dICEd Blog Listing

Firstly, let's identify what flour is. It’s amazing to me how many people have no idea where flour comes from or how it’s made. Types of Wheat There are six classes of wheat — within which are around...

California-native Sohrob Esmaili had a penchant for cuisine from a young age. “I was really into baking and cooking as a teen, and I would bring things I prepared at home to school,” Chef Sohrob says...

The Chocolate Lab’s origin story dates back nearly nine years when ICE began to outgrow its New York campus on West 23rd Street. The initial seed of an idea — perhaps carving out a small corner of a...

Gluten-free flours and nut flours for cooking and baking have been on the rise because of versatility, health benefits and viable options for people with celiac disease or other dietary restrictions...

Long before I developed a passion for working with chocolate, I began fostering a love for coffee. I don’t exactly recall the occasion of my first pre-teen taste of coffee, but it subconsciously...

In mid-March, Arnold Byun, founder of With Warm Welcome (WWW), approached me with the idea of doing a Bakers Box after being inspired by the efforts of Bakers Against Racism last year. As an avid...

Pate a choux translates to "cabbage paste" and dates back to 1540 and the court of Catherine de’ Medici. Named for the way the small choux looks after baking, it is a relatively simple concoction with...

Every once in a while, a technique or a preparation will inspire me to reflect on some of the philosophical aspects of cooking. If I were to reduce the act of cooking down to the simplest of concepts...

Years ago, while working as the pastry chef at Le Bernardin, I began giving serious thought to the role of nostalgia and the sense of memories tied to taste. I still enjoy finding playful yet subtle...

I was grateful to have my former chef-instructor from ICE's Pastry & Baking Arts program, Penny Stankiewicz, share some wisdom about the process. “With recipe testing, the first thing I do is research...

For years I have been passively using cocoa powder. Very rarely is cocoa powder the main ingredient in products I make so I rarely give it much thought. I always focus on the type of chocolate, the...

Growing up, Pastry & Baking Arts Chef-Instructor Stephen Chavez and his family would take a perennial summer pilgrimage to Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the Southern California coast. “Dead...