavors, with the hope of offering creative ways to present guests with the traditional ingredients we all love. All of the recipes were easy enough to take home and try out for friends and family this holiday season.

Smoked mushroom stuffed turkey breast roulade

When it comes to Thanksgiving, it’s all about the bird (there’s a reason it’s called “Turkey Day” after all). People typically roast the whole turkey just so we can see it perched majestically at the center of the dining room table. But like most cooks, I find it nearly impossible to prepare the perfect roasted turkey. Since different parts of the bird cook at different times and temperatures, there’s a reason why you have overdone breast meat and undercooked legs. Call me crazy, but I’m getting a bit sick of the same dry turkey, and having to pour gravy over the whole thing to moisten it up!

This class helped solve the problem of having to contend with dry Thanksgiving turkey. The menu included Smoked Mushroom Stuffed Turkey Breasts, prepared in a roulade style and cooked using an at-home smoker. With a flavorful stuffing of sautéed oyster mushrooms, onions, garlic, herbs and LOTS of butter, the turkey breasts were smoked then finished in the oven to ensure a moist and flavorful roast that made for the perfect replacement for that whole bird we’ve all grown tired of. (For those of you who’d like to try it at home, scroll down for the recipe, courtesy of Chef Sasso).

Offering up another twist, the class learned how to get the most out of another popular part of the turkey – the legs – by making Pulled Turkey BLTs. By slowly roasting then braising the turkey legs, the meat gets incredibly juicy and falls right off the bone. Pile it on some toasted bread and dress it with a fresh and tangy cranberry vinaigrette to get modern version on the classic pairing of turkey and cranberry sauce.

And you can’t forget the sides (arguably the best part of every Thanksgiving meal). Along with these great turkey dishes, we enjoyed a silky saffron cauliflower soup with roasted brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes with truffle oil and parmigiano reggiano and curried butternut squash and rainbow carrots with pomegranate yogurt, to name a few. And to top it all off, for dessert the class whipped up a deliciously creamy butternut squash mousse with candied ginger pecans, while getting into the holiday spirit with a sinful sweet sherry eggnog.

Throughout the class, Chef Sasso taught us some valuable tips on maximizing flavors, such as using a food mill to get the perfect mashed potato texture and how to make an easy yet flavorful pan gravy.

For those of us who were looking to impress our guests this year and move away from the same old dishes, this class was a huge success!

SMOKED MUSHROOM STUFFED TURKEY BREASTS

Yield: Serves 8

3 turkey breasts, skin on
Olive oil for sautéing
1 pound oyster mushrooms
1 stick butter (cut in half)
Garlic, chopped
¼ cup sherry vinegar
4 fresh bay leaves
6 sprigs thyme
2 quarts chicken stock

1. Set up a smoker on the top of the stove by arranging two hotel pans on top of each other (deep one on the bottom, shallow perforated one on top). Line the bottom pan with aluminum foil and a few pieces of wood and newspaper. You want the wood to be cut into thin splinter-like pieces, over a pile of the crumpled paper. Light these on fire and allow the flame to burn for 1 minute. Cover with the perforated pan, making a homemade smoker where the smoke from the bottom pan seeps through the holes and infuses the ingredients on top. Season the turkey on both sides with salt and pepper and place them on top of the perforated pan, then cover the whole thing with foil. Set over a couple of burners set to low heat and leave to smoke for 30 to 45 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in a hot pan with some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You don’t want to overcrowd the pan or the mushrooms will never turn brown. Add ½ stick of butter and the chopped garlic and cook another minute. Then add the sherry vinegar, reduce until dry and cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 375° F

4. Stuff the smoked turkey breasts with the sautéed mushrooms, bay leaves and thyme, splitting the ingredients evenly among the breasts. Rub the skin with the remaining butter and place in a casserole in the oven with the chicken stock coming half way up the meat (you may not need all of the stock). Cook for another 30 minutes until fully cooked.

ICE has everything to help you wow your friends and family this holiday season. Click here for a full list of our upcoming Recreational classes.

