The French Culinary Institute

Q&A: Julieta Ballesteros of China Latina, Part 1

Julieta Ballesteros is a huge advocate for fusion foods. It's not often you see the words "Szechuan Beef Wonton Tacos" strung together on the same line, but innovative dishes such as these are what Ballestros is promoting at her newest venture, China Latina. The eatery opened up in October and ser ... More >>

How To Make Chocolate-Rosewater Creme Brulee From the Baking Bean

[See More Recipes: The Cocky Rooster: A Sriracha Beer | Spiced Crab Salad From Junoon] Clarice Lam is the owner of the Baking Bean, an online pastry business that delivers desserts to locations across NYC. She previously worked at Spice Market as a pastry assistant and later clinched the title of e ... More >>

Robert Sietsema at Hazar; Tejal Rao at Ken & Cook

See what NYC's restaurant critics have been up to this week: Robert Sietsema recommends Hazar as a place to take both your carnivore and vegetarian friends. He also crowns Hazar's falafel as the best in the city: "Pleasingly studded with sesame seeds, they're aerodynamically streamlined like Frisbe ... More >>

Russ & Daughters' Herring Pairing: A Photo Diary

Sweet-pickled herring with mustard sauce and fresh dill, mounted on one of those thin brown crackers of which Scandinavia seems to have a surplus. This evening I attended the third annual Herring Pairing mounted by Russ & Daughters at the Astor Center. There were eight dishes presented at eight di ... More >>

Michael Laiskonis's Post-Le Bernardin Plans? Creative Director of the Institute of Culinary Education

Photo courtesy the Institute of Culinary EducationAnd back to work he goes!​Michael Laiskonis, the recently departed pastry chef from Le Bernardin, seems to be taking the notion of retirement pretty lightly. He's already back in the saddle with a new gig as a Creative Director at Institute fo ... More >>

Jacques Pépin Reveals His Thanksgiving Turkey Secrets: Interview Part 2

Photo courtesy Jacques PépinJacques Pépin steams his Thanksgiving turkey, meaning you should, too​Yesterday we chatted with Jacques Pepin about his new book, Essential Pepin, an impressive collection of more than 700 of his favorite recipes. Today, he explains why chefs must master technique ... More >>

Jacques Pépin on Writing Essential Pepin and What Advice He Gives to Aspiring Chefs

Photo courtesy Jacques PépinJacques Pépin's motto: Cook because you love it.​Simply put, Jacques Pépin is a culinary living legend. Having begun his career at age 13, he worked in such esteemed restaurants as the Plaza-Athénée in Paris and Le Pavillion in New York before heading up resear ... More >>

Why Does Food Look So Damn Pretty on Television? Because of Tabletop Directors

Why is it that food looks so mouthwatering on television? Oh, only because of the food stylists, tabletop directors, and admen whose job it is to "turn the most mundane and fattening staples of the American diet into luscious objects of irresistible beauty." The New York Times profiles the fascina ... More >>

Burger King Steals All McDonald's Good Ideas; First Lady Honored as James Beard Sustainable Food Visionary

​Burger King is testing new menu items, including specialty coffees, low-fat parfaits, oatmeal with dried fruit, and salads... sound familiar? [Nation's Restaurant News] Sbarro, which filed for bankruptcy this year, has proposed a restructuring plan that would give ownership of the company to ... More >>

Is Culinary School a Rip-Off? Well, Kind of.

​Yesterday, Time dared to ask the question that many debt-ridden graduates already know the answer to: Is culinary school a rip-off?

Wedding Cake Master Ron Ben-Israel Explains Why Vanilla Cake Is Poetry in the Mouth

Photo courtesy Ron Ben-IsraelRon Ben-Israel, sugar flower maker extraordinaire ​For Wedding Week, who better to interview than wedding cake guru Ron Ben-Israel? He magically transforms sugar and spice and everything nice into elaborate cakes coveted by brides (and maybe a few bridezillas or t ... More >>

The Soda Jerk Returns; Restos Cater to the Calorie-Conscious

​Just as cocktails came back, it makes sense that the soda fountain (where so many bartenders went to work during Prohibition) is also making a comeback across America. [NY Times] As high-fructose corn syrup is increasingly demonized, chefs around the country are creating their own sodas, ket ... More >>

Alex Alejandro of El Parador Café Explains the Parallels Between Using Ramps and Having a Good Sex Life

Ex-Buckingham Palace Butler Teaches Hoity-Toity Service at FCI

We know from classy.​Christopher Ely, a proper English butler who has served under the Queen at Buckingham Palace, will next month offer a series of week-long courses in estate management studies at the French Culinary Institute. In other words, he'll be teaching how to serve, do laundry, clea ... More >>

