Recently, at a talk for the Greater New York Dietetic Association, I was asked to share my thoughts on food waste, access and education. I’ve focused on food waste in the past, but access to food is not something we talk about enough and I appreciated the opportunity to address it.

ICE alum Tom Coughlan (Culinary Arts/Culinary Management, 2012) is never not adding to his culinary repertoire. Just a few months after graduating from ICE, he started hosting pop-up dinners in Brooklyn, creating bold dishes using hyper-seasonal products, some of which he foraged himself. Raw mackerel with foraged pears and handmade pasta with foraged acorns were a couple of the crowd favorites. Since then, he’s competed on Chopped, worked for a number of high-end restaurants and spent a year as head chef of Brooklyn’s beloved Sunken Hundred.

I’ll spare you the standard “When I was kid … summertime/hot day … watermelon juices dripping down my chin … aww, memories” introduction. Instead, I’ll proudly tell you that watermelon is the first food I ever grew myself. Okay, this might still fall under the category of a “When I was a kid” intro, but bear with me.

Clafoutis is one of the easiest desserts to make, not to mention an absolute showstopper. Like a soufflé, this dessert puffs to great heights and begins to deflate moments after being removed from the oven. However, unlike a soufflé, clafoutis batter is super simple to make — just whisk the ingredients together and voila!