Top New York Culinary Schools

The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institute of New York City
New York - New York

* Culinary/Restaurant Management
* Culinary Arts
* Pastry Arts

The Culinary Institute of America - Hyde Park
Hyde Park - New York

* Baking & Pastry Arts
* Baking & Pastry Arts Management
* Culinary Arts
* Culinary Arts Management

The French Culinary Institute - New York New York - New York

* Artisanal Bread Baking
* Art of International Bread Baking
* Breakfast Breads, Pastries, & More
* Charcuterie, Pate & More
* Chocolate Desserts

Culinary Academy of Long Island
Syosset - New York

* Commercial Cooking Diploma
* Professional Cooking Diploma
* Restaurant Management Diploma
* Baking & Pastry Arts, Coursework

Culinary Academy of New York
New York - New York

* Baking and Pastry Arts I
* Baking and Pastry Arts II
* Commercial Cooking (Evening)
* Professional Cooking
* Hotel and Restaurant Management

Wood Tobé-Coburn School
New York - New York

* Travel & Hospitality

Institute of Culinary Education
New York - New York

* 6 to 11 Month Diploma Programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking, Culinary Management
* Externships in New York City's top restaurants
* Over 23,000 students chose from 1,500 hands-on classes in a variety of international cuisines.

In Conversation: André Soltner and David Chang

The legendary French chef and current culinary star on French vs. American cuisine, absentee celebrity chefs, and why your côte de boeuf costs $150.

by Robin Raisfeld & Rob Patronite

David Chang and André Soltner (Photo: Dan Winters)

As the chef of Lutèce for 34 years, André Soltner lived through astounding changes in New York’s—and America’s—culinary culture. In fact, he was largely responsible for some of them, like the shift to fresh, high-quality ingredients and the adoption of a lighter, more modern approach to classic French technique. After hanging up his apron in 1994, he joined the faculty of the French Culinary Institute. That’s where David Chang graduated in 2000, before he opened the groundbreaking Momofuku Noodle Bar, a deceptively casual canteen that made waves with its inventive combination of Eastern and Western flavors and its repudiation of the fripperies of fine dining. Since then, Chang has expanded his fiefdom with Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Ko. One recent late-summer afternoon, the two pioneers sat down to compare notes on what it meant, and means, to be a modern cook in New York.

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New York: Is French technique still the basis of cooking and restaurant culture in New York?

André Soltner: Yes. For me, there is no question. The French technique is the result of 200 years of practice.

David Chang: No question. It’s the fundamentals. Yesterday, for instance, at Ko, we were talking about making meat sauces, about classic French technique and how we might have strayed from that and evolved from that, but it all stems from the same thing. I’m going to be much more excited about getting someone who’s spent four years working at Daniel, because I know for sure that this guy’s going to have a certain skill set. And you can apply that to a variety of other cuisines, not just French. So I always say it’s the arithmetic, it’s the fundamentals. I find that there are a lot of similarities between French and Japanese food. I think they’re two countries that have really systemized their cuisine and codified it. When I was in Japan, everyone wanted to work for Pierre Gagnaire, and they wouldn’t miss a beat.

NY: So what’s better, culinary school or training in a restaurant kitchen?

AS: I think the system now where you go to school first is very good. When we went to our apprenticeships, it was based on cheap labor. We were cheap labor.

NY: And now?

AS: Now, chefs, they go to school. The problem is, when they graduate, they think they are Paul Bocuse. On the other hand, that the chef is out of the kitchen and known by name, it’s a good thing. When I started, the maître d’ or owner had the name. Now the chefs, they’re so well known that they don’t have the time to actually cook.

NY: You still cook, don’t you, Dave?

DC: I’m trying.

AS: I tell you the truth: When I had my restaurant, and you asked me to come here, I never would have done it.

NY: You didn’t do interviews?

AS: If they came to Lutèce, if they came to my kitchen, yes. I would not go out. If they asked me to go to Chicago to do a fund-raising dinner, it was, “No.” If they asked me to come to give me a prize or whatever, I said, “Only on Sundays, when I’m not in the kitchen.” I was sort of a slave to my restaurant. And my wife too. I don’t say it was right. Today, I maybe say it was wrong. Years ago, in Paris, we had no money. But when we were more comfortable, maybe twenty years later, I said, “Simone, you know, you’ve paid your dues and everything, I buy you whatever you wish.” I was thinking to buy her a ring or a necklace or something like that. “Whatever you wish, tell me.” She looked at me and said, “Take me to a movie.” For twenty years, I hadn’t taken her to a movie. I woke up. I said, “Oh my God, what did I do to my wife?”