Ten Fascinating Ethnic Ingredients Chefs Should Get to Know Better

Sprinkled with sesame seeds, marinated jellyfish makes a memorable summer salad​ The last couple of decades have flooded NYC with colorful cuisines many of us never knew existed, and stocked ethnic markets with exotic ingredients that had strange names and fascinating properties. This influx ... More >>

10 Postcards of Long-Forgotten NYC Restaurants

ioffer.com​1. Divan Parisien Restaurant, 33 East 48th Street - Even to its frequenters, the meaning of "Divan" was somewhat unclear. Some said it was French for "meeting place," others claimed it was Turkish and referred to the furniture of the Sultan's palace. Others took it to mean, as "div ... More >>

L'Ecole to Create a Bar Menu, Free Drinks for FitR Readers

hellonewyorkcity.com​L'Ecole, the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute, is launching a bar menu starting today, serving up French-inspired classics like a Gruyère bacon burger with bone marrow béarnaise, a charcuterie plate, and cavatelli with rock shrimp. But better yet ... More >>

Nils Noren Isn't Actually Leaving the French Culinary Institute

Bravo​After our post yesterday on the apparent departure of Nils Noren from his post as the French Culinary Institute's Vice President of Culinary and Pastry Arts, we received the following update from the school's reps:

Nils Noren Is Leaving the French Culinary Institute

Bravo​When we last heard from the French Culinary Institute, the school was busy announcing its plans to open a new campus in California. Today, the news coming from Grand Street hits a bit closer to home: Nils Noren, the school's Vice President of Culinary and Pastry Arts, is stepping down as ... More >>

The Institute of Culinary Education Launches an iPhone App

iTunesDownload away.​Not to be outshone by the French Culinary Institute's impending expansion to California, rival culinary school the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) has come up with its own item of news: an iPhone app.

Posts of the Week

C'est l'après-midi de vendredi! Alors, les articles de la semaine ... Our 10 Best Mexican Restaurants in NYC. Amanda Hesser talks Charlotte Russe, Chesapeake crabcakes, and the new Essential New York Times Cookbook. Jackie Hoffman doesn't do shellfish, cooks a nice chicken, and likes a big ... More >>

At the French Culinary Institute's California Campus, Students Will Learn Animal Husbandry

planetpinkngreen.com​ Yesterday, the French Culinary Institute announced it would be expanding to the West Coast with a branch campus at the former Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, California. Curious to know why the school was expanding its operations to California -- and how it i ... More >>

The French Culinary Institute Expands to California - and May Go International

​Looks like the Le Fooding organizers weren't the only ones with bi-coastal domination on their minds: the International Culinary Center - better known in these parts as the French Culinary Institute - is expanding to California.

What's Happening This Week: Alchemy Behind the Bar; Whole Hog, Broken Down & Served

As you may know, our weekly dining and drinking newsletter features all the coolest epicurean events in the city. Sign up for it here! Holiday Window Unveiling Dylan's Candy Bar Monday, November 8 at 6 p.m. The kiddies will love you for this one: it involves Santa, candy, and curtains... and it's n ... More >>

Food-Themed Dance Crazes of the 60's

​Dances are so boring these days! They don't even have names for them, you simply stand there and writhe, or jump up and down, or - if you're lucky - crowd surf a bit. But in the olden days of the 1960's, recording artists were falling all over themselves to invent and name new dances. The mo ... More >>

Food Truck Spats; The 22nd-Century Burger & Will Tom Colicchio Be the Next Top Chef Master? (Unsurprising Spoiler: No.)

This week in food blogs... Eater got excited about the apex of ramp and hot dog mania: The Shake Shack Ramp Dog. Grub Street asked Thomas Keller what he thought of animal rights protesters gathering outside his restaurants. His answer: Gofoieyourself. Feast asked Tom Colicchio if he would ever ap ... More >>

The Rent Parties of 2010

Now on the Upper West Side and featuring French cuisine, but the jazz-loving intimacy remains

FCI Students Get Career Advice: "Let's Remember That the Word 'You' Is Not Spelled 'U'"

Excellent knife skills, but needs pants.​Culinary school students tend to graduate with an overly confident sense of their own kitchen prowess -- such is the effect of being awarded a diploma for learning how to carve potatoes into little footballs and making unbreakable hollandaise sauce. But ... More >>

Hangar One Really Deals in Brandy; The Peanut Board Pushes Booze

​Thanks to establishments like Bierkraft, growlers -- 64-ounce glass vessels for transporting beer -- have become the accessory of the moment, and not just for beer geeks. [NY Times] Brandy has always been the goal of the makers of Hangar One vodka. They've been aging brandy for the past 20 y ... More >>

