Virginia Monaco

From the ICE Pastry Labs—The Art of Experimentation with Chef Michael Laiskonis

ohoadmin — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:00:24 +0000

From the ICE Pastry Labs—The Art of Experimentation with Chef Michael Laiskonis ohoadmin Tue, 10/21/2014 - 16:00 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/From%20the%20ICE%20Pastry%20Labs%E2%80%94The%20Art%20of%20Experimentation%20with%20Chef%20Michael%20Laiskonis_1400x680%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=THhld1_d October 21, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

During his eight-year tenure as Executive Pastry Chef for Le Bernardin, ICE Creative Director Michael Laiskonis was often praised for his innovative desserts. Yet, while he was given a good deal of creative freedom in that role, there were still significant restraints on his dishes. First and foremost, they had to make sense in the context of the Le Bernardin’s fine dining menu, and there was always the essential question of food costs.

Since joining ICE’s team in 2012, Chef Michael has had the opportunity to push his creative boundaries, with both sweet and savory dishes. From working with the IBM Watson team on the cognitive cooking project to exploring the regional dishes of his Latvian ancestors, it’s clear that he has been hard at work. This fall, Michael took a moment to reflect and share both the results and the lessons of his new discoveries with ICE students and alumni. Learning to think creatively is one of the primary goals of any aspiring chef.

However, Chef Michael insisted, before one begins innovating in the kitchen, he or she not only needs to practice many classic recipes, but also should understand the underlying science of culinary techniques. For example, you may have the brilliant idea to add a fruit purée to your crêpe batter, but without the knowledge of how that will affect the moisture content, cooking time and overall sweetness, you risk meeting more failure than success. Dreaming up the perfect dish is one thing, but having the know-how to execute it is what truly separates chefs from cooks. Which is why Michael regularly applies scientific principles to his day-to-day work. For example, consider that there are about a dozen sweeteners commonly used in the professional kitchen.

How might a chef begin to select the best sweetener for, say, an experimental ice cream flavor? Michael suggests that you could look at the water content of each, as water content greatly affects the freezing point and the crystal formation during churning. A chef should also consider the sweetening power of each ingredient and how each sweetener interacts with heat and cooking.

Rupjmaizes Kartojums — rye bread cream, milk chocolate, raspberry fluid gel

But before he applies such scientific ideas, Michael first needs to come up with the idea for each new dish. In certain cases the inspiration—as with Michael’s carrot pistachio caramel—arrived in the form of a dilemma: how might he create a sugar-free caramel that was appropriate for diabetics or less harmful to dental health? As for Michael’s Rupjmaizes Kartojums, his idea was to create a play on flavors he encountered during a visit to distant relatives in Latvia, a country where desserts are commonly made with dense black rye flour. On other occasions, it’s the innovative ideas of his colleagues in the field that spark Michael’s imagination. Where, for example, did he get the idea for his cylindrical tart croustade with praline cream? The idea came from a photograph of a crisp geometric pastry shell created by another chef in a magazine. Having no recipe to reference, Michael reverse engineered the shell, taking into account all the issues that a classic pastry dough might have in keeping such a delicate shape.

Tarte Croustade — praline cream

Believing that the journey is more important than the destination, Chef Michael’s presentation focused on the lessons he learned over the course of creating each dessert. Most notably, it was apparent that the end result is rarely the same as the initial concept of a dish. However, the joy of experimenting is that once in a while, the revision of your initial idea ends up far surpassing even your most creative expectations.

Want to study with Chef Michael? Click here for a list of his upcoming workshops at ICE.

Pastry Arts Chefs Michael Laiskonis

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Sustainable Butchery: Going Whole Hog with Rudi Weid

ohoadmin — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 20:15:01 +0000

Sustainable Butchery: Going Whole Hog with Rudi Weid ohoadmin Fri, 08/01/2014 - 16:15 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Sustainable%20Butchery%20Going%20Whole%20Hog%20with%20Rudi%20Weid_1400x680%20copy_0.jpg.webp?itok=sBuz7igp August 1, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

ICE students were recently treated to a rare demonstration of "whole hog" butchery, as Master Butcher Rudi Weid broke down an entire 150-pound pig into primal and individual cuts in real time. Today, most animals are processed with industrial band saws at meat packing plants, but Rudi only used very sharp knives, a hand saw and a lot of elbow grease to expertly strip away skin and bones to leave neat piles of roasts, chops, and ribs ready for cooking.