DC: You barely missed a service; you essentially lived above the restaurant, right?

AS: Oh, yeah.

DC: I lived across the street from Noodle Bar. I could barely stand it, because you’re there all the time, you can’t get away.

NY: What about the pressure of making public appearances and opening other restaurants?

DC: You have to. The livelihood of the restaurant is dependent upon getting the word out. There’s so much more competition. You could do an event every week and not cook at all.

AS: With us it started a little bit in the seventies. You wouldn’t believe how many people offered me a deal to open a second restaurant. A second restaurant? Are you kidding? I cannot do it. I had an offer to go to Japan. It’s the difference between a businessman and a craftsman. We weren’t businesspeople.

Source: nymag.com

Star Power Spices Up a Public TV Food Show

By ELIZABETH JENSEN

When Gwyneth Paltrow asked to join the chef Mario Batali and the food writer Mark Bittman on their planned cooking and travel show set in Spain, executives at American Public Television actually debated whether it was a good idea. In an era when publicity potential dictates many programming decisions elsewhere, public television remains wary of celebrity, despite its own well-chronicled lack of money to promote its programs.



American Public Television Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow in a scene from the public television food show “Spain ... on the Road Again.”

But in the end Ms. Paltrow, the 35-year-old star of films like “Shakespeare in Love,” was admitted to the group, and the show, “Spain ... on the Road Again,” is already a game-changer for public television in terms of attention. Even Ken Burns, PBS’s biggest star, didn’t get a segment on “Oprah” for his epic World War II documentary series last year; Ms. Paltrow and Mr. Batali, however, nabbed an entire hour of exercise talk and Spanish cooking on Wednesday.

This week stations will find out whether the publicity, which included a four-page spread in People magazine, an article in Glamour and features in food and travel magazines, has paid off in viewers when the 13-week program begins at various times around the country. In New York, Channel 13 will run the hourlong episodes at 3 p.m. Sundays, grouped with its other more traditional in-kitchen cooking shows. But Channel 21, like many other stations nationwide, has confidently scheduled it right in prime time, Mondays at 10 p.m. With its breezy style and banter, Willie Nelson theme song and car-mounted cameras to catch the scenery whizzing by from a passenger point of view, Charlie Pinsky, the director and executive producer, said the show is “going after more than just the traditional PBS audience, and we think we’re going to bring new people to public television with this.”

“To have this kind of star power doing this on PBS is a first. Public television doesn’t necessarily need to be less star power-driven than other networks; it just has been,” Mr. Pinsky said. Celebrity, he added, “opens a lot of doors.”

Channels 13 and 21 already experienced that phenomenon this summer when the Police donated the final concert of their reunion tour as a fund-raiser. The stations raised $3.1 million before expenses (up from the $2.35 million first reported).

To round out the group in Spain, Mr. Pinsky invited the Spanish television actress Claudia Bassols. The four are occasionally together but often split up as they roam the country: cooking saffron-vegetable rice and partridge with the chef Adolfo Muñoz outside Toledo, touring the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao with the architect Frank Gehry, visiting manchego and cava producers and pig farms. Mr. Pinsky called it an “eating, drinking and driving show” (with one caveat: “Always have a designated driver”). It was a traditional road trip in name only; the participants took breaks to see their children and take care of business obligations.

The show is distributed by American Public Television, not PBS; many public television stations run programming from both distributors. PBS’s national high-definition network is carrying the show, at 7 p.m., Eastern time, on Saturdays.

The program was originally to feature Mr. Batali, in his first foray away from the Food Network and into public television, and Mr. Bittman, who writes the column The Minimalist for The New York Times (a sponsor of the Spain show) and has hosted public television cooking shows.