Under Review: Sietsema at The Vanderbilt; DiGregorio on a Citywide Martini Crawl

This week in the Voice, Our Man Sietsema is Brooklyn-bound for The Vanderbilt, where "partners Saul Bolton and Ben Daitz pride themselves on their homemade sausages"; while Sarah DiGregorio bellies up to a couple different bars in search of the perfect martini. Sam Sifton offers up a two-fer this w ... More >>

The Chili and Cookie Takedown's Matt Timms on His Risk-Taking Amateur Cooks, Fine Dining Disappointments, and His Dream of Hosting a Hare Krishna Cook-Off

Jenny MillerMatt Timms will take you down.​ Matt Timms threw his first Chili Takedown, a no-rules cook-off for amateurs, five years ago on "a lark." These days that takedown is a biannual event, while tofu, lamb, cookies, fondue, and more have since gone head-to-head, and a host of other cook ... More >>

Chatting With Sarma Melngailis of Pure Food and Wine: Raw Food, Criticism From Vegan Purists, and Global Expansion

​At Pure Food & Wine, the Gramercy restaurant that serves gourmet renditions of organic, vegan, raw food (nothing is heated above 116 degrees), there's a glow coming from the candles being lit in preparation for dinner service on this dark winter afternoon. Dressed in jeans, black sneakers, an ... More >>

2011 Bocuse d'Or Finalists Announced This Afternoon

​The organizers of the Bocuse d'Or, otherwise known throughout the dining world as the culinary Olympics, announced the 12 semi-finalists for the 2011 U.S. team earlier this afternoon at Daniel. Each semi-finalist, avec sous chef, will compete against one another in February at the Culinary In ... More >>

Food Corps Fear Nationwide Sugar Shortage; French Cooking Not Quite Over

​Could the U.S. run out of sugar? Yes, say major food corps, if the government doesn't ease import tariffs. Kraft, General Mills, Krispy Kreme, Hershey, and Mars have together written a letter to the Agriculture Department demanding more tariff-free sugar be allowed. [Wall Street Journal] How ... More >>

Does Ike Jime Live Up to the Hype? Stay Tuned to Find Out...

​In a killer cliffhanger of a blog post, Dave Arnold of the French Culinary Institute describes an experiment he conducted -- along with Nils Noren, Mindy Lvoff, David Chang of Momofuku, and Toshio Suzuki of Sushi Zen -- to determine whether or not Ike Jime, a Japanese technique for killing fi ... More >>

Surf's Up at 31 Crosby

gilles chiroleu/flickr​New cafe/mixed-use store alert: the space at 31 Crosby Street is being turned into a cafe cum surf shop cum men's clothing boutique. Josh Rosen, one of the store's four owners, says that the space -- located next to the N 33 tapas bar and up the block from the French Culinar ... More >>

Takeaway From the Eater 'Top Chef' Panel: Kogi KO'd

Bravo TVEater's Life After 'Top Chef' panel at the 92YTribeca last night had some interesting moments as panelists Lee Ann Wong (French Culinary Institute), Harold Dieterle (Perilla), and Leah Cohen (Centro Vinoteca) regaled moderator and Eater editor Amanda Kludt with tales of the reality that foll ... More >>

Chatting With...Nils Noren, Contestant on Top Chef Masters Tonight

Tonight, Nils Noren will compete on Top Chef Masters against Michael Chiarello (Bottega Restaurant), Rick Moonen (RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay), and Lachlan McKinnon Patterson (Frasca Food & Wine). Noren, who cheffed at Aquavit for 10 years, and is now the vice president of culinary and pastry arts ... More >>

Posts of the Week

Hello and welcome to Friday afternoon--here are some of our favorite posts from the week. Go out and get yourself some gelato and pig's feet this weekend. We brought you to foodie events all over the city over the holiday weekend. We suggested that you BYOB a bottle of Gutedel to Zaytoons. We br ... More >>

High Tech, Highly Delicious Cocktails at FCI--Plus, Tips for Home

This morning at the French Culinary Institute, Nils Noren and Dave Arnold showed me around their cocktail lab, where they are turning a high-tech, molecular gastronomy-ish eye to drinks. Noren worked at Aquavit for ten years, and is now the vice president of culinary and pastry arts at FCI. Arnold ... More >>

Is a Culinary Career Right for Your Unemployed Self?

Education Listings, Winter 2007/2008

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Freaky fun that will have you feeling festive

The Main Course

Food studies is fast becoming a serious pursuit

Culinary School Confidential

So You Want to Become a Chef? If You've Got the Time and the Money, New York's Got the Schools

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