In the culinary world, it is often said that we eat with our eyes first. If something doesn’t look appetizing, people won’t want to eat it, regardless of whether the flavor is on point. You know when you are scrolling through Facebook, minding everybody else's business and are suddenly bombarded with a picture of some blurry, washed-out mess on a plate? “Home-cooked dinner!”, the caption proudly boasts. I’m sure your spinach lasagna tastes great, Aunt Susan, but right now, it looks like the Wicked Witch of the West just melted into a puddle on your plate.

What exactly makes a "Top Chef"? Well, you could win a contest on a popular TV show, or perhaps run top-rated restaurants — or better yet, both.

While working for Emeril Lagasse in New Orleans, I become quite interested in ways to use bay leaves in sweets. Emeril has laurel trees in his backyard, so we were lucky to have fresh leaves picked by Chef himself, and used them in just about all of his savory dishes. I found the flavor of fresh bay leaves similar to mint when lightly steeped in cream—perfect for a pannacotta.

Since my last post, big changes have occurred: I have gone from pastry student to a pastry cook! Yes – it's official: On December 9th, my Pastry and Baking Arts classmates and I celebrated the end of our coursework and the start of our externships. While I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment, I must admit—it feels a little odd to no longer be in class for four hours hours every morning, covered in flour, sugar and chocolate.

Many of my favorite holiday memories include making cookies in various sizes, shapes and flavors. The aroma of fresh baked cookies around the holidays triggers memories of the amazing Christmas celebrations I had as a child. Having grown up in a Italian American household, there was never a shortage of anise shortbread cookies, florentines and of course, all manner of biscotti.

Tis the season for giving and we at ICE are proud to say that the school and our students give back year round.

With my recent interest in family history and subsequent travel to the Baltic republic of Lithuania, I’ve been lucky to both learn more about the traditional cuisine there and to share that discovery with others.

If you’ve found yourself in the market for a job post-Thanksgiving, you may be tempted to wait until the New Year to truly dive into your search. Why bother pounding the pavement when no one’s hiring—or in the case of restaurants, when a chef/owner is too slammed with holiday business to interview or train you properly?