But it took a turn when, as Mr. Batali tells it, he was talking about the road trip at a dinner party. Ms. Paltrow, who had participated in a high school exchange program in Spain and speaks Spanish fluently, overheard, and asked to come along. “I thought it sounded like someone being very polite at a dinner table,” he said. But she persisted.

Initially, said Judy Barlow, the vice president of business development at American Public Television, executives wrestled with the concept. But, she said, they soon decided that given that Ms. Paltrow knows Spain and speaks the language, it was “kind of a no-brainer.” She added, “We wouldn’t have had her come along just for the sake of it.”

Some station managers were wary. “That was something that we discussed quite a bit: how much of it was going to be the celebrity factor, how much was going to be public television, in terms of the content. We really do think it has the kind of information and education and cultural learning viewers expect from public television,” Ms. Barlow said. “This is not a Food Network show by any means.”

That’s fine by Mr. Batali, who has been outspoken about changes at his longtime television home. He still appears there on “Iron Chef America.”

Food Network and public television both have “massive and incredible” audiences, Mr. Batali said, but “the Food Network isn’t so much about cooking anymore. It’s more about food as a glue in society.”

“Public television is my next move,” he said. “It’s got a great audience, it’s got a different business model than the Food Network. I can own the show and sell it elsewhere.”

Mr. Pinsky, whose Frappé Inc. owns and produces “Spain ... on the Road Again,” explained that each of the four stars had a share in the proceeds, and that overseas sales were in the works. He and Mr. Batali are also in the process of setting up a separate production company for future ventures. If the Spain program is a success, other road trips are being contemplated, the first one to Italy.

Ms. Barlow said she thought potential corporate underwriters would take note. “We certainly hope that this helps funders look at public television a little bit differently, or even just consider it,” she said.

Source: nytimes.com

Charlie Trotter to Whip up Magic at Bocuse d’Or USA ‘Culinary Olympics’

When the gold-standard Bocuse d’Or USA culinary cook-off debuts Sept. 26 and 27 at Epcot in Walt Disney World Resort, TV personality Al Roker will step on stage Sept. 27 to emcee the excitement. When the contest concludes and spatulas rest, culinary great Charlie Trotter, along with other star chefs from around the world, will host a Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony fit for the most discriminating gourmet.

The opening-weekend event of the 13th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, open to park guests, promises to deliver celebrity panache, high kitchen drama and extraordinary culinary moments.

Roker, together with Dana Cowin, editor-in-chef of Food & Wine magazine, will spotlight the action for Epcot guests in the park’s World Showplace arena-like setting. There, eight two-person teams of the country’s top chefs will turn up the heat in the kitchen with the hope that their culinary creations land them a top spot representing Team USA at the Bocuse d’Or World Cuisine Contest -- commonly called the “Culinary Olympics” – in Lyon, France Jan. 27-29.

Epcot guests can attend the competition and observe the culinary wizardry. Each of the eight teams will serve up elaborate fish and beef dishes to be judged by a top-chef panel: Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Trotter, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Georges Perrier, Michel Richard, Laurent Tourondel and former Bocuse d’Or USA competitors. Dishes will be judged on excellence in taste, presentation, technical skill and overall kitchen organization.

The competition culminates Sept. 27 with a Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony recognizing the first-, second- and third-place teams. Tickets are still available for the star-studded event featuring gourmet cuisine, live musical entertainment, dancing, a silent auction and a chance to meet and mingle with some the world’s top chefs, including the Gala Dinner Chefs, as well as contest founder Paul Bocuse, Vongerichten, and the Deans of The French Culinary Institute, Alain Sailhac and Andre Soltner. The Gala Dinner includes hors d’oeuvres, a four-course tasting menu, and a dessert reception prepared by Chefs Boulud (Daniel, New York City), Trotter (Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago), Patrick O’Connell (Inn at Little Washington, Washington, D.C.), Richard (Citronelle, Washington, D.C.), Perrier (Le Bec Fin, Philadelphia), Tourondel (BLT, New York City), Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park, New York City), David Myers (Sona, Los Angeles) and Traci des Jardins (Jardiniere, San Francisco), and will be paired with Diageo Reserve Signature Cocktails and Moët Hennessy Champagnes. The highlight of the evening will be a Dom Pérignon toast and the announcement of the Bocuse d’Or USA winning team.

