International Day of Italian Cuisine

January 17, 2012 in Uncategorized | No comments

On January 17th, all the Italian chefs who belong to the Gruppo Virtuale Cuochi Italiani (itChefsGVCI) will be celebrating Ossobuco in Gremolata in their restaurants.

From Hong Kong to New York, thousands of pork shanks will be simmered in solidarity to honor an iconic Italian recipe. To find out more information about the GVCI and the IDIC please go to itchefsGVCI and click on the IDIC.

As a warm up to the great day, the Italian Studies program at the International Culinary Center hosted five Michelin- starred chefs from the motherland. That evening, the gala dinner was attended by New York Italian superstar chefs.

Below is a  glimpse of some of the demonstrations that wowed us during the day, and  of course the most delicious part of all- the gala dinner!

Pizza Master Domenico Crolla, Pizza with Mushrooms

Chef Jessica Botta, Master chef Pietro Zito, The Magic of Making Fresh Pasta

Master Butcher Simone Fracassi

Final plates risotto competition

Gala dinner, Kevin Garcia-'Cesca, Mark Ladner-Del Posto

Fortunato Nicotra-Felidia

Pino Luongo-Centolire

Fabio Trabocchi-Fiola, Washington, DC

Rosario Scarpato, Master Chef Gennaro Esposito, Dorothy Hamilton, Cesare Casella

Scallops in a citrus broth, black olive pesto, cherry tomatoes from Vesuvius and puntarelle with Cetara anchovies

Acquerello Carnaroli with Montoro onion cream, Smoked swordfish fillets, lemon & chili scented crispy seaweed, mantecato with Grana Padano

Mixed pasta minestra with reef fish and crustaceans

Cod, whipped potatoes & ginger, dried fruit, anchovies colatura

Neapolitan rum soaked yeast cake

Are Cakes Overrated?

December 28, 2011 in Careers, The School | No comments

With all the shows about cakes, one question I had to ask was, does one dessert rate its own show or better yet, multiple shows? Even the pipsqueak cupcake gets a prime time slot. I usually like my desserts with lots of fresh fruit, so I am normally a pie or tart eater.  In fact, I will admit to being a pretty good pie maker myself.  But I am going through an intervention at the moment.

You see, The International Culinary Center started a special three month program on cakes.  We have a professional pastry program that lasts six months, cakes are covered within that course. But cakes have evolved…becoming delicious pieces of culinary architecture and we realized we needed a little graduate program devoted just to them, diving deep into the world of this rich, moist and sometimes staggeringly beautiful dessert.

Visiting Master Pastry Chef-Instructor Ron Ben-Israel, Pastry Chef-Instructor Cynthia Peithman, and students, Cake Techniques & Design class

The English word cake comes from the Vikings’ Old Norse, kaka.  Until the late 1400s cake referred to bread-like, often savory preparations. Historically they are round.  They did not take the form of a sweetened dessert until the 1700s, when ovens and refined ingredients first became widely available.  Today cakes are transformed from the traditional rounds into any shape or size you can imagine.  It takes more than a little knowledge and an oven to transform cakes into masterpieces.

To be a professional cakemaker you have to know your ingredients from gum arabic to vitelline membrane.  You have to make fondants, temper chocolate, make ribbons out of blown sugar, shape and color sugar paste flowers, make charlottes, mousses and custards and a huge list of other techniques, all to be assembled with the craftiness of an Egyptian pyramid builder!  Just look at the cakes from our first class which graduated recently.  I can now admit that my beloved humble pie does not have the depth of the cake pedigree (though it still tastes good!).

If you are interested in opening up a cake business, look up our cake program at the International Culinary Center. You are only three months away from creating some amazing feats with flour, butter, sugar and baking soda!

The first graduating class, Cake Techniques & Design, Senior VP of Education & Student Affairs, Christopher Papagni, Pastry Chef-Instructor, Cynthia Peithman

I Put My Hand in Liquid Nitrogen!

December 5, 2011 in Food Technology, Uncategorized | 1 comment

And lived to type about it! Nathan Myhrvold was visiting The International Culinary Center and celebrating his masterpiece, Modernist Cuisine. He was playing around with a Vitamix, aerating wine (it works). He also gave real insights on common household products like Saran Wrap, which does no harm even when microwaved, however cheap PVC wraps do.

Of course the playdough of culinary technologists is liquid nitrogen. There was plenty of the stuff on the stage, set to freeze all manner of things. I made a comment that I was very wary about possible harmful effects if the liquid nitrogen fell on anyone. Nathan assured me that hot cooking oil was worse. Well, I wouldn’t want to experience that either! He then challenged me to put my hand in a tub of liquid nitrogen.

