dICEd Blog Listing

Jürgen initially aspired to act, sing and dance, but he followed in his sister's footsteps pursuing a career in the kitchen to have a solid job in case those passions didn't pay off. While making...

In many ways, coming to culinary school has been a decade-long dream in the making, with a lot of detours along the way. I didn’t grow up in a family that appreciated food or restaurants much, so it’s...

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...

Named for its resemblance to the famed snow-capped peak straddling the border of France and Italy in the Alps, the dessert likely has its origins in the latter, but it has been embraced as a staple of...

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...

“My uncle was a pastry chef and I used to watch him make these huge, elaborate cakes,” Charles remembers. “I knew I wanted to do that someday, but I got into the martial arts with my cousin, Malik...

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...

Using a kitchen scale is so important that it's the first lesson for Culinary Arts and Pastry & Baking Arts students at the Institute of Culinary Education. In the video below, Chef Jeff gives a sneak...