The eight finalists competing for a spot on the US Team include:

●Timothy Hollingsworth, Sous Chef, French Laundry, Yountville, CA

●Chef Hung Huynh, Executive Chef, Solo, New York City

●Rogers Powell, Instructor, French Culinary Institute, New York City

●Chef John Rellah, Jr. Executive Chef, Hamilton Farm, Gladstone, NJ

●Richard Rosendale, Chef/Owner, Rosendales, Columbus, OH

●Michael Rotondo, Chef de Cuisine, Charlie Trotter’s, Chicago

●Kevin Sbraga, Culinary Di rector, Garces Restaurant Group, Philadelphia

●Percy Whatley, Executive Chef, Delaware North Parks, Yosemite, CA

The newly selected Bocuse d’Or USA team will join 24 teams from around the world at the Bocuse d’Or World Competition in Lyon, held every two years.

Reservations for the Gala Dinner and Awards event are $450 per person, plus tax including gratuity, at 407/WDW-FEST and include 2-day Epcot admission (a $150 value). Proceeds benefit Bocuse d’Or USA (a not-for-profit organization sponsoring the competitors’ training, travel and culinary education). DISNEY passholders are eligible for buy the tickets for just $325!

Throughout the six-week-long Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, Sept. 26-Nov. 9, guests can sample food and wine from around the world at international marketplaces and specialty dinners, attend seminars and wines schools and meet guest chefs. For more information, call 407-WDW-FEST or visit www.disneyworld.com/food

posted by hmcpherson at http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_food_blog/2008/09/charlie-trotter.html

Daisy Martinez Promotes New York Culinary Experience on TODAY Show

International Culinary Center Press Release

FCI Grad, Daisy Martinez, cooks with TODAY Show host Billy Bush to promote the New York Culinary Experience, hosted by The French Culinary Institute and New York magazine.

New York, NY, September 05, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Daisy Martinez, the host of the popular PBS show Daisy Cooks! and the author of Daisy Cooks! Latin Flavors That Will Rock Your World, appeared on the TODAY Show to promote the New York Culinary Experience, the first annual hands-on cooking event co-hosted by The French Culinary Institute and New York magazine.

The first-annual New York Culinary Experience is the only culinary event that gives ardent food lovers the magical experience of cooking side-by-side with the crème de la crème of New York City’s culinary world like Ms. Martinez, Eric Ripert, Cesare Casella, Marcus Samuelsson and David Bouley, and to hear from industry experts like Donatella Arpaia and Danny Meyer.

The New York Culinary Experience take place September 20 and 21 at The French Culinary Institute, located at 462 Broadway in New York City.

The ticket price of $1,395 includes breakfast, lunch, champagne toasts each day. For additional information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.nymag.com/nyce.

For press inquiries, please contact Wendy Knight at wk@wendyknight.com.

Source: http://www.pr.com/press-release/103884

The Food Shop

BY ERICA MARCUS

There may be no other bakery on Long Island where you can enjoy that awe-inspiring Sicilian confection briosce con gelato: a brioche roll stuffed with gelato. At Spiga, both the gelato and the brioche are homemade, and the combination is about the best ice-cream sandwich imaginable.

Luca Caravello, who opened Spiga a year ago, not only graduated at the top of his class at New York's French Culinary Institute, he is the scion of the great Brooklyn bakery, Mazzola's, where he worked alongside his father, Vincenzo. (He also did time at Veniero's in Manhattan's East Village.)

Spiga Bakery and Cafe, 2685 Merrick Rd., Bellmore; 516-557-2688; spigabakery.com

A TASTE OF ITALY

Some of the authentic Italian specialties he's introduced haven't worked in Bellmore: Neither the cassata (an elaborate Sicilian cake), pasticciotto (custard pie) nor pizza rustica (savory pie) has found an audience. But the cannoli, which Caravello fills to order with a blend of two types of ricotta, are bestsellers, as are tarts made from his all-marzipan rainbow cookies and raspberry mousse, individual Black Forest cakes, and a "tre-colori" dessert made with layers of milk-chocolate mousse, white-chocolate mousse and dark-chocolate mousse.