He and Dave Arnold were dipping their hands in and laughing. They finally coaxed me up there, Nathan took my hand, plunged it in and out faster than I could think…and I lived! My hand didn’t even feel cold. It did feel smoother. All in all though, I wouldn’t suggest you try it at home.

Google is Delicious

November 16, 2011 in Travel | No comments

We had the good fortune to meet Shannon Madison a member of the AIWF northern California board and a Google engineer. She invited our colleague Tony Garcia to bring a group of us to see the extraordinary Google dining system on their sprawling Mountain View campus in California.  (Our ICC campus is in a neighboring town). Let me say Google sets the ultimate benchmark for cafeteria service. They are smart, eco-friendly, diverse and most importantly delicious. Really delicious. I had one of the best sauteed swiss chard dishes I’ve ever had along with an antipasto tossed salad that was perfectly seasoned.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “well, rich company, easy job”. Logistics however, make it less than easy. Google serves over 10,000 meals three times a day. They have 27 full-on cafeterias, each with a different food profile. Some are Latin American, some health food oriented, some good old American hamburger centric. The food is sourced impeccably: 60% of it is farm to table and 30% of that is bought directly from local farms. They buy their fish directly from boats at Half Moon Bay or in futures from Alaskan fisherman. They smoke their own salmon.

The chefs themselves -there are 7 executive chefs- come from pedigreed backgrounds (the kitchen of Gary Danko for example) and their enthusiasm for what they do is infectious.Talk about a diverse clientele? From Barack Obama to Lady GaGa. Whoa!

Touring the Google campus

And then the campus itself is dotted with bicycles and clean cars. It took hours to visit just a few of their cafeterias. There are also 165 minor kitchens stocking snacks. They take their coffee seriously too. They stock at least three or more different boutique brands, including Bare Foot, Blue Bottle Coffee and Four Barrel Coffee.  It is mandatory that all coffees have a roast date of less than one week.  I wonder if you can google the cumulative caffeine factor that goes into each search?

That sunny day, the fresh California air, the youthful exuberance all round the Google campus… no wonder they get 1,000 applicants per job opening.

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Bogota Gastronomically Speaking

November 3, 2011 in Restaurants, The School, Travel | No comments

Bogota is a unique and beautiful city. The mountains covered with forests and scented with eucalyptus pour into the city. At the end of a street you can see a vertical green rise of thousands of feet. The city itself is 8,612 feet above sea level, the third highest capital city in South America after La Paz and Quito. One walks slowly in Bogota. There are virtually no tourists.  Its eight million residents bustle and know how to eat and party.

We are very fortunate to have a great graduate there, Daniel Castano. We had dinner with Daniel at a wonderful restaurant Arcanos Mayores which oozed local color. A mother and daughter cooked with flair and real home feeling. The kitchen was the center of the restauant and the tables surrounding it were colorfully tiled. Even the second floor tables were placed on a balcony overlooking the kitchen. Needless to say, this was our kind of place.


As usual we started with the house drinks. We explored the exotic fruits and our favorite cocktail contributor was the lulu fruit. Not sweet, it was full of fresh flavor. To me there was a tinge of grass with a fruit feel in the mouth. They paired  this with their local alcohol and some grenadine and marischino cherries. It tastes better than it sounds.

The food products of Columbia are world class. To quote David Arnold our Director of Culinary Tech,(who joined us on his 2nd trip to Columbia), “they have the best eggs in the world!” The chicken was so tasty, I now remember what chicken is supposed to taste like. Aside from this, what they are known for is their meat. Most of the restaurants have the word Carne (meat) in it. We were in gaucho land.  And thank god, they are not an overprocessed nation.  Local is a way of life here.

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Bogota Foodies Meet

October 31, 2011 in Events, The School, Travel | No comments

We were invited by LaSalle College to participate in a gastronomic fair in Bogota. We were so lucky. Tens of thousands of locals and many cooking school students attended. We spoke together the language of food. Words such as sustainable, technology and delicious were the worldwide ubiquitous catch phrases.

Academics and practicioners from all over South America attended. It was a wonderful chance to learn and explore what is happening in the food scenes in the Latin countries. Univerisities from Brazil to Columbia have added gastronomy programs. School food is an important topic. Native fruits, vegetables and historical cooking are passionately defended.

It was great to walk around the food halls and bump into famous Mexican chefs. We got to drink coca tea and find out that the acai berry from Columbia has more anti oxidants than any other. Once again the array of fruits boggled the mind. Stay tuned, you are going to hear about Columbia as one of the next big food countries.

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