By Carly DeFilippo

Last night, ICE students and recent graduates cooked with the culinary stars at the James Beard Awards. Among the hundreds of volunteer opportunities we organize each year, these annual awards stand out as one of the most exciting, providing students with the chance to cook alongside such influential chefs as Grant Achatz, Michael Mina and Marcus Samuelsson.

ICE President Rick Smilow and Culinary Relations Manager Virginia Monaco pose with a trio of hardworking student volunteers.

Often referred to as the “Oscars of food”, these annual awards are among the most elite honors in the culinary field. This year’s theme was, fittingly, “Lights, Camera, Taste”, a celebration of the long-standing relationship between food and film. The sentiment was perhaps best expressed by Outstanding Restauranteur winner, Maguy Le Coze, who exclaimed, “Let’s say it; it’s Hollywood now!”

The event was held at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, overlooking the famous plaza of the performing arts center.

Each dish at the awards gala reception was inspired by cinema, with such inventive offerings as Grant Achatz’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Cocktail”, which required giant fish tanks of seaweed-infused liquor. But the most talked about dish of the evening seemed to be Nate Appleman’s “Royale with Cheese”, an upscale slider that sated the discerning palates of the industry attendees.

Student Jonathan Horn cooked alongside Chef Nate Appleman, preparing the event’s most buzzed-about dish.

It was a thrill to see our students’ excitement at serving such celebrated personalities as Martha Stewart, Jacques Pépin, and Daniel Boulud. The evening’s plates surpassed the challenging setting, and we are extremely proud of all the ICE volunteers who helped make the event a success.

Student Jenny Wong helped prepare Chef Aarón Sánchez’s Lamb Enchiladas with Mole Negro.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, and thank you to the James Beard Foundation for yet another memorable ceremony. We look forward to cooking with you again next year!

The biannual job fair has steadily grown into a not-to-be-missed networking reception for current students and alumni. Yesterday, ICE’s Career Fair brought together employers from virtually every niche of the food and hospitality industry, including restaurant groups, catering, hotel, resorts and much more.

Some of the exhibitors who were in attendance include: Abigail Kirsch Culinary Productions, The Breslin & The John Dory, Blue Hill/Blue Hill at Stone Barns, BR Guest Hospitality, Club Med, Culintro, Dinex Group, Good Food Jobs, Hillstone Restaurant Group, James Beard Foundation, Patina Restaurant Group, Sur La Table, Union Square Hospitality Group, and others. More…

Every year, the James Beard Foundation celebrates summer with a party in the Hamptons. The annual celebration features champagne, wine from Wölffer Estate Vineyard, Stella Artois beers and culinary offerings from a group of over 30 talented top chefs.

This year three ICE alumni were on a select list of chefs preparing food for the event. Missy Robbins (Culinary ’95) of A Voce prepared Italian-Style Lobster Rolls with Fennel and Sea Salt Potato Chips and Matt Weingarten (Culinary ’96) of Inside Park at St. Bart’s also prepared a lobster dish — Barnegat Light Lobster with Lemon Ricotta and Micro-Sorrel. On the pastry side, Zac Young (Pastry ’06) of Flex Mussels and Top Chef: Just Desserts prepared Lemon Meringue Pie with Disco Blueberries. 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.”

When going out for a meal, friends have always been great resource for finding new restaurants to try. As social media creates new opportunities for foodies to connect and discuss the culinary scene, it’s only natural that people would turn to their social networks to find and locate great places to eat. Jeremy Fisher is harnessing the power of friends’ advice to make a new kind of dining-centered social media. His website, Dinevore, allows users to see restaurants where other users have eaten, want to eat and lists they have created. For example, the James Beard Foundation has a list for the 2011 Best New Restaurant Semifinalists. We asked him about his unique culinary career at his own company, his inspiration and life at a start-up.

