Chef Barry Tonkinson began working in food at age 13 and developed his fine-dining experience under some of London’s most prominent chefs. He’s prepared private meals for the rich and famous, opened a Michelin-starred restaurant and managed his own catering company in Connecticut.

Celebrate pumpkins, squash and even harvest macarons at ICE's most exciting October and early November happenings. The New York City Wine and Food Festival is throwing five of its coveted annual events at our Lower Manhattan campus; you can be the first to take new recreational classes with seasonal themes; and Director of Sustainability Bill Telepan is hosting another Zero Waste brunch at Oceana.

A dual U.S.-Italian citizen, Adriano Piazza moved to California (where he spent all his summers) after studying food, wine and beer in Italy. Adriano enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at the Institute of Culinary Education's LA campus to add a hands-on, well-rounded education to his theoretical studies. Here, he shares one of his first lessons.

Taste is what drives most chefs, and I'm no exception. I like things that taste good — and locally grown produce that I can eat right after it's picked just tastes good.

It’s been a big year in publishing for ICE alumni – five graduates of the Culinary Arts program have released cookbooks since January. Kitty Travers (Culinary, ’03) shares recipes from her long-celebrated London ice cream company, La Grotta Ices; Suzy Scherr (Culinary, ’10) gives us more than 100 uses for a common household product; Jennifer Clair (Culinary, ’98) writes a home cook’s manual with tricks from professional kitchens; and Aurora Satler (Culinary, ’10) and Jenna Helwig (Culinary, ’07) both bring nutritional advice and simple recipes for busy parents feeding young children and families.

I never expected I’d be in school another decade after college, and yet here I am, typing this missive as I anticipate results from sitting the Master of Wine examination in June. If you’re not familiar with the British-based institute, it offers a four-day blind tasting and theory exam once a year in a handful of locations around the world. It’s a rigorous endurance exercise that taps the furthest and deepest limits of wine tasting, knowledge and its tangential institutions.

A natural performer, ICE alumnus Arnold Myint (Management, '04) shares the perseverance behind his many television appearances. Follow his path from touring ice skater to culinary student to executive chef, cheftestant, and ultimately, inspiring chef-instructor.

Could you confidently identify a cherimoya? Or know precisely when a dragon fruit has reached peak ripeness? We weren’t convinced about our tropical fruit knowledge either, until Robert Schueller, director of public relations at Los Angeles-based Melissa’s Produce, the largest distributor of specialty produce in the United States, came to the Institute of Culinary Education’s Los Angeles campus to educate students on this natural food trend.

Pastry & Baking Arts student Joy Cho works in corporate communications and public affairs full time, but she's always had a passion for baking and dreamed of opening her own shop. This summer, she decided to "go for it" and enroll in night classes at ICE. "My job requires me to be mindful of details and this translates in many ways to my work in the kitchen," Joy says. "I'm in pastry school to gauge if I'm really ready and willing to jump headlong into the food industry." Here, she shares the first few weeks of her experience.