A TASTE OF BROOKLYN

One Mazzola favorite that Caravello has duplicated in Bellmore is what old-timers call lard bread: a rustic loaf studded with pieces of prosciutto and salami. Caravello noted some resistance to the name, and he started calling it "prosciutto bread." It flies out of the store.

Source: newsday.com

The Institute of Culinary Education Launches Center for Food Media

Twenty-Five Courses Scheduled for 2008-2009
PRNewsire via COMTEX

NEW YORK -- The Institute of Culinary Education is launching today the Center for Food Media at ICE (CFM), the latest among its professional development programs. From podcasting and blogging to cookbook writing and food history, this unique assortment of 25 classes covers all aspects of media as they pertain to the culinary world. Three special events with Food & Wine editor in chief Dana Cowin, author Michael Ruhlman, and Food Network Vice President of Culinary Production Susan Stockton are also scheduled for 2008-2009. A complete schedule is available at www.iceculinary.com/media.

Classes include food writing (for print and online, in one or multiple sessions), becoming a publicist, culinary travel writing, working with an agent, creating a TV show, food styling and photography, primers in food economics, pop culture, and experimental cuisine, doing research, restaurant reviewing, food essay writing, and media training. They target career changers, beginners, and seasoned pros, whether they work freelance or on staff.

"Career tracks that combine a love of food with writing, visual, or technological skills have become ever more viable, and plentiful," said CFM Director Anne E. McBride. "At the same time, one cannot afford to master only one aspect of the food world to succeed. The classes we offer aim at creating well-rounded food media professionals."

Instructors, who include author and photographer James Peterson, writer and blogger Andrea Strong, writer David Leite, marketing and public relations expert Jennifer Baum, food scholar Fabio Parasecoli, and syndicated columnist Marge Perry, are all actively engaged in the profession about which they teach, and possess a strong command of the media world on a national scale. They are passionate about what they do, and about teaching it to their students.

"Our decision to launch this food media initiative is a logical confluence of time, place, and resources," ICE President Rick Smilow commented. "Our career students express an ever-growing interest in food media, ICE is in the center of the media capital of the country, and so many of the experts who will be teaching at the center are already friends of the school."

Complete schedule and class descriptions are available online at www.iceculinary.com/media. For further information, please contact Kelly Ann Hargrove at 212-847-0700 ext. 217 or via email at khargrove@iceculinary.com.

About ICE

Founded in 1975 by Peter Kump, The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE(R)) offers comprehensive career training programs in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, and Culinary Management. With an in-depth global curriculum, dedicated chef-instructors, a strong record in externships and placements, and a clear entrepreneurial focus, ICE is widely recognized by top industry organizations as a premier pathway to begin or continue a culinary career. In 2008, ICE received the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Vocational Culinary School of the Year award. It is located at 50 W. 23rd Street in New York City.

SOURCE The Institute of Culinary Education http://www.iceculinary.com
Article found at: marketwatch.com

Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.

Sugar Mama Judiaann Woo

By Rachel Syme

Pastry Chef Judiaann Woo whips up a decadent chocolate pudding that's the perfect end to a light summer dinner.

Photo: Steven Freeman

Judiaann Woo is well on her way to becoming the Nigella Lawson of sweet treats.

By Rachel Syme

Pastry Chef Judiaann Woo whips up a decadent chocolate pudding that's the perfect end to a light summer dinner.

Desserts don’t make people fat,” says Judiaann Woo, pastry chef and executive director of ­PastryScoop.com. “People make people fat. Puddings should be about taste and texture, about the experience—not gluttony.”

Judiaann, 36, has been preaching the wonders of eating regular dessert since founding PastryScoop.com in 2002, the first Web site and online community exclusively dedicated to the art of baking, frosting and whipping cream into frothy white peaks. The South Korean–born pastry chef who moved to Portland, Ore., at age 3wasn’t always obsessed with sweets: “I began my career in advertising and fashion marketing, but I always had this fervent interest in cooking. I just didn’t think I could make a living off of it until I moved to New York 12 years ago and saw that you could have a viable career in high-end food.” Judiaann dove in immediately. An accomplished chef in all areas, she picked pastry as her primary focus at the French Culinary Institute (“I knew I would rise faster in the dessert ranks as a woman—unfortunately that’s how the industry is”). After graduating, she went on to create confections at some of the city’s best eateries, including Bouley Bakery, Mercer Kitchen and Tao.

