Award-Winning Chefs To Speak at ICE NYC 2025 Commencement Ceremony

Aside from offering a slate of expertly-crafted in-person classes, a robust online campus (which now includes associate degree programs) and an ever-growing selection of continuing education classes, ICE is also commemorating its 50th anniversary this year.

The celebrations for this historic milestone have already begun: at the beginning of the year, we recognized 50 distinguished alumni for their outstanding contributions to the culinary and hospitality industries. Additionally, ICE is offering five student scholarships — one per decade of the school's 50 year history — worth up to $25,000 each.

The revelry continues at ICE NY's annual commencement ceremonies on June 24 at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. The ceremonies — Culinary Arts at 9 a.m. and Pastry & Baking Arts, Plant-Based Culinary Arts, Restaurant & Culinary Management, and Tourism, Travel & Hospitality Management at 12:30 p.m. — honor this year's graduates with diplomas and sage words of wisdom from two venerable speakers.

Meet ICE NY's Commencement Speakers

This year, ICE NY is honored to host three renowned chefs as alumni speaker and keynote speakers. All have close ties to the New York culinary community. Samuel Caucci, Sous Chef at two-Michelin-starred SAGA, is the alumni speaker for both ceremonies. 

Keynote speakers are Chef Missy Robbins (Culinary Arts ceremony) and Chef Jacques Torres (Pastry Arts ceremony). Chef Missy is the co-owner of Grovehouse Hospitality and the Chef-Owner of Lilia, Misi, Misipasta, MP Market and Fini Pizza. Chef Jacques is an award-winning chef, entrepreneur, chocolatier, TV show host and cookbook author. 

Chef Missy Robbins

Chef Missy Robbins is a Culinary Arts graduate and one of ICE’s 50 Distinguished Alumni, recognized for her outstanding contributions to the culinary and hospitality industries. She is also the co-owner of Grovehouse Hospitality and the Chef-Owner of Lilia, Misi, Misipasta and MP Market, all located in Brooklyn, New York. As an alum and longtime friend of ICE, she regularly employs alumni in her restaurants.

A graduate of Georgetown University with a B.A. in Art History, Chef Missy spent the early part of her culinary career cooking at restaurants in Italy. In 2014, following Executive Chef roles in both Chicago and New York — the former garnering a coveted William R. Rice “Most Promising Chef Award,” and the latter placing her on Food & Wine’s “Best New Chefs, 2010” list — Chef Missy co-founded Grovehouse Hospitality Group with longtime friend Sean Feeney.

In 2016, Grovehouse opened its first two restaurants, both in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Lilia combines “wood-fired seafood, hand-crafted pastas, classic Italian cocktails and warm hospitality,” while Misi offers a pasta- and vegetable-focused menu. Lilia earned Robbins four separate James Beard nominations — and yielded her win as Best Chef: New York City in 2018 — and both restaurants received three stars from the New York Times.

Chef Missy’s Grovehouse Hospitality also includes Misipasta, a takeout shop that provides curated pasta “kits” for home cooking; MP Grocery, a specialty food store and grocer selling Italian imports, prepared foods and fresh ingredients; and Fini Pizza, a nod to classic New York slice shops.

Additionally, Chef Missy has authored two cookbooks, one of which (PASTA) received a James Beard Award nomination in 2022. 

Chef Jacques Torres

Chef Jacques Torres is an award-winning chef, entrepreneur, chocolatier, TV show host and cookbook author.  

The former Corporate Pastry Chef for the Ritz Carlton Hotel company and Executive Pastry Chef at New York’s famed Le Cirque restaurant, he opened his first chocolate factory and retail shop in Brooklyn in 2000. Later, he opened New York City's first chocolate museum, the Choco-Story New York. Today, there are eight Jacques Torres shops throughout NYC, as well as an online store. 

Chef Jacques is the former star of PBS’s Dessert Circus and the author of two Dessert Circus cookbooks. He is also the host of Food Network’s “Chocolate with Jacques Torres” and co-host of “Nailed It!,” a baking competition on Netflix. 

Among Chef Jacque’s numerous awards are James Beard Foundation Pastry Chef of the Year; Chefs of America Pastry Chef of the Year; and Chartreuse Pastry Chef of the Year. Additionally, he is the youngest person ever to win the Meilleur Ouvrier Pâtissier de France competition. Chef Jacques is a member of the Académie Culinaire de France, and is included in the James Beard Foundation’s “Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.”

Chef Jacques has an abiding relationship to and appreciation for culinary education. In his teens, he completed a two-year apprenticeship at a pastry shop in France — graduating first in his class — then earned a Master Pastry Chef Degree from the Cannes Culinary School. Later, he was Dean of Pastry Arts at the International Culinary Center (ICC), which was incorporated into ICE in 2020.

Chef Samuel Caucci

Chef Sam is an ICE Culinary Arts graduate and one of our 50 distinguished alumni. While pursuing a degree in economics at St. John’s University, he landed a position at Junoon, a premier Indian restaurant in Manhattan’s Flatiron District. 

He later enrolled at ICE, graduating from its Culinary Arts program in 2019. After graduation, Chef Sam cooked at The Modern, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and several colleagues launched Joomak Banjum, a Korean-Chinese pop-up that gained a loyal following for its innovative take on Asian comfort food.

Harnessing the concept’s popularity, he and his colleagues opened Joomak Banjum as a brick-and-mortar  restaurant in 2021. The next year, Joomak Banjum earned a Michelin Star.

From there, Chef Sam was named Sous Chef at Clover Hill, a Michelin-starred restaurant named to the New York Times’ 2024 list of “100 Best Restaurants in New York City.”

Presently, he is the Sous Chef at Saga, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant on the 63rd floor of 70 Pine Street, a landmark Art Deco tower in New York's Financial District.

Chef Sam has been instrumental in hiring ICE graduates, several of whom have worked at Joomak Banjum, Clover Hill and SAGA.