Get the recipe for our most popular Special Events appetizer.

At ICE, we make it our mission to help students find their culinary voice — that creative drive within each of us that determines how we express ourselves through food. Whether it’s a career training program, a recreational course in pie crusts or a special event featuring handmade pasta, we’ll give you the tools to hone your culinary creativity. Join us as we ask some of today’s leading food industry pros to share their culinary voice.

Chocolate can be traced back thousands of years to the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec cultures — and its first form was a beverage.

Gifts are the best and worst part about the holiday season. Receiving = the best. Finding that perfect something-they-don’t-already-have gift for the special person on your list = the worst. For the foodie on your shopping list, we’re here to make your gift search a painless victory. Though stores and online catalogs are filled with hundreds of “must-have” kitchen gadgets, only some of them are actually worth it — others not so much. To help you cut through the clutter and find the best of the best, the following is my list of recommended essential kitchen gifts.

At ICE, we make it our mission to help students find their culinary voice — that creative drive within each of us that determines how we express ourselves through food. Whether it’s a career training program, a recreational course in pie crusts or a special event featuring handmade pasta, we’ll give you the tools to hone your culinary creativity. Join us as we ask some of today’s leading food industry pros to share their culinary voice.

Meet Sarah Entwistle, our newest “Life as a Culinary Student” blogger. After graduating from American University with a degree in business, Sarah headed to Salt Lake City to pursue a career in finance. Though she was rising through the ranks as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, after a few years Sarah realized that her passions lay elsewhere — cooking. Sarah returned to the east coast and enrolled in ICE’s Culinary Arts program. In this first blog post, she writes about a unique aspect of Life as a Culinary Student — volunteer opportunities with world-renowned chefs.

On Sunday, November 18, ICE hosted the annual Chefs’ Night Out from the James Beard Foundation — a prelude to the JBF Awards ceremony in Chicago and a chance for chefs, nominees and presenters to mix and mingle while sampling delicious, inventive food and drink.

In the words of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, “If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat.” When ICE graduate Andrew Massetti ( Hospitality Management ’14) was offered a position as Community Manager at Spotluck, the rapidly expanding restaurant app that solves the age-old diner’s dilemma, “Where should we eat dinner tonight?” he didn’t hesitate — he got on board.

I’ve never been a big pie person. I can appreciate a good homemade pie with a thick crust and multiple scoops of ice cream, but it’s not the Thanksgiving dessert that I look forward to most. If you fall into the same anti-pie category as me, try making these hazelnut and cardamom sticky buns instead.

A small slice of my career as a pastry chef has been dedicated to introducing bakers to the flavor combination of pumpkin and chocolate. Some of you may have already tasted the duo — if you are one of those people, congratulations and please consider adding some chocolate chips to your Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. However, if you have not had the experience of chocolate and pumpkin combined, stop your holiday baking plans now and redirect your attention to this post immediately.