Award-winning chef and partner of the critically acclaimed Fatty Crab, Fatty ‘Cue and Fatty Snack, Zak Pelaccio was on hand this week to give a demo for ICE students and alumni.

Mexican food gets me excited. Whether it’s fish taco night at my apartment or I’m meeting a friend for margaritas and nachos, there’s something about tortillas, carnitas and tequila that puts me on cloud nine.

If you stick your head into any classroom here at ICE you'll see instant-read thermometers crammed into the sleeve pockets of nearly every culinary arts student in the room. But peek into the kitchen of any of the nation's top restaurants and you'll see far fewer, in fact you might only find them tucked away in a knife roll somewhere, to be removed on the rarest circumstance. Why the difference?

Last week, ICE Director of Wine and Beverage Studies Richard Vayda dug into the ICE wine cellar and uncovered a few gems for tasting in the one-of-a-kind Reserves from the ICE Cellar tasting class.

The second season of Top Chef: Just Desserts wrapped up last week. It was a great season full of sweet challenges and lots of hard work from all the pastry chef-testants. We thought we’d check in on the ICE alum who have been on the pastry spin-off of Top Chef, Bravo’s Emmy- and James Beard Award-winning show and let you know what they’ve been working on.

This week, my module one Pastry & Baking Arts class went on a field trip.

This Wednesday marked Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, and yesterday, ICE students and alumni celebrated with a demonstration on Indian cuisine from two amazing chefs — Hemant Mathur and Surbhi Sahni.

When ICE President Rick Smilow and Anne E. McBride wrote "Culinary Careers: How to Get Your Dream Job in Food," they discovered a plethora of food jobs they had never heard of before. Since the book's release, they have been discovering even more interesting culinary career paths. DICED shares some of them with you in a reoccurring feature: “Unique Culinary Careers.”

This past Monday night, ICE’s Career Services Department held a social and networking event for career program alumni.

I learned three years ago from a blood test that I have a gluten allergy. Unlike most, I was relieved with the diagnosis.