While interest in nose-to-tail cooking and whole animal butchery has exploded in the last decade, there are many factors for a chef to consider when using whole animals. For pork, typically only the tenderloin cuts (which can be cooked to order) are featured on menus. The other 90% of the animal results in harder-to-sell tough cuts and “unusable” waste. For example, cuts from the shoulder and leg are delicious but require long, slow cooking methods or time-consuming transformations into terrines and charcuterie. To further educate students about the technical and flavor differences between tender and tough cuts, Rudi served grilled loin and rib chops alongside slow-braised pork belly.

Yet despite the popularity of whole animal butchery, the average restaurant or food business rarely has the time, space and in-house expertise to be able to utilize and sell an entire animal—although, happily, more and more are trying. The price of pork has also seen a steep incline with the spread of the PEDV virus, which killed seven million piglets in 2013. The increasing costs of the most in-demand cuts, such as pork belly or chops, will soon force chefs to find new ways to sell less expensive cuts to customers, such as grinding shoulders for sausages or even roasting pig heads for more adventurous eaters.

For a long time, it seemed the industry no longer needed the skills of artisanal butchers, but these circumstances have underscored the value of Weid's third-generation skills. With the increased interest in the craft of butchering by hand and growing media coverage of "celebrity butchers", there has never been a better time to share these traditional skills with our students. Whether they go on to incorporate this knowledge into their future food businesses—or even opt to work full-time in the field of fabrication—we look forward to welcoming a new generation of sustainability-savvy chefs!

For more information on lectures and demonstrations at ICE, click here.

Demos & Lectures Special Events Chefs Butchery

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The Soul of Spanish Charcuterie

ohoadmin — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 19:29:30 +0000

The Soul of Spanish Charcuterie ohoadmin Fri, 07/11/2014 - 15:29 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/The%20Soul%20of%20Spanish%20Charcuterie400x680%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=m15jtFuX July 11, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the cuisine of Spain has experienced a meteoric rise in the global ranks. Among the peninsula’s most popular culinary exports has been the wide range of traditional charcuterie; from chorizo and lomo to jamón of endless varieties, Spain is definitely a country that embraced all parts of the pig long before America’s recent “whole hog” craze

Master Carver Mario Hiraldo Regalado (left) and chef and cookbook author Jeffrey Weiss (right)

To initiate students into the wide range of Spanish charcuterie, ICE invited Chef Jeffrey Weiss to speak about his new book, Charcutería: The Soul of Spain—the first exhaustive work on the subject to be written in the English language. While Jeffrey is an accomplished chef in his own right, he spent years in Spain as a student, specifically tracking down authentic regional techniques for sausages, pâtés and cured meats from across the country. Traditions are usually passed down from grandmother to granddaughter, eschewing modern machinery and automation for foods made by hand with simple tools.

Chef Jeff's book explores the traditions and techniques of Spanish charcutería, and contains recipes for dishes like bocadillo de chorizo pamplona (right).

In this style of charcuterie, every part of the animal is used after slaughter. Blood is used as a thickener in a variety of different morcilla (blood sausage) recipes. Innards are cleaned and used as natural casings for everything from fresh sausage to dried chorizo. Even the pig’s head is roasted and cleaned for rich terrines.

Salchichoc - or "chocolate sausage" - is a playful variation on charcutería from Spain.

To demonstrate a memorable bite that Chef Jeffrey enjoyed often in Spain, he chose to serve the audience a bocadillo—a small sandwich often served in bars. His version featured soft goat cheese, creamy caramelized onions and beautifully fatty Pamplona-style chorizo. He also served a playfully-worded salchichoc, or “chocolate sausage.” While we were somewhat grateful this didn’t combine pork with chocolate, the dish resembled a chocolate truffle studded with dried fruits and nuts that, when rolled in powdered sugar, looked like a chorizo. While the Spanish may take their charcuterie traditions seriously, they still enjoy a bit of humor in naming their dishes.