Then, in 2002, she joined up again with the French Culinary Institute to found the NY-based PastryScoop.com, which now boasts more than 40,000 members. “We celebrate desserts through sharing tips and recipes,” Judiaann explains. “What’s not to love about that?”

Photo: Steven Freeman
For high-quality chocolate, Judiaann recommends the counter at Whole Foods.

And Judiaann is expanding her slice of the pie too, as a contributing editor for Food Arts magazine and host of her own TV show, currently in development. When asked about her favorite indulgences, she’s quick to respond. “Pie à la mode with real ice cream. People have lost the art of the rustic dessert. I like sweets to be retro, homey and filling.” And, like any card-­carrying pastry chef, she also loves chocolate: “It’s a real crowd pleaser. But I stick to only fine brands, like Valrhona and Calibo or anything you can buy at the front counter of Whole Foods.

Outside her own kitchen, Judiaann loves the four-part chocolate tasting at Jean-Georges and the reimagined carrot cake at WD-50. Her best tip? “Choose an indulgence made with the best ingredients, and ignore the calories,” she says.

SOURCE: nypost.com

Click here for her Chocolate pudding recipe. :)

Datebook: New York

By HILARY HOWARD

Foodies who dream of cooking alongside prominent New York chefs like Karen DeMasco, formerly of Craft, Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, or Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit and Merkato 55, might be interested in the New York Culinary Experience. Held Sept. 20 and 21, the event features hands-on classes with top chefs, as well as discussions with experts like Danny Meyer of Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, the Modern and other high-profile restaurants. Hosted by the French Culinary Institute and New York magazine, the event will take place at the institute, 462 Broadway, at Grand Street. Tickets, $1,395, include admission for both days, all classes, breakfast, lunch and a Champagne toast (www.nymag.com/nyce).

From the article: Datebook: Miami, New York and Heidelberg (nytimes.com)

New York's top chefs serve career advice (Part 2)

By: Elizabeth Lazarowitz
for part 1 (see previous blog)


Christopher Lee, 32
Executive chef, Gilt, midtown
If you want to do it right, I always recommend going to school. Schooling gives you a foundation. It teaches you culinary vocabulary and product identification; it gives you the basics of what we do. We teach things in the restaurant, but we teach finishing skills, not basic skills. There's just not the time to do it.
"If you don't have the foundation, which to me is schooling, you're going to be aggravated, and you're going to find yourself most likely leaving the industry, because it's not going to be very kind to you. There are a lot of demands and pressure.
"It takes patience to be a great chef. You've got to understand that you're going to start at the bottom."












Lombard for News


Marcus Samuelsson, 37
Chef/co-owner, Aquavit, midtown; Riingo, midtown
If you're not passionate about food - almost overly passionate - this is a really difficult industry.
"In the beginning, it's as simple as life skills: Showing up on time or early, making sure you dress properly, addressing people that you work for properly. You're an assistant in that kitchen, so really what matters is for you to have a great attitude. Somebody's going to take notice of that and give you a chance.
"People want to do it the quick way, but it takes a long time before it's about you. I found it calming peeling the carrots. I enjoyed cleaning the fish.
"It's all about work ethic, attitude, willingness to be there, commitment to yourself and to the industry. If you have all those things, this is a beautiful industry where you can go anywhere in the world or the country and be welcome."

Source: nydailynews.com

New York's top chefs serve career advice (Part 1)

By: Elizabeth Lazarowitz

Making it in the kitchen as a professional is not nearly as easy as some New Yorkers might think.

Some of New York's top cooks warn budding kitchen commanders that being a chef requires equal portions of business savvy, hard work and food expertise.

Handschuh/News

Anita Lo, 42

Chef/co-owner Annisa, West Village; chef/owner Bar Q, West Village; chef/partner, Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, Flatiron, Greenwich Village

Go work in a restaurant to see what it's like before you spend all that money on cooking school.

"With the advent of the celebrity chef, I think a lot of people think that it's a lot more glamorous than it actually is. You kind of have to pay your dues. I'm lucky to have gotten where I am, but it took a lot of work, it took a lot of sacrifice. I worked six days a week most of my life, and long hours on top of that. You're going to be on your feet the entire time. It's physically demanding. It can be really hot. You're probably going to cut yourself eventually. You're going to burn yourself eventually.