ICE alum Anna Monaco is now the General Manager of the recently opened Shake Shack New Haven. ICE President, Rick Smilow stopped by the restaurant on opening night to enjoy a burger and is pictured above with Anna and Shake Shack founder, Danny Meyer. Below is an interview with Anna on her new exciting role and how she got there.

What was your biggest take away after attending Peter Kump New York School of Cooking (now ICE)?
If you love what you’re doing, the people around you will love what you’re doing too.  I have friends from my culinary arts program class who I still see and we have ‘clean out the fridge’ parties.  We use everything we can find in someone’s fridge and make the most insane meal out of it (brussel sprouts with pancetta, guacamole with cucumbers, onion soup, manicotti and orange glazed chicken – and that’s just the appetizers!).  Cooking and eating is such a communal event that brings people together, how could you not love what you’re doing!  Chef Einav Geffen was my instructor for both the first and last section of the culinary arts program.  She saw us as green, newbies learning fabrication of fish and beef and then saw us as graduates who could cater their own cocktail party for graduation.  She had such passion in everything she did and it was so inspiring to see.  She pushed us beyond our limits and I know that my whole graduating class would agree that we are better people for having met her and had the privilege of being taught by her.

From my management course, Neal Bermas taught me that doing something simple well is always better than doing something complicated poorly.  From opening bars to steak houses and everything in between, we looked at restaurant after restaurant and discussed menus, marketing strategies, budgets and so much more and found every time that those who fail in this industry are not able to bring things back to basics.  I still think about opening my own restaurant someday and know that if I do, Neal’s voice will be in my head questioning each decision I make and pushing it to be the best restaurant in its field.

Why did you go to culinary school?
I went to culinary school because food fascinates me.  I still remember the first food book I ever read.  It was a book about olive oils from around the world that I found at my grandparents’ house and I asked to borrow it.  Learning about food, where it comes from and how different cultures eat and incorporate it into their daily lives is incredibly interesting to me.  I still have that olive oil book!

How did you make your way to GM at Shake Shack?
4 years ago – actually 4 years ago to the day 9.30.08! I went into the Upper West Side Shake Shack location on a rainy morning in response to a Craig’s List ad (at the time, it was more of a construction zone than a restaurant).  I was interviewed by 2 of the managers there and was hired on the spot for a line cook position.  I worked my way to supervisor quickly and was then approached about managing the first non-conventional Shake Shack at Citi Field the following spring.  I happily accepted!  I spent the following 81 home games traveling to Flushing for double headers in August, subway series madness and too many team rivalry fights to count.  From there I helped open another 6 restaurants before moving to New Haven to open the Westport location as AGM.  Serendipitously, they decided to open a location 4 blocks from my apartment and I pounced on the opportunity!  I have been fortunate enough to find a job (and career) where I respect the people around me and they respect me.  It is such mutual love!

What sets Shake Shack apart from other burger hot spots?
I have listened to Danny Meyer give talks about this company so many times and it really comes down to the way we make people feel.  Other burger hot spots are using great products just like Shake Shack.  Some of them even get their burger blend from the same butcher almost every Shake Shack gets their blend from.  The products are high quality and we really care about them – but so does everyone these days.  We believe that we are providing a full experience, not just the delicious food (which believe me, is amazing!).  How many times have you gone into a fast casual restaurant and came out talking more about the people who took your order and gave you your food than about the actual food you ate?  How many times have you come away talking about the cool atmosphere and design of the place?  Few other internationally known restaurant groups have that ability.  We have the unique benefit of being born out of a fine dining mother company and take that to heart in every guest interaction we have.

What is your best advice for those interested in the food scene?
Be sure you are really committed.  I have found that people in this industry work hard and play hard and for some, it becomes more of a job and less of a passion.  You will work weekends.  You will work holidays.  You will work hours that make you weak in the knees…literally.  But, there is NOTHING better than seeing a child take their first bite of a burger you cooked and watching in excitement as they devour the rest of it.  There is nothing better than being the place where a guest wants to bring in his former college a cappella group to serenade his girlfriend for her birthday.  We are a part of people’s happiest memories; their anniversary dinners, their birthday parties, their first dates and it is such an honor to be invited into people’s lives like that.  The smiles on our guests’ faces melt away the problems of the day, the crazy schedules and make every second of that hard work worth it.