How would you describe Dinevore?
Dinevore is a restaurant-focused social network. We’re making it easy to discover, organize, and share great restaurant advice. Our users get recommendations by following users and lists they find compelling. One of the most interesting features we offer for culinary professionals is the ability to link your personal Dinevore accounts to the restaurant you work at. That way, fans of the restaurant can discover the places the people who work there like to go. More…

Last night, ICE hosted former Bon Appétit Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild in a small, intimate discussion about her experiences and her lessons for would-be food media professionals. The class was part of the ICE Center for Food Media’s “An Evening With…” series, designed to give students a chance to have a casual, informal discussion with food media luminaries. During these classes, professionals such as Saveur Editor-in-Chief James Oseland and New York Times writer and editor Amanda Hesser discuss their lives and careers, as well as the challenges and rewards of their jobs, changes and trends in the industry and much more.

As a successful editor and food world star, Fairchild is a unique position to comment about the world of food media. Fairchild joined Bon Appétit as an editorial assistant in 1978, and after rising through the ranks, she was promoted to Editor-in-Chief in 2000. The same year, she was also inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.” At the helm of Bon Appétit, she authored three books: The Bon Appétit Cookbook, The Bon Appétit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh and Bon Appétit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful.

Now, Fairchild has taken a turn in her career. The world of magazine publishing is in a state of flux, changing rapidly to new formats on the web and social media. In September, it was announced that Bon Appétit would move their offices from Los Angeles to New York, and Fairchild would step down. Just two weeks ago, her 32-year stint at the magazine came to an end. She said, “Right now, I guess I’m just goofing off. I’m going to be tweeting and writing on my blog, but I also want to explore radio, television and teaching.” More…

One Wednesday each month, the famed James Beard House opens their dinning room to an author who comes to discuss their book with the audience. Beard on Books has hosted famed chefs such as Thomas Keller and David Chang as well as renowned writers such as Betty Fussell. Yesterday, they hosted ICE’s own Rick Smilow and Anne E. McBride, who discussed their book, Culinary Careers: How to Get Your Dream Job in Food.

ICE has a close relationship with the James Beard Foundation. ICE’s founder, Peter Kump, also helped found the James Beard Foundation. Nowadays, ICE students frequently volunteer at Beard House events and often receive scholarships from the foundation to work on their educational goals.

Yesterday, the tone remained educational as Smilow and McBride talked about the lessons in Culinary Careers, a guide to the world of working in the culinary industry, with 89 interviews with professionals working in a wide variety of positions. For example, Smilow described the four types of motivating passion he felt are used as “entry ramps” to the industry. The first is a love of the action, energy and teamwork in a kitchen, saying, “It’s almost like a sports team.” The second is a love of food and eating. Third is a love of hospitality and making people happy. The last is a feeling that this is what you are meant to do. Smilow felt that any of the types of passion could lead someone to the culinary industry, but people who are the most successful in the field develop all four at some point in their career. 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.”

Moira Campbell works with ICE student volunteers in her role as an event producer for various Food Network festivals including the famed New York City Wine & Food Festival and events for the Food Bank for New York City and the James Beard Foundation. But her day job (if you can call it that) is President of Rum & Blackbird Tasting Tours, giving culinary tours of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. Her journey to becoming a culinary tour guide and entrepreneur has taken her all over the food world. Campbell often jokes that she “will work for food.” After culinary school, she worked in restaurants, private catering and as a personal chef before working as a publicist for StarChefs, restaurants and chefs. Now, in addition to her work as an event producer, she gives tours of the restaurants and eateries that make Hell’s Kitchen one of the city’s best neighborhoods for eating. The company has found great success and is planning an expansion to other boroughs and has a growing staff. We sat down to talk to her about her career path and what it is like running your own food business.

How would you describe your position?
My position as founder and president of Rum & Blackbird Tasting Tours involves many different roles like creative director, accountant, official taste taster, publicist and director of business partnerships. Since the business is very young, we’re very small and each person has to take on many different positions that would normally be covered by a whole team of people. I think that that is the beauty of a small business, especially your own. One can be quite well versed in many different roles, since you have to do it all yourself in order to get the business off the ground. It’s like being in the kitchen, one can be a sous-chef but jump on the saucier station if needed because you’ve done it all before. More…

Photo by Seth Browarnik/WorldRedEye.com/New York City Wine and Food Festival Flickr

This weekend marked the third annual Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival to benefit the Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength. ICE is a partner of the festival.

