‘Tis the season for friendsgivings and holiday gatherings. My favorite part of this tradition — aside from good food and good friends — is discovering the recipes my loved ones cherish. Each dish comes with a story: maybe it’s a family heirloom, a vivid culinary memory, or an accident that exceeded expectations.

Tasting a dish while hearing those stories — about the culture, people, and loved ones behind it — makes the experience richer and more fulfilling (in sentiment and stomach).

This year, I’m sharing a collection of memorable holiday recipes from ICE Culinary Arts and Pastry & Baking Arts chef-instructors, past and present. Each dish carries personal meaning, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading their stories as much as cooking these sweet and savory favorites.

Meet Chef Sabrina Sexton

Chef Sabrina Sexton has a long history with ICE. She arrived as a career changer, leaving a pre-med program at Johns Hopkins to pursue a different white coat, via ICE's Culinary Arts program. (Chef Sabrina isn't the only acclaimed alum to have made the leap from pre-med — she shares the distinction with fellow graduate Chef Steve Samson.)

When her ICE externship at fine-dining restaurant Chanterelle ended with a job offer, Chef Sabrina honed her craft for three years at the restaurant.

Her rise through New York’s restaurant scene continued at Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern. Despite a culinary background, Chef Sabrina first worked in the pastry kitchen under the leadership of Chef and ICE graduate Claudia Fleming. (ICE students have access to a network of over 20,000 fellow graduates whose careers cover every facet of the culinary and hospitality industry.) Craving the improvisation of savory cooking, Chef Sabrina transitioned to the culinary kitchen and worked for then-executive chef Tom Colicchio. Three years later, she emerged as the restaurant’s Tavern Chef — responsible for the establishment’s casual dining space and menu development.

Following four additional years at Gramercy Tavern, Chef Sabrina applied her skills at ABC Network, overseeing culinary operations, executive and corporate dining, and training staff.

After reconnecting with ICE at the school’s annual alumni networking party, it was no surprise Chef Sabrina wanted to focus her teaching on the next generation of future chefs. With a background spanning culinary and pastry, Chef Sabrina taught both programs at the school, eventually rising to Lead Chef of Culinary Arts.

Though Chef Sabrina is no longer teaching, her legacy at ICE lives on — as does her favorite holiday recipe for Swedish meatballs.

A Savory Scandinavian Stand-Out

Chef Sabrina’s mother’s side of the family is Scandinavian, so the holidays — especially Christmas — always meant lots of Nordic fare. “Every year, on Christmas Eve, my mom prepares a big julbord, a traditional Christmas buffet with pickled herring, gravlax, ham and saffransbrod, a saffron bread filled with raisins,” reminisced Chef Sabrina.

“My favorite traditional food has always been Swedish meatballs,” she added, “served alongside mashed potatoes, lingonberry sauce, and pickled cucumber salad, they always remind me of my childhood.”

Chef Sabrina’s recipe is a hybrid of her mom’s and Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s. “He likes to put a splash of pickle juice from the cucumbers into the sauce, which is a great way to cut the sweetness of the lingonberries and the richness of the crème fraîche,” she said

More Holiday Recipes to Come

I hope you’ll add Chef Sabrina’s Swedish meatballs to your holiday menu — they are comforting, nostalgic and simply delicious.

Up next, Pastry & Baking Arts Chef-Instructor Kathryn Gordon shares her recipe for Mince Tartelettes, a sweet treat that reminds her of a holiday spent down under, to our holiday potluck.

Ingredients

½ cup breadcrumbs
¼ cup milk
4 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped
¾ pound ground pork
¾ pound ground beef
1 tablespoon honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup crème fraîche or sour cream
¼ cup lingonberry preserves
2 tablespoons pickle juice or 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Directions

Combine breadcrumbs with milk in bowl. Stir until breadcrumbs are moistened. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in medium sauté pan. Add onions and cook until limp and translucent, about 5 minutes. Cool.
Add onions, pork, beef, honey, egg, salt and pepper to large bowl, and mix by hand until blended. Add breadcrumb-milk mixture and mix well. Shape into golf ball-sized meatballs.
Add remaining oil to sauté pan. Cook meatballs in batches, turning frequently until browned on all sides and cooked through (about 5-6 minutes), transfer to plate.
To prepare sauce, add stock to pan and simmer until reduced by half. Add crème fraiche and reduce until sauce is a nappe consistency (coats the back of a spoon).
Return meatballs to pan and warm.
Serve meatballs with mashed potatoes, more lingonberry preserves and cucumber salad.

Cory Sale

Cory Sale is the Senior Content Manager at ICE and an alumna (Culinary Arts '22). She enjoys writing about seasonal produce almost as much as visiting NYC’s greenmarkets, where she finds new flavors to add to ice cream. When she’s not cooking (or eating), you can find her on the frisbee field chasing down a piece of plastic.