What is your favorite thing on Shake Shack’s menu?
Here in New Haven, we actually have a special menu item that no other Shake Shack has permanently; the Handsome Dog.  In tribute to Yale’s mascot, Handsome Dan, we took our all beef hot dog and griddled it crisp, just like the rest of our hot dogs, and topped it with our Shake Shack cheese sauce and crispy fried shallots.  I mean, could there be anything better than that??!!

My current Mod 3 students are fast workers. Organized and efficient, they usually finish their daily recipes with time to spare.  I want to get the most out of the four hour class and since I don’t like them standing around with nothing to do, I’ll give them extra practice.

One day last week, when we had some down time, I said to the class, “ok guys, we have an hour before our food will come out of the oven, so everyone grab two potatoes and practice tournes.” Not surprisingly, this announcement produced a good natured groan from the room. We had been working on these all week. Tourne is a football shaped knife cut, carved out of potatoes and other vegetables. It is difficult to do and takes lots of practice.

The students began their tournes, focusing on cutting seven curved, even sides from each piece. Despite their focus, it is a challenging knife cut and students struggled with the mechanics of it. Jokingly, the students continued to protest. “Is there a machine that will cut these?” one asked. “Can we ever do another knife cut?” another wondered aloud.

As they worked, I moved around the room, checking their progress. My critique of each set was almost always the same, they’re better than last time – keep practicing.

Each day, the students learn something new: new techniques, new ingredients, new ways to present and plate food. We try to expose them to as much of the food world as possible while they’re at ICE and they expect new information every day. This is unlike a restaurant, where usually the cook is repeating the same recipes, again and again, day after day. Menus don’t change very often and cooks will work the same station in the kitchen for a long time.

Doing the same task over and over again can feel tedious, but this is how chefs begin to master different techniques and recipes. Repetition is the key. Still, it’s hard sometimes for the students to remember that each flawed tourne is a small step in this journey from apprentice to master. It’s not always easy to see your own progress from one day to another. Recognizing the students’ frustration, I offered to demo one. The students watched me produce a (nearly) perfect tourne and asked me to show them the “trick.”

“I wish I had one,” I answered. “The trick is doing it a thousand times.”

This is true of any craft. Whether its julienning a carrot, playing the piano or hitting a home run at Yankee Stadium, these are only done flawlessly after lots of practice. And whether it’s Daniel Boulud or Derek Jeter, you’ll usually find those individuals that have “mastered” their trade still practicing, still regularly devoting time to maintain and hone their skills. Mastering any skill takes time and while we all may not relish the practice, it’s something we all can use – no matter where we are on our career path.

Our first chef instructor was a man of clear distinction and significance. His list of accolades, accomplishments and credentials was longer than the length of my right arm (which is significantly longer than my left).

He commanded the kitchen when he first walked in. He demanded respect and he deserved it. He was able to rattle off recipes for French mother sauces and their derivatives without stopping to take a breath. I’m convinced without a doubt that of the hundreds of sauces in the French repertoire, he had committed most to memory. Never once in my 22 lessons under his tutelage, did he ever consult a recipe. They were all living as imbedded templates in his head.

He started working in a kitchen when he was 15. Now, 40+ years later, still working in the food services industry, and having worked in some of the finest food establishments on the planet to date, I have had the exceptional pleasure and the most intense pain of being his student.

The word ‘CHEF’ translates to ‘BOSS’ or ‘CHIEF’.  Yes, the capital letters are absolutely necessary. And they remain necessary for all the chef instructors we’ve had over the last eight months. There was a definite philosophy in their kitchen. There was only one way; THEIR way (capitals continue to be necessary). Learn it right, learn it well, listen and don’t forget.

Fast-forward eight months. Our original class of seventeen has dwindled to fourteen. We have just graduated. Our externships take us to many diverse kitchens, but the same rules apply. The collective and sage advice of all our chef instructors is behind us. Now what? I continue to ask my self “WHAT NOW?”

This will be a messy split; a bad break-up. What will become of my weekends without ICE? What will become of my classmates? Who will I commiserate with about the heat in the kitchen, the number of pots in the sink, the paper I have to get done despite my full-time work schedule or the next practical or written examination? What will become of Class CA2DW.121011? What now…what now?

