Josue (Joshua) Mendez embarked on his journey to find his culinary voice at our Los Angeles campus in September 2018. At just 18-years-old, Josue enrolled in Culinary Arts, saying his goal was to become a “well-known chef and cook, making sophisticated plates and platters.” Here, those who knew him commemorate the short time he had to do so.

Clearly, the restaurant world has dramatically changed over a few short months and will continue to do so. COVID-19 changed the way restaurants operate, and some of these changes will continue on forever: better sanitizing, contactless menus, and definitively, better delivery.

Crêpes are an ultra-thin pancake common in France that can be made sweet or savory, typically rolled or folded with a variety of fillings from jam or Nutella to ham and cheese to seafood. The specialty is served in crêperies, as street food and even in elegant settings as dessert, such as the most famous presentation, crêpes Suzette.

These three recipes — courtesy of ICE's recreational culinary program — are ideal summer fare.

For our final virtual market basket challenge, Director of Culinary Research and Development Barry Tonkinson invited students and alumni to make their own ingredient list and share their best original dish without boundaries. Recent grad Kelly Bedford (Pastry, '20) layered chocolate cake, caramel, bourbon mousse, ganache, graham crackers and meringue for a s'mores dessert.

The first half of 2020 has proven one of the most tumultuous times in modern history. With the intersection of the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, many people are finding any method of self-care to be a necessary priority in order to withstand the accompanying stress. For many ICE students and graduates, however, this moment was one to practice care more broadly, finding ways to put their culinary and food management skills to work to care for their communities.

Chef and entrepreneur Guy Vaknin (Culinary, ‘07) has appeared on "Hell's Kitchen" and "Shark Tank" since graduating from ICE, while growing his vegan sushi restaurant concept, Beyond Sushi, to seven New York locations with an app, catering and philanthropic efforts.

We're hosting a voluntary virtual market basket challenge each week our New York campus is closed, and this week's seasonal focus ingredient was corn. Student winner Drew Moore incorporated breakfast comfort foods, including bacon, cornbread, gravy, scrambled eggs and pancakes into his winning dish. Here's how he developed the recipe.

Fermentation is responsible for a lot of wonderful things. Among these are the discovery of wine and vinegar.

While the Los Angeles campus was closed, our chef-instructors, students and alumni channeled their culinary creativity in a variety of ways. Some pursued private chef opportunities, returned to food blogging or entered our weekly market basket challenge. And then there were those who used their knowledge and skills for the greater good. Among the many in our community who used the extra availability to prepare dinners for frontline workers, Mattia Corbia shares the 1,000-meal initiative at his family’s restaurant.