Welcome to our Blog.

Learning how to cook is not a onetime event, but an ongoing journey that is fueled by passion, perseverance, dedication and love. Talk to our chefs and professors and you will immediately understand what drives them to eat, sleep and drink food through the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Industry. It is their lifelong passion that is infectious and addicting. I speak from 30 years of dedication to a career that has given me the opportunity to eat and cook great food, meet interesting people from diverse backgrounds, travel to far away places and make many, many friends. It is now your time to take your turn!!!!
As you come to enjoy our blog with its food articles, food reviews, student stories and school information, please keep in mind that this blog is part of a family of students, faculty and staff. We are all represented here as part of the Culinary Institute of Charleston. We welcome you to our family and look forward to your input. If we can answer any questions for you as you peruse the pages please call us, or better yet, come in for a visit. We will show you our Charleston Hospitality.

And so, please don’t be bashful; go ahead and post to our “Art of the Plate” blog. Let us know what you think about food, restaurants, events, books, journals, chefs or culinary & hospitality education. We look forward to your voice.

Sincerely,
Michal Carmel CEC, CCE, M.Ad. Ed.
Culinary Department Head

Chef Frank Lee Cooks with French Regional Class

Friday, Chef Carmel's French Regional class had the
pleasure of cooking with Chef Frank Lee, Executive Chef and Partner of Slightly North of Broad and Maverick Southern Kitchens. Chef Lee's classical French training includes years as Sous Chef at Le Perroquet and Les Nomades Restaurants,Chicago, Sous Chef at Le Pavillion Restaurant, Washington, D.C., and Sous Chef at Restaurant Million, Charleston.

The menu for the day was:
Onion Soup, Mussels Two Ways, Roast Leg of Lamb with Lyonnaise Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Garlic Chicken, Lemon Tarte and Chocolate Mousse.

2010 Vintner's Dinner Another CIC Student Success

TTC's Vintner's Dinner, the college's largest fundraiser, was held on January 22 nd. CIC students provide all of the cuisine and service for this black-tie four-course formal dinner with wine pairings, which was attended by almost six hundred guests.

The 2010 theme was An Evening in France with the following menu. Wines were donated by Southern Wines & Spirits.

Foie Gras au Torchon, Spiced Poached Pears, Frisée Salad, Hazelnuts, Walnut Vinaigrette
Pierre Sparr Pinot Gris Reserve, Alsace 2007

Fennel-Crusted Roasted Red Snapper, Beurre Rouge Sauce, Niçoise-Style Vegetables
Maison Louis Latour Marsannay, Burgandy 2006

Pan-Seared Filet of Beef, Crépinette of Braised Short Ribs, Bordelaise Sauce, Truffled Potato Pavé, Baby Carrots, Turnips, and Beets
Paul Jaboulet Chateauneuf du Pape, Rhone 2006

Classic French Pithiviers with French Roast Coffee Ice Cream
Reserve Maison Nicolas Sauternes, 2006

As seen, the students received a well-deserved standing ovation!

CIC Student Wins Dessert Category in Charleston Cooks Recipe Contest

CIC student Seth Purvin took home top honors in the dessert category of the Charleston Cooks Recipe Contest with his Benne Seed Cannoli with Carolina Gold Rice Filling. Upon tasting them, cookbook author and television personality Nathalie Dupree, who was one of the judges, declared Seth's cannoli to be "the best thing I've ever put in my mouth!"

For the recipe, see: http://www.charlestonmag.com/charleston_magazine/feature/charleston_cooks_recipe_contest

CIC Grads on Culinary Team at American Pavillion for Cannes Film Festival

On the left: Jessica Welenteichick, 2008 grad of the Culinary Institute of Charleston.

On the right, Jessica and CIC student Allison Smith.

Jessica wrote: I was fortunate enough to be selected as a member of the Culinary Team for the American Pavillion in May 2009 along with another student from CIC, Allison Smith. The American Pavillion is a sponsor at the Cannes International Film Festival. As members of the culinary team, we worked as chefs for the American Pavillion. We were sponsored by Chef Benjamin Black, who did a great job in seeking Allison and myself as good candidates for this wonderful opportunity. I had the pleasure of cooking for the film industry's elite, working at a French bakery, traveling the French countryside, and meeting many talented people from all over the world. I encourage CIC culinary students to seek this opportunity as I will never forget that trip to Cannes in May of 2009."

The 15- to 25-person American Pavilion culinary team enjoys pre-Festival tours of wineries, restaurants and outdoor markets in the south of France during the first three days of the program. Once the Festival begins on May 12, the culinary team prepares up to 1,000 meals per day—breakfasts, lunches, dinners and special events inlcuding receptions and parties. Work shifts average six to eight hours and the culinary team works every day of the program after the first two days of cultural tours. http://www.ampav.com/student-programs/cannes-culinary-program.php

Serving as a communication and hospitality center for the thousands of Americans in Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival, The American Pavilion provides an impressive array of facilities and services to the international film community. For the corporate sponsors of The American Pavilion, the dozens of exhibitors and office holders, and the thousands of American participants, The American Pavilion accommodates the need for information, orientation, and recreation. For the duration of the festival, The American Pavilion provides both a dynamic business environment and an opportunity to relax in comfortable surroundings.

