Career Development Classes

Career Services stays on the pulse of student and alumni needs with its ongoing Career Development series. These quarterly programs, which are free and open only to current students and graduates of the ICE’s career programs, address various employment issues affecting today’s food professionals. Please RSVP via placement@iceculinary.com.

The biannual job fair has steadily grown into a not-to-be-missed networking reception for current students and alumni alike. Our Fall Career Fair will bring together employers from virtually every niche of the food business (catering, large restaurant groups, corporate dining, hotels and much more) as well as our network of "connected alumni." If you’re looking for part- or full-time opportunities or just want to talk with food-industry professionals, chefs or other grads about future endeavors, here’s your chance to gain the information and contacts you need to make your next move.

Join our ICE alumni panelists from various enterprises for an insightful and informative evening and a very personal look at restaurant and food management. Learn from graduates who are working in front-of-the-house positions in such varied venues as restaurants, catering, corporate dining and bakeries. A question and answer session will follow.

From local food systems advocacy to education and anti-hunger policymaking, discover what culinary careers are out there for those with a passion for making a difference in the world we live in. A range of panelists will share with you how they broke into this career niche and what work opportunities exist. Open to current career students and alumni.

Extracurricular Classes for Career Students and Alumni
Fall 2010/Winter 2011

Now in a restructured format, these demonstrations and lectures focus on career and food industry elements. Each demonstration will begin with 15 minutes of industry-related discussion appropriate for students, alumni, and interested public alike. A one-hour culinary demonstration or tasting will follow, where applicable, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session.

In order for students and alumni to attend, you must pre-register either in person on the 12th floor with customer service or by phone at 212-847-0770. If you leave a voicemail, please identify yourself as a student or alumni, then leave your student ID number and the name and date of the class for which you wish to sign up. Alternatively, students and alumni may register by email at  classcredits@iceculinary.com.

Please check in with customer service on the 12th floor before entering the demo or lecture.

How are your knife skills? How exact are your tournéed vegetables? This ancient culinary craft, the most difficult of knife skills is still on the plates at top restaurants, be they French or modern American. Go back to the basics with this workshop that proves that perfection comes through repetition.

Open to career culinary students and alumni only; $5 registration fee. Wear your full uniform and bring your own knives.

Nearly 30 years ago, the Jones family farm (in Huron, Ohio) transitioned from a commercial to an artisanal farm growing exclusively for chefs, simply by listening to chefs’ needs and being committed to delivering supreme quality. In his presentation, Farmer Lee Jones will discuss the practice of sustainable farming and its impact on flavor and the environment, and will explain the importance of developing a relationship with your food producers. The story of how The Chef’s Garden, The Culinary Vegetable Institute, and Veggie U came to be will tie together what sustainability means in agriculture and how it can benefit the culinary industry—as well as society as a whole. Farmer Jones will also present the incredible selection of organic microgreens and baby vegetables grown at the farm. Always dressed in his trademark overalls and red bowtie, Farmer Jones is a pioneer of the sustainable agricultural movement. Under his guidance, the team at The Chef’s Garden practices classic farming techniques that restore nutrients to the soil, in order to produce food with optimum shelf life, flavor, and nutrition that satisfies the discriminating chefs they work with.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

In this demonstration, Tim Koerner and Anthony Caratozzolo will show you how to use nitrogen, aromas, and smoke in the kitchen, among other things. Applications for liquid nitrogen will include culinary and mixology options. Tim Koerner is president of John E Koerner & Co, a bakery and specialty food service distributor in the southern United States. The company has been specializing in pastry, high-end restaurants, and casinos since 1999. It is now the exclusive importer of the products from Sosa of Barcelona as well as the products of 100% Chefs of Barcelona.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

Lisa and Debbie Ganz are the owners of one of the leading casting companies in the country for reality and documentary television, Twins Talent. As the senior casting producers of the hit shows Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, starring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, they have auditioned many ICE alumni for their shows. They are also the former owners and founders of Twins Restaurant in NYC staffed entirely by identical twins. Join Lisa and Debbie and a panel of guests that will include former contestants on different seasons of Hell's Kitchen for a fun look into this media phenomenon.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

See a half-carcass of a real steer be broken down into its primals, sub-primals, and ultimately into roasts, portions and by-products. In a world of “boxed” meat, this is a truly unique demonstration, as Master Butcher Rudi Weid takes out his knives and starts from the neck of the steer all the way to the back leg. Each section, cut, and muscle will be discussed. An opportunity to see a Beef Chart done in real time will not come around again, as these large cuts are broken down out west and don’t make it past the meat packing plants. Sample some of these great cuts as they are being artfully fabricated by Chef Weid.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($50).

As a spokesperson for Malaysia Kitchen for the World—a campaign to raise the profile of Malaysian food and restaurants—Chef Zak Pelaccio will show how he uses the country’s wonderful ingredients in inspired interpretations of the cuisine. He is the award-winning executive chef and partner of the critically acclaimed Fatty Crab and Fatty ‘Cue. Early in his career, Chef Pelaccio spent close to a year working at a traditional Malay restaurant in Kuala Lumpur—the only westerner who had ever cooked there. The experience was life changing: It opened his mind to new flavors and a new style of cuisine, and inspired him to open his first restaurant. He will demonstrate two of Fatty Crab’s most popular dishes, Chicken Satay and Crispy Pork and Watermelon Salad.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

