dICEd Blog Listing

Tomatoes can and should be one of the most amazing ingredients we have to work with. The plant's complex flavor and impressive variety are often overlooked when generic, uniformly tasteless varieties...

Kohlrabi looks similar to a turnip, generally round in shape with leaves growing out of one end; both the ball and leaves are edible. Kohlrabi can range in color from white to green to purple and is...

Why is bitter an important part of flavor? To start, our taste buds are extremely attuned to the taste of bitterness, especially at the backs of our mouths. Scientists theorize this evolved as a “last...

My method for the last few years has been through notes (hence the punny title of this post, heh heh). Specifically, tasting them and mentally shuffling spices into top, middle or base notes. Much...

We tend to take potatoes for granted. The staple is a “simple," readily available, easily grown tuber that has been a part Western culture for at least 400 years. The potato was cultivated by the Inca...

Rolling out pasta shapes with fresh dough can be therapeutic, fun and enjoyable with family and friends and only requires eggs and flour. There are many ways to make each pasta shape, differing...

There are several avenues to explore to incorporate these vital building blocks into your meal planning. Some of the most readily available proteins come in the form of nuts, which are also sources of...

You can cross Slovenia from east to west in three hours, Chef Ana divulged while introducing the nature of her country, which is bordered by Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy. “We’ve been a part of...

The word umami describes one of the five main tastes, alongside bitter, sweet, salty and sour. Over 100 years ago, Dr. Ikeda in Japan discovered Umami as an addition to the already documented four...

It’s probably for the best that the pastry module is over because your body can only eat croissants for dinner for so long. This is a chapter in my culinary school diaries that I am ready to leave...

Sat Bains from Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham, eloquently says his job is to "f--- you up with flavor”. As chefs, when we combine elements for flavor, we have the opportunity to refine each...

The biggest takeaway from this past chapter of school is that I’ve been stir-frying incorrectly my entire life. Good to know! Life-shattering epiphanies aside, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the...