Mario Hiraldo demonstrates the techniques for perfect ibérico carving.

In the same week, students were treated to a demonstration on carving jamón ibérico by Master Carver Mario Hiraldo Regalado of Foods from Spain. Possibly the single-most revered Spanish culinary delicacy, jamón ibérico is the cured and dried back leg of the black ibérico pig. To protect the traditional methods of making this jamón, laws require about two acres of land per single animal, providing each pig competition-free access to buttery acorns and wild herbs. Their free-range lifestyle and natural, seasonal diet flavors the ham, especially the precious creamy fat. Fetching more than $100 a pound in most shops, the resulting product is a true culinary indulgence. Carving a whole leg of ibérico is an art unto itself and students were mesmerized by Regalado’s enviable technique.

Can you spot the knife? Mario's tools are near invisible, cutting paper-thin slices of jamón.

Jamón ibérico producers use methods and techniques that have been proven over generations, ensuring that the meat takes on the sweet and woodsy quality appreciated around the world. Mario described the different flavors evident in the ham as an oenophile would discuss those found in a glass of wine, finding hazelnut, thyme, even red fruits. Similar to how grapes reflect the terroir of the area in which they were grown, the ibérico pigs taste of the Spanish countryside—the environment they spend their entire lives wandering around is deeply rooted in their anatomy. By serving the audience paper-thin slices of ham from 3 distinct parts of the leg, Mario also invited them to compare the different flavors, evident even in the same animal.

Respect for the animal, earth and craft make jamón ibérico one of the most prized gastronomic pleasures

We were lucky to have Jeff and Mario at ICE within the same week: each professional's perspective compounded upon the other, providing further insight on a topic not widely known to American audiences. While they both showcased unique presentations, guests surely walked away from each with a newfound appreciation of the art of Spanish charcutería, respect for the culture surrounding its preparation, and a sense that—despite an increasingly modernized world—there are still those who value a deep connection to the earth and who take time to uphold the beautiful traditions of long ago.

Charcutería is only one fascinating aspect of Spanish cuisine and we encourage our students to explore further! Discover more Spanish flavors at ICE with our upcoming “Croquettes and Cava” workshop with ICE alum and Executive Chef of Casa Mono, Anthony Sasso.

Food Culture Demos & Lectures Cookbooks Chefs

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Reviving French Flavors with James Peterson

ohoadmin — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 16:36:52 +0000

Reviving French Flavors with James Peterson ohoadmin Wed, 07/02/2014 - 12:36 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Reviving%20French%20Flavors%20with%20James%20Peterson_1400x680.jpg.webp?itok=hAG2W6bK July 2, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

James Peterson is a legendary culinary figure. He has just published his 15th cookbook, the most recent in a line of impressive and important publications. His writing has addressed such vast topics as Sauces or Vegetables, all while keeping a focused and grounded view of his subject matter.

Not only does Chef James (or Jim, as he prefers to be called) spend enormous amounts of time researching and recipe testing for each book, but he also does all his own food styling and photography, making each book a true labor of love. In addition to garnering a slew of IACP and James Beard awards, his work has also provided him with a devoted following of chefs, cooks, and amateurs.

Yet, while Jim has admiration and appreciation for all kinds of cuisines and techniques, his heart always returns to the rich and comforting flavors of classic French food. For his recent cooking demonstration at ICE, he thoughtfully chose to demonstrate squab salmis over a cassoulet of fava beans and foie gras. Squab, commonly known as pigeon, is Jim’s favorite game bird; the deeply red meat is intensely flavored, yet tender, and requires the highest level of technique to cook, due to its diminutive size. Whereas Americans are most familiar with the relatively bland chicken (which requires strong sauces and marinades to impart flavor), with the squab, flavor can be layered and built using the various parts of the bird itself.

