With the heart of a globe-trotter and a passion for lifelong culinary education, Lourdes Reynoso (“Chef Lorrie”) is always up for an adventure. Whether she’s stationed in St. Petersburg for a three-month teaching residency or exploring the best parrillas in Buenos Aires, Chef Lorrie is continually feeding her voracious appetite for foods and cultures of the world. She shares both her global perspective and her expertise in international cuisines with the culinary arts students at ICE.

On a Tuesday evening in the midst of September Fashion Week in New York City, I meet Thea Habjanic (Pastry Arts '10) at La Sirena, the buzzy new restaurant in the Meatpacking district of Manhattan where Thea leads the sweet side of the kitchen as executive pastry chef.

We’re falling for fall. The cozy knits, the bounty of apples, the fall-spiced beverages and, of course, the pumpkins — what’s not to love? The below pumpkin-centric dessert comes from chef and cookbook author Melanie Underwood.

Drinking vinegars, also known as shrubs, have become increasingly popular. Restaurants like Pok Pok NY in Brooklyn are now bottling drinking vinegars and selling them in grocery stores across they country. Even though not everyone knows about shrubs, drinking vinegar for health purposes has been done for a very long time.

In today’s culinary world, food sourcing is more important than ever. Locally-sourced produce has become the standard, rather than the exception. To stay at the forefront of this industry-wide movement, ICE built a state-of-the-art indoor hydroponic garden in its new Brookfield Place facilities.

In July of 2004, I was working on a new menu at my Tribeca restaurant, Chanterelle. The summer Olympics in Athens were about to begin, which naturally got me thinking about Greek food. I decided to tap into memories of traveling in Greece, and also of cheap meals in cafeteria-style restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen, where I lived in the 1970s.

As a student enrolled in a dual-diploma program at ICE, I juggled a schedule for both the Culinary Arts and Culinary Management programs. Three days a week, I had management classes from 8AM to 12PM and then quickly I’d have to change for my 1PM culinary arts class, which ran until 5PM. On the days I didn’t have management classes, I would spend my mornings working on reading and classwork for management, and then the remainder of my day honing my cooking skills in class.

As the summer nears its end, tables at the greenmarket abound with gorgeous fruits and veggies — produce that will be sadly missed in just a few months time. Yet in the modern kitchen, an age-old cooking technique exists to keep enjoying those summery ingredients during chillier months — preservation.

New York City is home to some of the best eats in the country. If you're lucky enough to live here, you can get just about any dish your heart desires delivered to your door—at any time, day or night. But when it comes to the parts of the Big Apple that boast the best bites, some areas have more to offer than others. If you find yourself in the Financial District (“FiDi”) around lunchtime, and you're seeking something other than a typical food chain or overpriced "make your salad" station, you may be in for a tough time.

Recently my wife Cheryl and I had the good fortune to spend a few days in La Belle Province (Quebec) and visit one of our favorite culinary destinations: the beautiful city of Montreal.