As of August 19, 2012, I will have washed my hands for the last time in kitchen 1402. We’re all a little uncertain. We’re all a little scared. It’s our turn to do something great with this culinary training. We’ve all come so far.

In order to be truly appreciated, all brilliant things must come to an end. So I’ll say a bittersweet goodbye to the class of CA2DW.121011, but not forever, just for now, and leave off with wise words that have remained with me for quite some time. “When you walk to the edge of the light, and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe one of two things will happen; there will be something solid for you to stand on, or you will learn how to fly.”[1]

Yesterday ICE hosted Pichet Ong, pastry chef, consultant and author of The Sweet Spot: Asian-Inspired Desserts. During the class, we unplugged the blenders, food processors and mixers to focus on recipes you can bake by hand. Chef Ong performed a demonstration of Vietnamese Coffee Cake, Caramelized Nutella Banana Crepes and Strawberry Cheesecake.

Students and guests in attendance learned how to properly knead and “feel” pastry the good old-fashioned way. They also picked up unique tips to make their dessert stand out. For example, goat cheese is one of Chef Ong’s favorite ingredients in a cheesecake as it balances out the cream cheese with a flavorful spin. Additionally, he shared that one of his favorite tools in the kitchen is a digital scale because making pastries is often a science and perfect measurement is key to a delicious dessert.

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Each year ICE’s Career Services department invites alumni back to celebrate the start of their culinary education as well as their current successes.  It is a great way for people to connect in the community, share what they’ve been doing in the industry and ask the old professor a thing or two. This year, we had a great group of students reunite. Below spotlights just a few of the alumni that stopped by the party:

Kathleen Hernandez, chef de partie at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery in Rockefeller Center and Joyan Stroh, line cook at Restaurant North 

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With the arrival of spring in New York City, the nice weather has energized me and I’ve found that I’m trying to fit a lot into these long, beautiful days! I am particularly excited that ICE’s recreational department has developed a new series of shorter classes called ICE al la Minute, which offer a wide variety of core cooking skills in just 1 ½-2 ½ hours. This past Wednesday I participated in my first ICE al la Minute class, Taste of Thai, with Chef Instructor Loren Banco. After discussing the brief history and flavor palate of Thai food, we prepared and then sat down to an authentic meal of chicken and beef sates, green papaya salad, and shrimp pad thai, all within 2 ½ hours. Since the majority of the class had little experience with cooking this cuisine, Chef Banco suggested the below essential items for at-home Thai success.

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Spring has sprung and with that comes an array of colorful, delicious fruits to work with. Here is an example of a recipe that students at ICE whip up as part of their professional curriculum. It is recipes such as these that allow students to highlight their expertise in pastry arts. Seeing the array of color and texture used by the students is eye candy all on its own!

Ingredients
8 ounces pate brisee
8 ounces pastry cream
4 ounces neutral glaze
3 ounces toasted, sliced almonds or chopped, blanched pistachios
Raw fruit: strawberries, raspberries, peeled and sliced kiwi (as necessary)

Recipe
For an 8-inch tart, roll the dough into a 10-inch disk and line the tart pan.  For individual tarts, roll dough into 10- x 14-inch rectangle, cut out 4-inch disks, and line 3-inch individual pans.  Chill the dough.  Dock the base of the tart well; cover with a disk of parchment paper and baking weights or dried beans.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until set.  Remove paper and weights and continue baking shell until very lightly colored.  Cool the baked shell.

Spread pastry cream evenly in tart shell.  Arrange fruit in a carefully designed pattern over cream, make sure to cover cream entirely.

Brush fruit with glaze.

Edge with the sliced almonds or chopped pistachios.

Every year, ICE’s Culinary Management program hosts a one-of-a-kind series of lectures called Meet the Culinary Entrepreneurs, during which a wide range of successful culinary business leaders and luminaries share their expertise with students and guests. Yesterday, Howard Greenstone of Rosa Mexicano restaurants came to ICE to discuss his experience helping grow and develop what is now an international restaurant group specializing in authentic Mexican cuisine with the Culinary Management students. More…