Here, Jim uses the innards of the squab to build a sauce, a technique rarely seen outside of France. Americans love gamey flavors when they are found in an expensive dry aged steak, but tend to shy away from using organ meats in their cooking. But once we get past this aversion, we discover that livers and kidneys can add indescribable earthy, mineral-laden, rich flavors to what was formerly a simple poultry jus. Jim demonstrated how to smooth the organ meat into softened butter, transforming a simple beurre monté into a transformative experience. And to balance all that earthy richness in the sauce, nothing beats a classic French cognac brandy.

To stand up to such a rich preparation, Jim chose to elevate the classic cassoulet. ICE culinary students are experienced with the traditional cassoulet as a peasant dish, made with white beans and tough meat cuts. Jim’s version swaps green and tender fava beans for traditional white beans and, most excitingly, includes foie gras. Served still warm, the foie half melts into the stew, creating a base that is properly thick and rich to accompany delicate squab.

In an era where whole animal butchery and nose-to-tail eating is surging in popularity, organ meat remains an underused resource and is often relegated to the compost pile. Jim’s skilled use of the prized foie gras (made of liver) and the squab's offal was an inspiring example of how we can turn to the traditions of the past to help inspire our culinary future.

Click here for a listing of future demonstrations and lectures at ICE.

Cookbooks Chefs James Beard Foundation

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Two Alumni Chefs Share Their "Culinary Voice"

ohoadmin — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 20:18:28 +0000

Two Alumni Chefs Share Their "Culinary Voice" ohoadmin Fri, 06/27/2014 - 16:18 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Kamal-2-crop-edit.jpg.webp?itok=UAhi0PL8 June 27, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

At ICE, we're always thrilled to celebrate the successes of our graduates, and, in particular, to invite them "back to school" to share their stories and expertise with our current students. Most recently, we invited two outstanding alumni—Miguel Trinidad and Kamal Rose—to demonstrate some of their signature dishes and impart industry advice from their years of experience after ICE.

Chef Kamal Rose started working at the famed Tribeca Grill after graduating high school, enrolling at ICE as a way to further advance his technical skills. As the years went by, he worked his way up the ladder—and through every station in the kitchen—until he was named the restaurant's Executive Chef in 2012. His culinary voice combines his Caribbean heritage with Tribeca Grill’s new American style, as in one of his signature dishes, crab cakes with avocado mousse and black bean pineapple salsa.

Students were treated to very different dishes by ICE alumni Miguel Trinidad when he demonstrated Filipino street food, or pulutan. Miguel is the chef/owner of Jeepney Filipino Gastropub and Maharlika Filipino Moderno, both of which feature the foods he fell in love with while backpacking across the Philippines. The dishes he presented were chicken "cracking," beef skewers and barbecued pork, all paired with a vinegar sauce called suka.

In addition to introducing the audience to new techniques and flavor combinations, Chefs Kamal and Miguel also shared valuable career advice based on their own professional careers. Both stressed that ICE provided them with a solid culinary foundation, but that learning never stops when you work in the kitchen.

For students nervous about trailing or beginning their externships, they recommended three tips: write everything down in a notebook, work enthusiastically and be inquisitive but humble. While admitting that kitchen work can be very demanding, they stressed the pride in a job well done and the sense of satisfaction they feel at the end of the day. Their final take-away? Success is in the hands of each student, and a culinary career is one where you get out what you put in.

For more ICE alumni stories, click here. And if you're an ICE graduate, don't hesitate to reach out and share your success story by emailing alumnilisting@ice.edu!

Alumni Career Culinary Arts

A Taste of American Craft Brewing — Allagash at ICE

ohoadmin — Fri, 02 May 2014 21:28:59 +0000

A Taste of American Craft Brewing — Allagash at ICE ohoadmin Fri, 05/02/2014 - 17:28 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/A%20Taste%20of%20American%20Craft%20Brewing%20%E2%80%94%20Allagash%20at%20ICE1400x680.jpg.webp?itok=auk75ssL May 2, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

Maine's Allagash Brewing Company is nearing its 20 year anniversary, producing beer in a state-of-the-art expanded space and serving their brews on tap in more bars and restaurants than ever before. ICE has long had a close relationship with Allagash founder and owner, Rob Tod, and was thrilled to have him lead a tasting of his signature beers, from classical to experimental.

