People of The Institute       Instructor Focus         Scott McMillen Pastry Arts Instructor   Chef Scott McMillen started his career at ICE® part-time in spring 2002, before taking a full plunge in fall 2004. Before teaching, he was the executive pastry chef of Manhattan Ocean Club for nearly ten years. He started working there as a pastry cook right after graduating from culinary school in 1992, where he focused on culinary arts. McMillen had not intended to work as a pastry chef and did not expect to like it, but he stuck to it and did it well enough that he kept getting promotion after promotion, he said. After all these years his culinary arts background proves useful though, as he also leads cooking parties for ICE®’s special events division McMillen was surprised by the variety of personalities he found in just one classroom, and enjoys the challenges brought by teaching: “When you’re cooking you’re thinking abstractly, you know when it’s done,” he said. “When you’re teaching you have to find words; it’s as important as anything else. You have to know what to look for and how to communicate it.” Teaching has broadened McMillen’s field, “giving it a new life” he said, as he has been learning wedding cake design and teaching classes like ICE®’s steakhouse series. It also allows him to spend more time with his two boys and volunteering for their Boy Scout troop and Little League team. And while this family man leaves the baking at the office, he is preparing a special cake for the communion of his seven-year-old. 2005