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.

Restaurant & Culinary Management Instructor Nancy Selzer studied wine through the Sommelier Society of America and Spain Wine Academy. She was the service director at Babbo early in her career and her wine lists at Tarry Lodge restaurants have earned more than 10 Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence. Nancy has built two private-label wine brands and won Best Medium Sherry Pairing at an international wine competition in Spain.

Dan Mezzalingua (Management, '15) might have been the most enthusiastic 41-year-old intern to enter New York City’s competitive restaurant scene after completing ICE's Restaurant & Culinary Management program. After 14 years in the tech industry and five years in private equity, the political science grad couldn’t shake his love of cooking and desire to open a chicken concept.

On August 15, 2018, Julia Child would have been 106 years old and hopefully very proud to learn that the Institute of Culinary Education opened a campus in her hometown this year. Yes, Pasadena, California, is the birthplace of "The French Chef” and home to ICE’s first location outside of New York City. Julia was very familiar with the school and a critical part of its history. In 1995, Peter Kump founded what was first called Peter Kump’s New York Culinary School, where Julia was a frequent guest instructor and good friend of Peter's. She remained a staunch supporter of ICE as the years went on and the school grew and changed.

Dana Pollack (Pastry, '11) worked as a magazine photo editor for a decade before quitting her job and enrolling in ICE's Pastry & Baking Arts Program. "I’d always loved baking," she says. "I'd been baking since I was very young; that’s how I would relieve stress, make people gifts and entertain. It’s always been something that I was passionate about but never really thought about doing for a living – until I had that light bulb moment."

I have always been fascinated by the process in which salt transforms proteins into preparations that have the appearance of being cooked, but are truly not — and yet, are safe to consume. How does this happen? It is a very simple process that dates back thousands of years in human history when meat, poultry and fish had to be stored without any type of refrigeration as we know it today.