Although Allagash is a household name today, it wasn't always that way. The brewery started in 1995, in a simple warehouse space in Portland, Maine. Rob loved Belgian style beers, but noticed that American brewers had not yet adopted the techniques and flavors developed by Belgian monks and brewers over centuries. Starting out as a one-man operation, he decided to focus on a single beer recipe. That brew is Allagash’s flagship White—an unfiltered wheat beer brewed with orange peel and coriander.

Rob quickly found that to sell his innovative product, he would have to educate bartenders and beer influencers about how to serve and drink Belgian beer. It was an uphill battle, but he established the quality of the Allagash brand with the White and after a few years, was able to expand his portfolio. Sticking to classic trappist Belgian brews, Rob next bottled a Double and Tripel with great success.

Yet, over the years, Allagash’s growing success has allowed him to deviate from a strictly traditional Belgian style and begin experimenting. On one occasion, when storage equipment broke down while brewing their Tripel Ale, Rob needed emergency storage to avoid losing hundreds of bottles of beer. He turned to a spent Jim Bean bourbon barrel in his procession and filled it with his Tripel, even though he had been saving it for a darker style of beer.

After filling, he quickly realized the tight seal on the barrel didn’t allow for the escaping brewing gases and eventually, the bulging barrel exploded. Never one to waste beer, Rob quickly slurped up some foam from the top of the barrel and was surprised to find it was delicious. Thus, Curieux was born. Today the Curieux, aged 3 months in Jim Beam barrels, is one of Allagash's most sought-after brews.

Inspired by spontaneous experimentation, Rob decided to build the Brewery a "coolship"—a place to naturally chill wort before fermentation by draining it into a shallow tub exposed to outside air. The bacteria and yeast naturally present in the air impregnate the wort and serve as the catalyst for fermentation, as opposed to adding brewers yeast. The results are a living beer which is slightly different with every batch and changes flavor profiles with age.

Another of Allagash's beers, Tiarna, is made by blending traditional yeast-fermented beer with coolship-cooled beer, resulting in a pleasantly sour beer with bright fruity notes and an earthy finish. Another fruity option, the Coolship Red, is an homage to traditional Lambics that is aged over fresh raspberries, dying the beer bright pink.

From the humblest of beginnings as a one-man operation, Allagash has grown to producing 70,000 barrels of beer a year and established itself as one of the great breweries of the microbrew movement. Rob encouraged all ICE students in attendance to visit the brewery in Maine so they can taste other experimental batches, many of which are made in such small runs that they’re only sold in Portland. ICE is thrilled to have established a growing relationship with Allagash Brewery over the last dozen years, especially through Allagash's exclusive annual scholarship competition, Cookin' with Allagash. We look forward to hosting more exciting events through this partnership in the future!

Drinks Beer Business of Food

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Demystifying Wine with Bernard Sun

ohoadmin — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 18:59:39 +0000

Demystifying Wine with Bernard Sun ohoadmin Fri, 04/11/2014 - 14:59 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Demystifying%20Wine%20with%20Bernard%20Sun1400x680.jpg.webp?itok=gWTG4kry April 11, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

The world of wine can be very intimidating for culinary students. Wine experts, much like chefs, speak their own language. From "terroir" to "tannins", this language can be confusing and alienating to the uninitiated.

With so many regions, appellations, grapes and chateaus, it's almost impossible to keep track. Luckily, the best way to start learning about wine is pretty simple: start drinking it! And if you have the opportunity to be led through a tasting by one of the world’s foremost sommeliers, then all the better. When Bernard Sun, Corporate Beverage Director of Jean-Georges Restaurant Group, visited ICE earlier this month, Sun led the audience through a tasting of New Zealand wines, providing many students and alumni with an excellent boost to their ongoing wine education.

After working in illustrious restaurants like Lespinasse and Montrachet, Sun was named the Corporate Beverage Director of Jean-Georges Restaurant Group, overseeing the wine lists at all of their restaurants, from New York to Shanghai. A past recipient of the coveted James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Wine Service Award, Sun arrived at ICE well-equipped to walk tasters through a flight of New World wines.

