dICEd Blog Listing

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...

In its earliest modern form, in the days of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, chocolate would have been sold unsweetened in rough blocks and cakes, to be ground or broken up by the end-user for...

Ever since ombre cakes became fashionable, the colorful trend has filled inspiration boards on Pinterest and flooded foodies' social media feeds. While the ombre hair trend emerged in the early part...

More than just a sweet treat, Mexican wedding cookies date back to centuries worth of history and traditions spanning the world. In addition to delicious flavor, these cookies carry more history and...

To start, you need a great sugar cookie recipe. I’m including one, and you can use any trusted one you like. There are many secrets to successfully decorated sugar cookies, and the first one is it...