ICE Baking Programs Director Nick Malgieri spends his time literally immersed in learning, teaching, and writing about baking techniques. Over the course of the past 40-odd years, approaches to many typical preparations have changed radically. See and taste the difference in the old and new methods of preparing ganache, puff pastry, and more. Recipes from Chef Malgieri’s new book, BAKE! Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking, will be featured. If you would like, bring a troublesome recipe to the class so that he can revise and update the method of preparation for better results.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

Master chocolatier and pastry chef Oscar Ortega is the owner of Atelier Ortega in Jackson, WY, where he produces an extensive variety of artisan chocolates, desserts, entremets, viennoiserie, gelato, and confiserie. He was trained in Mexico, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He is a fixture of the international pastry competition circuit, and was the captain of the Mexican team at the Mondial des Arts du Sucre in Paris in 2008 and at the Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie in 2007, a finalist in the 2009 World Chocolate Masters, and a silver and bronze medal winner at the 2006 Pastry Masterpiece in Las Vegas. Chef Ortega is responsible for organizing, selecting, and training the Mexican pastry chefs who compete around the world. He will be showing you how to prepare and train to build entremets during competition, and will demonstrate the two different entremets he presented in his last two competitions, with techniques and molds he created for the occasion.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

In this demonstration, Pastry Chef-Instructor Kathryn Gordon will introduce you to the techniques of cooking sugar for the special art form of sugar showpiece-making, and demonstrate the skills of pulling, blowing, and casting sugar to make the requisite ghosts, pumpkins, Indian corn, bats and other holiday-related components. Airbrushing and sugar "glueing" will also be demonstrated as this unique showpiece is created.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

Join Master Butcher Rudi Weid for a demonstration of just how you can make the famous Turducken—a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. He’ll show you the exact techniques for boning all the birds, how to assemble them---with stuffing, if you wish---and the best roasting method. You’ll take home exact instructions so you can tackle it for your own holiday celebration. You will sample various turduckens flown in from Louisiana, such as Creole Sausage and Cornbread and Seafood Jambalaya. Many swear by deep frying, but for chefs and butchers alike, there is no substitute for slowly oven-roasting the holiday bird.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($50).

Marcus Samuelsson, chef/owner of the Marcus Samuelsson Group and winner of the second season of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, was born in Ethopia but adopted and raised inSweden. In his early twenties, he moved to New York to launch a culinary career, after having apprenticed in Switzerland, Austria, and France. This multicultural background greatly influences the way he cooks, as evidenced in his restaurants and recipes. He is an ambassador for UNICEF and has partnered with Starbucks to raise awareness of African cuisine. He is the author of Aquavit and the New Scandinavian Cuisine, The Soul of a New Cuisine, and The New American Table (Wiley, 2009). He was the youngest chef to ever receive three stars from the New York Times when he obtained them at 24 for his work at Aquavit. He will demonstrate how to make Ivory Salmon with Jicama Salad and Snapper in Sour Tomato Broth.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

Join Art Culinaire Executive Editor and ICE alumna Jody Eddy, New York Times and Art Culinaire photographer Evan Sung, and Chef Matthew Redington—whose impressive resume includes stints at Lutèce and Jean-Georges, before his current position as staff chef food stylist at the magazine. Art Culinaire, which launched in 1986, uniquely picks an ingredient, cooking style, or trend for each issue, on which the featured chefs riff. This great trio will take you through a simulated photo shoot of one of the culinary industry’s leading publications. While Redington prepares dishes inspired by the photo shoot’s chosen subject—venison—which you will sample, Eddy will discuss the various aspects of an Art Culinaire photo shoot, from subject and chef selection to the many details required of a successful shoot, complete with behind-the-scene photos and stories. Sung will discuss the various aspects of food photography, from proper lighting techniques to what goes into plating a compelling dish and capture the dishes in real time. They will offer tips and tricks on how to create truly outstanding, page-ready dishes.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

Learn the “skinny” on how to take apart this elusive and prized wild game. Watch as Master Butcher Rudi Weid goes from snout to tail on this stout animal. He will explain each muscle and cut as he starts to fabricate the neck, back and shoulders to the ribs, loin, hind and shanks. This is done in real time so you can see a demonstration of his skilled hands as he butchers the boar in a clean and clinical manner. You will get to sample these cuts as they will be seared, grilled and roasted as he prepares them right from the carcass.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($50).

In addition to his work as chef and owner of Devi, one of New York’s top Indian restaurants, Suvir Saran frequently appears in the media, from television shows like The Martha Stewart Show and The Today Show to the pages of The New York Times and Bon Appétit, contributing greatly to furthering the appreciation of Indian food in America. He also teaches and gives talks on the topic around the country. When he is not on the road teaching and learning, Chef Saran enjoys working on his 68-acre American Masala Farm in upstate New York. He will demonstrate dishes from his cookbooks, American Masala and Indian Home Cooking, and discuss his cooking and lifestyle philosophy.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).

Sukey and John Jamison own a 210-acre farm in Latrobe, PA. They raise 5,000 lambs a year, which are served at top restaurants around the country—including Daniel, Café Boulud, Picholine, and Telepan in New York. They started a retail mail order business in 1985, to sell their lamb to home cooks. Within a few years, they were counting the country’s best chefs among their clients. A very talented cook, Sukey has created a line of hand-prepared lamb dishes, which include a lamb stew created in collaboration with the late, great Jean-Louis Palladin and Sukey’s award-winning lamb pie. John and Sukey continue their farming traditions, trading places daily between their farm and their plant where they process their natural young lamb. They will give a butchering demonstration and talk about various lesser-known cuts and farming methodology, including the history of their farm.

Open to current career students and alumni; $5 registration fee. Limited seats for the general public ($40).