"A lot of people, if they knew what it was like to be working in a professional kitchen, probably wouldn't go to cooking school."

Alex Guarnaschelli, 39

Executive chef, Butter, Greenwich Village

When you're gathering your experience in the field on the road to becoming a chef, do a few things that branch you into the unfamiliar, so that you diversify your skill set. You'll always gravitate to what you love, naturally, but if you get some other types of experiences, that rounds you out. The bigger your skill set, the better.

"It's not a bad idea to get a little serving experience and eat out within your budget because the more experiences you have as a diner, or with the diners, it adds to your cooking. Then, when you cook, you think about how you would feel if you were eating it."

Watts/News

Charlie Palmer, 49

Chef/owner, Aureole, East Side

You need to fully understand the business, because at the end of the day it is a business. If someone wants to be successful as a chef, they have to take the time to understand that some of the failures come from someone becoming a pretty decent cook, but not understanding the financial makeup of a kitchen — the food costs, the labor costs.

"In this day and age, understanding marketing is a huge thing. If you can't market yourself, you're dead, especially in New York City. My hat's off to anybody who's successful in this business, because it's not easy, and the margins are very small.

"There are really no shortcuts to being a good cook. You have to cook a piece of fish a thousand times before you get it. You really have to put in the time."

To be continued....

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com

In the Kitchen: The extraordinary culinary career of Chef Maxime Ribera

By JENINE C. OUILLETTE

Chef Maxime Ribera believes that the expertly selected wines in Marco Polo Restaurant's wine cellar add an additional layer of pleasure to the total dining experience.

Put me in a roomful of people at any event and if there’s a chef in the room that’s where you’ll find me — they talk, I listen — eating up every delicious syllable they care to impart. In my best case scenario, of course, I get to interview any chef of my choosing, write it all down and submit the article to my editor for publication in the Marco Eagle.

That having been said, I recently visited Marco Polo Restaurant, one of the Island’s premier dining destinations with an elegant, supper club ambiance.

For the past 10 years, Marco Polo has been the domain of equally exceptional Executive Chef Maxime Ribera. He did the talking and I did the listening (and writing) as he related highlights of an extraordinary culinary career that began with his father, French Master Chef Maxime Ribera, who trained/taught the instructor-chefs who taught the students of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.

“I was born in St. Quimper, the oldest city in Brittany and called Kemper in Breton, but I don’t remember much about it because I was quite young when the family moved to New York in the 1960s, and my father joined his sister and her husband in the family’s restaurant business.” Chef Maxime related.

“My father was my culinary school. I was 9 or 10 when I started working in the restaurant washing dishes — it was hard — my father had very high expectations. On the plus side, we dined out often and always the best restaurants in the New York area.

“I went to elementary school at Lyceum Kennedy in New York City, it was a private school but in reverse. My father put me there to learn French,” said Chef Maxime, who still speaks with traces of a French accent even though he went on to graduate from a traditional New York public high school.

“When I was 16, I began working in the Amber Lantern in Flushing. The menu was American Continental, and I was a line cook in the evening after high school for around three years.

“I was making good money when I worked as a bartender at the Europa Café. I got tired of it in the 80s and left to move to Miami and work for my father, who opened the Everglades Hotel’s Brasserie de Paris, in downtown Miami to fantastic reviews in all the Miami newspapers. My father went back to New York, but I stayed on and received equally excellent reviews from a well-known restaurant critic Taffy Gould McCollum who especially praised my sauces and said that I had a sophisticated and well-trained palate — or something like that.

Our Executive Chef Maxime certainly isn’t given to bragging. Chef showed me McCollum’s column and I read that he received the 1984 Holiday Magazine Award (trust me, that’s high praise) for exceptional desserts. Indeed, Chef Ribera’s Marco Polo Restaurant menu under Specialty Desserts lists the selfsame Grand Marnier Soufflé that McCollum stated, “Was typically French, elegantly served… worth the calories.” That kind of praise is enough to make this reporter forego the entrée and begin with dessert!

