ICE graduates have won James Beard Awards before, but this spring it was a great honor to have two of our graduates share one. Greta Anthony, food producer at Martha Stewart Television and her coworker Mark Ski, segment producer, were honored for the "Best Television Segment: National or Local." It turned out to be an even more exciting week for the team when they also won an Emmy five days later for "Best Service Show."

Both Greta and Mark attended ICE in order to switch careers. Mark had moved to New York from Detroit and spent more than ten years acting in theater, commercials and soap operas before enrolling at ICE. He was drawn to the artistic side of food, although initially he sharpened his skills by taking a more traditional restaurant training route. After graduation, he externed at a Michelin three-star restaurant in Paris and worked in France for another year before returning to New York. In 1993 he became the executive chef at God's Love We Deliver, the not-for-profit organization that prepares and delivers meals to homebound men, women and children living with AIDS. Mark stayed for five years, during which time the organization grew from providing a few hundred meals a day to supplying between 1,200 and 1,300 a day.

Mark says his move from not-for-profit to Martha Stewart Living Magazine was a huge contrast. "One day I was haggling with purveyors, desperately trying to get a price for a case of green peppers that would fit my budget, and the next I was strolling through the greenmarket looking for the perfect green pepper." He worked as kitchen manager for the magazine until Ms. Stewart convinced him to take on the position of segment producer in 2002.

While Mark is a relative newcomer to television production, Greta has already logged eight years with Martha Stewart Television, and her recent Emmy is actually her third. The Massachusetts native was originally in the jewelry industry, but looking to change careers she became a work-study student at ICE. Enthusiasm was the hallmark of Greta's approach, and she admits to having used the time at ICE to "volunteer for every godforsaken duty under the sun."

For her externship, Greta chose Martha Stewart Living Magazine and scored a number of firsts at the young company, including being the first extern ever accepted in the test kitchen and, within the matter of a few months, becoming the first full-time food person hired for the company's growing television division. Winning the Beard award this year (she had been nominated in 2002 as well) was a great honor for Greta, who looks back nostalgically on the time as a student that she volunteered to work the ceremonies.

Martha Stewart Television is now in its eleventh season, and the pair admits to working tirelessly to keep the ideas fresh. As producers, Greta and Mark research show topics, write scripts, choose recipes and work with the show's expert kitchen staff to make sure everything will go smoothly on camera. Both agree that a great segment introduces viewers to something new and exciting, keeps the host entertained as well, and develops the idea or recipe with faultless clarity – something that can be quite challenging in segments that may run as short as three minutes.

We congratulate Mark and Greta on their Beard award and Emmy, and wonder what could be in store for these extremely talented alumni in the future.

May, 2003