From running award-winning restaurant kitchens to writing notable cookbooks, ICE alumni continue to win accolades and receive attention for their success. Check out just some of the alumni finding success and making recent headlines.

*Jonathon Stranger (Culinary Arts ’04) of Ludivine in Oklahoma City was nominated by Food & Wine for their People’s Best New Chef award. You can vote for him online.

*Several ICE alumni were among the James Beard Awards semifinalists: Anup Joshi (Culinary Arts ’04) is Chef de Cuisine at Best New Restaurant semifinalist Tertulia. Tiffany MacIsaac (Culinary Arts ’02) of Birch & Barley in Washington, D.C. is up for Outstanding Pastry Chef. And Rachel Yang (Culinary Arts ’01) and Seif Chirchi of Joule in Seattle were named as semifinalists in the Best Chef: Northwest category.

*Three ICE alumni were among the IACP finalists: Jamie Tiampo (Culinary Management ’06) for his work at EatTV, Maxime Bilet (Culinary Arts ’05) for Modernist Cuisine and Ryan Farr (Culinary Arts ’10) for Whole Beast Butchery.

*Regina Anderson (Culinary Arts ‘05), was declared the winner on a 2012 episode of Food Network’s Chopped.

*Gail Simmons (Culinary Arts ’99) released her book, Talking with my Mouth Full. She filmed a video on how to make her Banoffee Pie for the popular video series My Last Supper at ICE.

*Zach Kutsher’s (Culinary Management ’09) restaurant, Kutsher’s Tribeca, was reviewed in The New York Times. He was also interviewed for the blog Restaurant Girl.

*Pnina Peled (Culinary Arts ’00), Executive Chef of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was included in a Wall Street Journal article about the evolution of hospital food.

*Kelly Senyei (Culinary Arts ’10), the founder of DICED, is about to release her book, Food Blogging for Dummies in April 2012. The book received early press on Eater.

*Kate McAleer (Pastry & Baking Arts & Culinary Management ’11) launched her new chocolate business, Bixby & Co.

To connect with these ICE alumni and many more, you can connect with Career Services on Facebook or LinkedIn.

ICE Senior Career Services Advisor Amy Quazza and Director of Career Services Maureen Drum Fagin with Outstanding Chef Award Winner José Andrés

As we welcome spring, food lovers and passionate diners everywhere look forward to the annual James Beard Awards. Celebrated close to the anniversary of James Beard’s birthday in May, the awards are given to the best chefs, restaurants and media in the country. ICE founder Peter Kump helped launch the James Beard Foundation and ICE is proud to maintain close ties to the organization and their hard work to promote and celebrate food in America. The Awards are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the culinary industry, often referred to as the “Oscars” of food.

This year, the awards ceremonies and festivities were spread over the entire weekend as the food world gathered in NYC for a celebration of all things culinary. On Friday night, the foundation held their Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards, hosted by Ted Allen of Food Network’s Chopped and ICE alum Gail Simmons of Bravo’s Top Chef. In fact, Top Chef, took home the award for best Television Show, In Studio or Fixed Location. ICE alums Dominique Andrews and Marie Ostrosky were also nominated for the second year in a row in the Television Special category. More…

Last Thursday, the James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for their prestigious Restaurant and Chef Awards. Included on the list are ICE alumni Missy Robbins of A Voce in New York City for Best Chef: New York City and Rachel Yang of Joule in Seattle for Best Chef: Northwest. The final list of nominees will be announced on March 21 and we have our fingers crossed for both of these successful alumni. Both chefs are members of our Alumni Hall of Achievement and neither are strangers to awards. Yang was a James Beard Awards semifinalist for Rising Star Chef in 2009 and Best Chef: Northwest in 2010 and Robbins was selected as one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in 2010.

Also, Food & Wine will be naming a People’s Best New Chef in addition to their annual Best New Chef awards this year, and ICE alums are also nominated for this brand new award. Held in conjunction with CNN’s Eatocracy, the award will be given to a chef selected by the dining public. Among the highly-respected chefs are ICE alums Alex Pope of R Bar in Kansas City and James Holmes of Olivia in Austin. ICE alum Tiffany MacIsaac’s husband Kyle Bailey of Birch & Barley in Washington D.C. is also nominated for the award (MacIsaac heads up the restaurant’s pastry team). You can vote online anytime before March 1.

Good luck to these ICE alumni!