While another review published in Esquire called the Brasserie “a first-rate dining room, overseen by a 26-year-old chef who is thoroughly trained in classical techniques.” Anyhoo, Chef Maxime stayed at the Brasserie de Paris for five or more years until the Everglades Hotel was sold.

“I followed the owner to his new hotel in June 1990 — The Four Ambassadors Hotel on South Bayshore Drive, Miami, and was appointed executive chef at the hotel’s popular Gordon’s Seafood & Steak Restaurant. Actually, I took over total management of the restaurant, including the hiring and training of all personnel, the accounting, and bar operation. I also introduced new items to the menu and created many daily special items. I was there six years, until the hotel management sold its interest in the restaurant to an owner operator.

“I agreed to stay on and train the new staff and help the new owners for awhile. However, I had already decided to go back to New York — actually Chappaqua — and take over the Bistrot Maxime from my father and sister Brigitte. My father opened Bistrot several years earlier, but he wanted to devote more time to his famous namesake restaurant Maxime’s in Granite Springs.” Chef Maxime explained. Noting that the final “t” in “bistrot” is from archaic French, while the Bistrot Maxime structure itself, circa 1820’s, also has historical significance.

“The New York restaurant critics discovered us and we received excellent reviews.” Chef Maxime said, showing us copies of two notable ones. The first from restaurant critic and author John Mariani who wrote the well-read “America Eats Out” and “Passport to New York Restaurants.” The New York Times’ restaurant critic M. H. Reed could apparently “make you or break you,” Chef Maxime said with a somewhat pained expression, even though Reed gave the restaurant a “very good,” third up the ladder with five being “excellent.”

Your reporter was more interested in her yummy descriptions of Chef Maxime’s signature dishes: Look for a delectable special of Lobster Tail with Spinach and, of course, potatoes, the backbone of bistro cooking. Duck arrived properly cooked, crisp skin protecting juicy flesh, raspberries and oranges enhancing its gamey flavor. Enough of Reed and her supercilious faint praise and on to Marco Island and the casually elegant Marco Polo Restaurant which is where Chef Maxime arrived in 1998.

“It was a splendid opportunity to work in a first class restaurant and I was getting tired of endless winters. I really missed Florida,” said Chef Maxime, leaving your reporter with this thought when I asked “Why?”

“You’ve got to love to cook to be a chef — I always cooked in the best restaurants!”

The Next Food Network Star: Season 4 Finalists Dish On New Season

This Sunday, The Food Network will air the season 2 premiere of its popular competition, The Next Food Network Star. Bobby Flay will return as host with several well known guest judges dropping in to help decide who will go home each week. This season features 12 finalists, vying for their very own cooking show. As season 4 rapidly approaches, the finalists have been out in full force promoting the show to the media. The contestants opened up about everything from how they landed a spot on the show to what's in their fridge.

Jeffrey Vaden owns his own restaurant in Peekskill, NY and heard about the auditions for The Next Food Network Star through a customer of his. "On my demo tape, I made a rolled French omelet and I did a spinach salad with grilled chicken breast," said Vaden in an interview. "I had a great time doing it. It is easy for me to cook and talk at the same time – I'm always talking anyway."

Kelsey Nixon is a recent grad of Brighan Young University in Utah. While she was a student there, she hosted her own cooking show. However, joining the cast of The Next Food Network Star was a lot of pressure on this aspiring television personality. "Going into the show, I was most concerned about my lack of [kitchen] experience," she said in a recent interview. "I had only graduated from culinary school a few weeks before and I've never worked in a commercial kitchen."

Season 4 contestant Kevin Roberts has already published a cookbook of his own. In his interview, he dished on what viewers can find in his own house. “The 3 things always in my fridge are Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, soy milk and fresh Parmesan cheese,” he said. As for what he craves after a long day of hard work, he answered, “Mac & Cheese, but with a real good cheese and real macaroni. Not that white trash boxed version.”

Most people associate Cory Kahaney as a stand up comedian. She appeared on Last Comic Standing and has been in the business for years. What people might not know about her is that she’s also a talented cook. "People were always saying I should get on a cooking show," she told the New York Daily News. "The audition tape is what's important if you want to get on this particular show. They really want to see if you can walk and chew gum at the same time – and cook!"

- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, Well Fed Network, New York Daily News