During the tasting, Sun took great pains to demystify the act of wine tasting. He carefully explained to the audience what features to look for in the taste and aroma of the wine and how to best detect them. As Sun pointed out, many major wine descriptors aren’t tastes at all, but sensations. Acid is a very important feature for a well-balanced wine, but to the untrained palate, the acidity level is difficult to pinpoint.

As Sun explained, it is easiest to judge a wine's acidity by its effect on the mouth—they tend to make your mouth water. This, more than an "acidic flavor", is what beginners should look for when evaluating a wine's acidity. Sun likened body—another key wine descriptor—to milk in its various forms. A full-bodied wine is reminiscent of whole milk (in that it coats your mouth) while a light-bodied wine is more like skim milk since its flavor passes over your palate quickly.

In terms of judging a wine's alcohol content, Sun says that high-alcohol wines produce a mild burning in the back of your throat, similar to sipping a whiskey or scotch. Tannins—more common in red than white wines—produce a dry, almost puckering feeling in the mouth, much like chalk would.

When the proper terms are clearly explained, it becomes much easier to discuss a wine's attributes. After defining these common wine descriptors, Sun walked tasters through an impressive flight of New Zealand wines, going above and beyond the requisite Sauvignon Blancs that the country is known for. According to Sun, New World winemakers often need to practice the art of winemaking for several decades before producing world-class wines. New Zealand has only recently reached the level of skill and maturity required to impress even "old world" wine fans.

From bright, sparkling whites to deep, tannic reds, students gained an in-depth look at this fast-growing wine region. As Sun showed us, wine appreciation is not reserved for sommeliers and amateurs with deep-pockets. Anyone can evaluate a wine's qualities with a few key pointers. And of course, in the end, it all circles back to personal preference—you like what you like! Just keep tasting and you are bound to discover some personal favorites.

Wine

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Signature Recipes of Empellón with Chef Alex Stupak

ohoadmin — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 19:37:52 +0000

Signature Recipes of Empellón with Chef Alex Stupak ohoadmin Tue, 03/25/2014 - 15:37 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/036.jpg.webp?itok=HXDRWzLJ March 25, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

ICE was delighted to recently host a cooking demo with one of New York's true culinary phenoms, Chef Alex Stupak. Although only in his early thirties, Chef Stupak already has twenty years of industry experience under his belt. His professional career started in Chicago, where he worked at the award-winning, four-star restaurant Tru. Following his time in Chicago, Stupak went to work at The Federalist in Washington DC, and later, landed at Clio in Boston, where he gained national acclaimed for his talent as a pastry chef.

Chilaquiles with salsa borracha

In 2005, Stupak was tapped by Grant Achatz to serve as the Executive Pastry chef of Alinea, widely considered to be the best restaurant in the country. His beautiful and innovative creations naturally lead into his next job as Pastry Chef of wd~50, New York’s own experimental kitchen.

Yet in 2010, Stupak surprised his fans and colleagues by leaving the world of high-end pastry to open two of his own restaurants – Empellón Taqueria and Empellón Cocina – to wide acclaim. It obviously seems surprising that a chef with such a strong career in modernist pastry would choose to open a fine dining Mexican restaurant.

However, in doing so, Stupak feels he is filling a gaping hole in the New York food scene. Despite being the "culinary capital" of the US, Mexican food in New York City lags behind that of other major cities, rarely going beyond tacos, guacamole and margaritas. For someone like Stupak, who frequently visits Mexico and loves Mexican cuisine, this is a travesty. The goal of Empellón is to expose New Yorkers to the unique flavors, ingredients and techniques of Mexico and transform their appreciation of this under-appreciated cuisine.

Chef Alex Stupak of Empellon Taqueria and Empellon Cocina

Over the course of many trips to Mexico, Stupak took it upon himself to learn about the central dishes, flavors and techniques of the country's regional cuisines. In the process, he found ways to develop his own renditions of classic Mexican dishes with creativity and flair.

But Stupak is acutely aware that many of his customers have never tasted true Mexican cuisine or may be wary of modernist techniques. That's why, when asked about his creative process, Stupak told ICE students that he either tries to take unusual ingredients and put them in a comforting contest or take familiar ingredients and upgrade them with a new technique.

