In our Restaurant & Culinary Management classes, we've covered topics ranging from menu planning and finding a location, to restaurant finances and branding. What's more, it seems like we're meeting a new food entrepreneur every time we come to class.

When friends or out-of-towners ask for restaurant recommendations, there's always one place at the top of my short list: Lilia.

Tired of checking Instagram and pining for an exciting career that takes you to beautiful destinations around the globe? A diploma from ICE's Hospitality & Hotel Management program can get you on the path toward a fulfilling career with, literally, a world of opportunities.

At this year's James Beard Awards, three ICE alumni took home top honors.

Back when she was a tween, ICE alum Tanya Edmunds (Culinary/Management, ‘09) took an interest in makeup. This being before the days of Pinterest and YouTube tutorials, her mom bought her makeup books filled with pages of application instructions. Tanya would spend hours in her room carefully studying the tutorials then replicating them on herself until she mastered each lesson. From the beginning, it was clear that she would be drawn toward creative, hands-on pursuits. Though she studied theatre at NYU, practical considerations and a knack for whipping up delicious home-cooked dinners led her to enroll at ICE.

I never dreamed of becoming a restaurant chef. Coming from a culinary student, this may sound a little strange. Why would someone go to culinary school and not want to join the ranks of great chefs like Alice Waters or Eric Ripert? It’s a legitimate question. Hear me out though, because today there are many paths you can forge with a culinary background.

Chef James Briscione, ICE’s Director of Culinary Research, has a healthy obsession with flavor pairings. So much so that he and wife Brooke Parkhurst, a writer, cook and ICE recreational instructor, teamed up to write, “The Flavor Matrix: The Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extraordinary Dishes.”

“We’re excited that the 2018 IACP Conference is beginning today in New York City, and that so many Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) alumni are speakers and attendees,” said ICE President Rick Smilow, an IACP board member and presenter at Sunday’s award ceremony.

Chef Rick Bayless — a veritable authority on authentic Mexican cooking — enjoys the challenge of adapting these beloved classics year-round. Luckily, he gave us an inside look at his winter spin on these warm-weather specialties.