Last night, ICE students volunteered at a very special fundraiser to help the victims of the earthquake in Japan. New York’s sake and restaurant community partnered with Project by Project to host NY Loves Japan, a sake and chefs’ tasting to benefit the relief efforts in Japan and the Japanese Red Cross Society.

The event included a huge variety of over 100 different sakes, from very traditional, classic sakes to modern yuzu-flavored and sparkling varieties. The event included a kagami biraki, the ceremonial opening of a cask of sake. To go with all the sake, over fifteen different restaurants prepared Japanese dishes for tasting. The participating restaurants included 15 East, Bond Street, Bozu, Buddakan, EN Japanese Brasserie, Geisha, Hibino, Kajitsu, Kyotofu, Kyoya, Matsuri, Sakagura, Tanuki Tavern, wd~50 and Unique Eats‘ Chef Lee Anne Wong. 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…