As an example, Chef Stupak chose to demonstrate chilaquiles with salsa borracha. Chilaquiles are a very common brunch food in Mexico, consisting of fried tortillas briefly simmered with salsa, then usually topped with meat or an egg.

Stupak mixed things up by featuring mushrooms in his version, of which he says there are an astonishing number of varieties in Mexico. He also explained that there are cultural preferences for texture. While American’s love their food to be crunchy, Mexicans enjoy when something was initially crunchy but is just beginning to get soggy. In referencing his choice of ingredients, Stupak highlighted the challenge of doing Mexican food in a fine dining setting.

Because Mexican food is still considered to be "ethnic", many diners do not want to pay more than a few dollars for a taco—even if that taco contains the same high quality scallop that would easily garner a high price in French or Italian restaurants. Yet as Stupak passed around the smoky Mezcal and rare chilies that he sources at his restaurant, it became clear that he is working with as fine of ingredients as any of the top chefs in the city.

In stark contrast to his simple and rustic main course, Chef Stupak presented a dessert that was much more in line with his modernist background. He explained his philosophy that, in pastry and desserts, appearance matters as much, if not more, than flavors.

Towards this end, he created an interactive and surprising frozen tangerine cylinder filled with a luscious mezcal-infused toffee that oozed onto the plate when the delicate cylinder was broken. As he explained in the demo, Stupak used the modernist hydrocolloid techniques to achieve this surprising effect. As our students enjoyed the complex, elegant Mexican cooking presented by Chef Stupak, it was clear that they were never going to look at tacos, guacamole and margaritas the same way again.

At ICE, we're proud to feature a wide range of cuisines in our curriculum, and we look forward to inviting more innovative chefs into our kitchens, to help inspire our students to look beyond European cuisines and see the value in all cultural foodways.

Chefs Culinary Education Food Culture

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Italian Chocolate Desserts with Chef Vicki Wells

ohoadmin — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 23:01:42 +0000

Italian Chocolate Desserts with Chef Vicki Wells ohoadmin Fri, 03/07/2014 - 18:01 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Italian%20Chocolate%20Desserts%20with%20Chef%20Vicki%20Wells_1400x680.jpg.webp?itok=HdzwYu3W March 7, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

Chef-Instructor Vicki Wells brings an enormous amount of experience with her into the kitchen. She has worked in some of the country’s finest kitchens, including Sarabeth’s, Hotel Plaza Athenée, Maxim’s, Montrachet, Le Bernardin and Trattoria Dell’Arte.

In 2000, she took over the pastry department at two of Bobby Flay’s restaurants—Mesa Grill and Bolo—and later, Bar Americain. Vicki also served as Bobby Flay’s sous chef for all five of his victories on Iron Chef America. After working with Bobby, Vicki held the title of Executive Pastry Chef at Buddakan before eventually joining ICE as a Chef-Instructor.

When Vicki was first starting out in the industry, pastries were French by default. It wasn’t until she had gained some professional experience and started traveling that she became interested in the sweets of other cultures. Being ethnically Italian, Vicki was particularly interested in studying the flavor profiles and techniques used in Italian sweets. Unlike French pastries, Italian desserts tend to be strongly flavored with espresso or gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut paste) and are much more free-form and organic. Her culinary trips to Italy with fellow ICE Chef-Instructor Gerri Sarnataro inspired Vicki to become co-owner and Executive Pastry Chef of L’Arte Della Pasticceria, an Italian-inspired pastry shop in Ramsey, New Jersey.

The transition, however was far from a "cakewalk". Chef Vicki experienced a steep learning curve as she went from plating elegant restaurant desserts to filling the display cases at a pastry shop. She quickly learned that success in a walk-in style setting such as L’Arte Della Pasticceria requires a much different strategy than at a sit-down restaurant. First, most pastries need to be sold the day they are made or they will quickly lose quality. This means you often need to get inventive and repurpose unsold treats. For example, Chef Vicki often crumbles mocha cookies to form the crust of a cheesecake, a delicious way to use left-over cookies that are starting to harden.

