Chef Jürgen David loves Thanksgiving, but he didn’t grow up with the food and family-fueled holiday.

For the past three months, the students of the Cake Techniques & Design program have learned the basics of baking, creating delicate sugar flowers and the countless ways to use fondant and other mediums to decorate beautiful cakes. Months of hard work culminated in a final wedding cake project to be tasted and judged by professional cake designers.

I have a confession to make. I do not like cakes. I didn’t know this until starting pastry school mostly because I didn’t know what it meant to build a real one. It is a ton of work to build something even as simple as the cake in this post. Having been through two cake units I now have a world of respect for people who focus on this particular field.

Growing up in an Italian household, I would always come home to a house filled with many delicious aromas. My mom would have sauces boiling on the stove while making one of my favorite desserts, banana bread, which was also the first dessert I mastered. My mom would always be the cook and I eventually took on the role of the dessert maker. I guess you could say that’s how I fell in love with baking. After dinner each night, my family couldn’t wait to see what kind of dessert I had chosen to make. It was most likely something with chocolate, since I basically eat, breathe, and drink chocolate!

As Thanksgiving nears, I wanted to share this simple and delicious side dish for your holiday table. It is inspired by a recipe for glazed carrots with hazelnut gremolata from the Level 3 curriculum of the Professional Culinary Arts program.

Adam Lathan, co-founder and Executive Chef of The Gumbo Bros., is a native of the Gulf Coast of Alabama and a graduate of ICC’s Food Business Fundamentals program. In 2016, he and his business partner Clay opened their first location in Brooklyn to rave reviews. He recently joined ICC students for an Ask the Alumni event where he shared his experiences and advice on opening your first restaurant …as well as some secrets to making a great Gumbo.

Chef Borowitz has created quite a sensation with his intimate and unpretentious Café 48 in Tel Aviv. Blending traditional European Jewish cuisines with modern influences inspired by his time in New York City, his menu ranges from sophisticated take on tongue, pickled herring with aioli and dashi to shpondra, a sandwich of short ribs confit, pickles and challah.

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing IST grad Alan Lane recently about his experience at ICC and his transition from a U.S. Army officer to a Certified Sommelier . His passion is so infectious; I decided to let him enthrall you with the story of his journey in his own words.