ICE LA Alumni Staff Michelin, LA Times Acclaimed Restaurants
The new Michelin Guide and Los Angeles Times’ awards include many workplaces of ICE graduates
The Golden State is closing out the year with the awards season we’ve anxiously been waiting for, with the launch of the 2022 Michelin Guide California and the drop of the Los Angeles Times’ Top 101 Best Restaurants in LA list.
There was glitz and glamour at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile on Monday night for the live reveal of the 2022 Michelin Guide California. 2022 marks the third year of the guide’s returning presence in the Golden State (after stopping publication in California in 2009), and with the reveal, Michelin inspectors made sure the list continues to grow.
Related Read: ICE Alumni Receive Michelin Stars in NYC
Now boasting a whopping 89 Michelin-starred establishments in the statewide guide, 18 newcomers have reached star status, including Addison, chef William Bradley’s contemporary Californian restaurant in San Diego, in the three-star category. (This now makes for a grand total of 142 three-Michelin-starred restaurants around the world — an epic to-do list.)
New on the one-star list is Gwen, Curtis and Luke Stone’s sister restaurant to their one-starred Maude, which, like Maude, pays homage to their grandmother. By day, guests can stroll through the European-style butcher shop (and see ICE Culinary Arts alum and butcher, Brendan Lopez), and by night a glamorous steakhouse, doling out favorites like wagyu tartare, lobster tortellini and an 80-day aged Tomahawk Steak.
Manzke, Walter and Margarita Manzke’s contemporary fine-dining eatery in Pico-Robertson (where Culinary Arts graduate Eliza Pokorny currently serves as Chef de Partie), also received a star in the 2022 guide.
“Here, you'll settle in for a ten-course tasting menu boasting a contemporary style that blends French techniques with Californian influences and Asian notes,” state Michelin inspectors in the guide.
Other new entrants to the Michelin Guide California include Corey Lee’s San Ho Won, Seth Stowaway’s Osito in San Francisco and Christopher Barnum-Dann’s Localis in Sacramento.
Students at the Institute of Culinary Education have been hired from externship at the following Michelin-starred restaurants in California:
Three Stars
SingleThread Farms
Two Stars
Hayato
Melisse
Providence
One Star
Camphor
Gucci Osteria
Gwen
Hatchett Hall
Jeune et Jolie
Kali
Kato
Manzke
Osteria Mozzo
Shibumi
Related Read: An ICE Alum's Journey to Sous Chef at Michelin-Starred Kali
The LA Times’ list, which celebrated its release Tuesday night with a launch party at City Market Social House in Downtown LA, also features many restaurants staffed by ICE graduates.
Flavors From Afar, home to ICE alumna Kenna Cotes as head chef, snagged a coveted spot on the list. Chef Kenna was at the actual launch party event as one of the invited guest chefs, serving up dishes imbued with a deep sense of place — all of Flavors From Afar’s dishes and rotating menus are created by refugee chefs to reflect their home countries.
Many other restaurants lauded on the list are connected to ICE as well. This ranges from spots like Birdie G’s, Pasjoli, Providence, Gwen and Kato, which have hired ICE grads as employees, to Damian, whose head chef Jesus Cervantes visited ICE for a student enrichment demonstration over the summer.
Congratulations to the teams of all restaurants receiving those coveted accolades. ICE Pasadena’s Career Services Department works with half of all the current Michelin-starred restaurants in Los Angeles for student and alumni externships and job placement.
We’re so proud of all of the graduates whose work has been recognized this awards season.
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