ICE students volunteered at over 160 shifts over the four-day festival. ICE students could be seen hard at work at the James Beard House for Holy Mole with Marcela Valladolid, Aarón Sánchez and Patricio Sandoval, Chelsea Market for Chelsea Market After Dark with Alton Brown and Pier 54 for the Grand Tastings showcasing restaurants and chefs from across the city. Students got to work with Food Network stars like Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis at events such as the Sandwich Showdown, Tacos & Tequila and Meatball Madness. At just one event, six ICE students worked with Floyd Cardoz of Tabla, James Beard Award winner Madhur Jaffrey and Suvir Saran of Dévi at A Symphony of Spice in the famed James Beard House kitchen.

In addition to student volunteers, Chef Jesus Nunez and Chef Henderson Butcher used kitchen space at ICE to do prep for the Grand Tastings. The chefs were able to use space here in our conveniently located kitchens in the Chelsea neighborhood and head right over to the Food Network headquarters at Chelsea Market.

The weekend was a wonderful showcase of why New York City is one of the culinary capitals of the world and ICE was proud to be a part of it.

One the greatest things about being a student at ICE is the amazing access you have to volunteer opportunities at different industry events. This past Saturday I decided to volunteer in the kitchen of the James Beard House in an attempt to keep my knife skills sharp. Chef Perry Hoffman had been invited to create an exquisite five-course meal showcasing the flavors and techniques from his Michelin starred restaurant, Étoile at Domaine Chandon. Working with Chef Perry was both informative and fun, and though he is only 26-years-old, Chef Perry was extremely professional in the kitchen. A life-long resident of Napa Valley, Chef Perry’s grandparents were the original owners of The French Laundry before they sold it to Thomas Keller. It was at this famed location that he had his first taste of restaurant life.

As might be imagined, running a kitchen conveniently located on a winery has inspired much of what Chef Perry creates. For example, for dinner this past Saturday, he paired Tuna Carpaccio with Pickled Champagne Grapes and a Pinot Noir Verjus pulled straight from the presses of Domain Chandon. Chef Perry also explained that there are always the ‘backdoor’ farmers of the Yountville area who will stop by with any particularly fresh offering of the day’s yield. Sometimes that will drive what he serves for dinner in the restaurant that evening. It’s obvious the he is following the farm-to-table ethos instilled upon him by his grandparents. More…

Dinner at Alinea (For captions, click on each photo)

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Last week, ICE President Rick Smilow returned from Chicago for the second time this year. Always having a keen eye out for culinary trends, he reported back to DICED on some of the most notable restaurants, chefs and meals he encountered. In Part I, he discussed some memorable meals and places. Part II of his report is devoted to one memorable meal at the famed Alinea.

I have had some great meals in my life, but rarely have they been on a Sunday night. Perhaps because that is the night I am most likely to cook at home. If we do go out, it’s probably to someplace familiar, not adventuresome or ambitious. On top of that, it is often the norm in the restaurant business that “the A team” has Sunday night off and is away from the kitchen. But at on Sunday, August 8, I had one of the best meals of my life at Alinea.

Located at 1723 N. Halstead in Chicago, Alinea is the creation of Chef-Patron Grant Achatz. Open since 2005, the restaurant has earned many of the culinary world’s highest honors. It won the 2010 James Beard Award for Outstanding Service and is on San Pellegrino’s list as the top dining establishment in America, having overtaken Per Se in the 2010 listings. This past spring, Chicago magazine even named Alinea, “the most significant restaurant in Chicago’s history.”

Black Truffle “Explosion” with Romaine & Parmesan

By way of cuisine and labels, Alinea is considered a “progressive American” restaurant. A leading location to experience molecular gastronomy, it is perhaps our closest incarnation to Spain’s legendary gastronomic mecca, El Bullì. Until recently, Alinea offered only two menu options, a 12- or 24- course tasting menu. The new scheme has one option, an 18-course tasting menu, priced at $185 before wine.

The accompanying slideshow (for captions, click on the photos) showcases many of the dishes our foursome was served during this memorable night. What the pictures cannot capture is how wonderful everything tasted. In this kitchen, molecular gastronomy and innovative techniques serve to enhance flavors. The pictures also do not fully capture the uniqueness of the presentation of so many dishes, and the interactive aspects of the meal. I actually expected more shock value; odd combinations or ingredients that would be transformed through the magic of science. However, our dining experience was better than that. More…