Secondly, Chef Vicki discussed the importance of changing up your pastry display case frequently. She says she is constantly designing new and interesting ways to present her pastries in the display window to entice customers to buy. Lastly, Chef Vicki pointed out that all pastries and food sold at a shop like L’Arte Della Pasticceria must be made available to-go. Consequently, she reworks traditional recipes so that they can either be held in-hand or fit beautifully in small to-go cups.

After her talk, Chef Vicki treated the audience to a flight of small Italian sweets, including torta caprese al limone, chocolate ricciarellis and gianduja cheesecake. All three were both delicious and distinctly flavored. Although these desserts were made using universal pastry techniques, their classic Italian flavors and more rustic presentation made their Mediterranean origins clear.

Chefs Vicki Wells' path to specializing in Italian pastries is proof that education and innovation never stop in the pastry and baking industry, even for the most skilled veterans. It was a true treat to hear Chef Vicki's insights and taste her inspired sweets. Without a doubt, she will be wowing our taste buds for years to come!

Pastry Arts Food Culture

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Andrew Carmellini: Redefining NYC Restaurants

ohoadmin — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 22:34:08 +0000

Andrew Carmellini: Redefining NYC Restaurants ohoadmin Thu, 02/13/2014 - 17:34 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Andrew%20Carmellini-%20Redefining%20NYC%20Restaurants_1400x680.jpg.webp?itok=VEsngTDy February 13, 2014

By Virginia Monaco

When you think of the quintessential New York City chef, a few famous names come to mind, but Andrew Carmellini is definitely at the top of the list.

You won't see his face plastered on a billboard or endorsing a product in a magazine, facts that contribute to Carmellini's reputation as a “Chef’s Chef”. Respected for his dedication to the craft, his talent, and undeniable work ethic, his career reads like a history of New York City dining—and it's nowhere near finished.

Chef Andrew Carmellini looks on as Lafayette Chef de Cuisine Damon Wise explains the technique behind his short ribs

Although raised in Ohio, Chef Carmellini moved east to attend the Culinary Institute of America, where he cooked for Mario Cuomo on the weekends. After graduation, he worked at New York’s famous Italian restaurant, San Domenico.

A lover of Italian cuisine, he decided to go to Italy to learn firsthand. Upon returning to New York, he landed at the legendary Lespinasse under the tutelage of Gray Kunz, which inspired him to travel again—this time, to France. Upon his second return to the states, Carmellini took the role of sous chef at Le Cirque, gaining additional French fine dining experience.

Braised short ribs with crispy polenta

Having honed his chops under the watchful eye of some of the city's top chefs, Carmellini was poised and ready to make a name for himself as Chef de Cuisine at Café Boulud. During his six-year tenure, he earned a three-star New York Times review, two James Beard Awards and the respect, admiration, and attention of many in the industry. His next step was to open his first restaurant, A Voce, to critical acclaim, earning his first Michelin star. Carmellini has since parted ways with A Voce, but today he's at the helm of three of New York's most popular restaurants: Locanda Verde, The Dutch and Lafayette. His fourth restaurant is slated to open later this year.

Lafayette Pastry Chef, Jenny Yee

For these reasons and more, we were thrilled to welcome Chef Carmellini, along with Lafayette's Chef de Cuisine Damon Wise and Pastry Chef Jennifer Yee, for a lecture and demonstration at ICE. The trio shared two of Lafayette's signature dishes: braised short ribs with crispy polenta and a flaky, buttery apple tart. Both were perfect examples of Carmellini's culinary vision—classics with a twist.

Buttery Apple Tart

In addition to demonstrating these signature dishes, Chef Carmellini shared advice with ICE students and audience members on everything from industry preparedness to ingredient selection. In particular, his insights into the culture and traditions of Southern France (the basis for Lafayette's exceptional menu) revealed that a significant element of Carmellini's success is his curiosity and drive to continually further his education. Sharing the delicious food and industry wisdom of such a respected chef was a truly invaluable experience and a great way to spend a cold winter afternoon. With that in mind, we thank Chef Carmellini, as well as Chef Damon Wise and Chef Jennifer Yee, for taking the time out of their undoubtedly busy schedules to mentor and inspire the next generation of chefs!

Demos & Lectures