HCSA Feeds The Need

HCSA teamed up to meet the CIC committment to FEED THE NEED, the city-wide food and beverage community's movement to feed the hungry by cooking two hundred and fifty Thanksgiving Dinners for East Cooper Meals on Wheels. The menu of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cornbread dressing, green beans, yeast rolls, and pumpkin pies called for roasting 17 turkeys and baking 35 pies. Several College of Charleston students joined the CIC students to assist with the packaging. Then the CIC students delivered the dinners to Meals on Wheels Headquarters.

Myrtle Beach Restaurant News Features CIC Grad Steve Musolf

CIC GRad Steve Musolf is Chef De Cuisine at Maverick Southern Kitchen's Pawleys Island restaurant, High Hammock Seaside Kitchen. The Myrtle Beach Restaurant News recently gave him a shout out.
" An avid reader of industry publications, Steven Musolf is the guy to turn to for cutting-edge culinary trends. As Chef de Cuisine at High Hammock, Steven brings a fresh approach to Maverick Southern cooking. The South Carolina native has always felt at home in the kitchen. As a young kid Steven was always there to lend a hand to his mother in the kitchen and could even be found preparing his own culinary creations on the stove when she was not around, much to her dismay. As Steven got older he began working front of the house jobs at various restaurants, but continuously found himself drawn to the camaraderie he witnessed among the kitchen staff. Though he was in school studying to be a respiratory therapist at the time, Steven made the decision to change career paths and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College. While pursuing his education, Steven worked as a line cook under Chef Frank Lee at Slightly Up the Creek, a former Maverick Southern Kitchens restaurant.

"Following graduation, Steven honed his culinary skills as Chef de Cuisine at McCrady’s restaurant in downtown Charleston for six years before packing his knives and moving to California in search of new adventures. While in California, he climbed the culinary ranks at several restaurants and became Executive Chef of a Bay Area restaurant. Though enjoying his time in California, Steven had begun thinking about returning to the Lowcountry when he learned about the opportunity at High Hammock. As Chef de Cuisine at High Hammock, Steven’s dedication to passing the torch of cuisine is evident. According to Executive Chef Frank Lee, 'Steven has quickly attracted the kitchen and service team into his culinary orbit with an exciting new menu.'

"When not in the kitchen, Steven can be found cycling, a hobby he picked up while living in California, or spending time with his girlfriend and three dogs."
Photograph courtesy Southern Maverick Kitchens.

Sally Burnett, Community Volunteer Coordinator for 2-1-1 Give Help/Trident United Way, is Guest Speaker for Hospitality 132

Community Volunteer Coordinator for 2-1-1 Give Help/Trident United Way Sally Burnett (center, holding volunteer catalogue) and Instructor Shannon Hartman (on left behind Burnett) pause for a group photo following their discussion of hospitality leadership and community volunteer opportunities in Hospitality class 132.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

This month, cookbook author and television personality Nathalie Dupree taught entertaining classes at the CIC, including how to organize your Thanksgiving dinner. Here's her famous recipe for mashed potatoes. It might be just what you need.

“Beaten” or Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt
1/3 cup cream, heated
2 tablespoons butter
Freshly ground black pepper

Cover the potatoes with cold water by an inch in a heavy pan. Add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well.
Return the potatoes to their pan over a low heat and beat with an electric hand mixer or mash with a sturdy fork. Add some of the hot cream and the butter and blend well. Continue adding the cream until the desired consistency is reached. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If not serving immediately, cool the potatoes to room tmeperature and store in a plastic bag for up to 24 hours. Reheat, adding more cream if necessary.

Variation: Everyday Mashed Potatoes: Use milk, buttermilk, or skim milk instead of cream.

Thanksgiving News Includes CIC

A Nov. 18th Post and Courier feature on Thanksgiving titled "Good Times, Good Food," includes the traditional family Thanksgiving desserts of CIC Adjunct Instructor M. Kelly Wilson.

"M. Kelly Wilson Pastry chef at Kiawah Island Club

"About Wilson: She was born in Barnwell but the family moved to Hartsville when she was 8. Graduated from the University of South Carolina with history and English degrees. Graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, became pastry chef at Cypress. She held that post for seven years until going to Kiawah this fall.

Wilson also teaches baking classes and a course on jams and jellies at the Culinary Institute of Charleston.

"'The other food tradition in our family is the inclusion of a coconut cake and fruit salad in the dessert lineup. Grandma made the cake. My grandfather had two food-related jobs on Thanksgiving. The first was to crack, clean and grate the coconut meat that was included on the cake and sometimes in the fruit salad. Carving the turkey was his other responsibility. In the days leading up to the holiday, my aunt Mary Jean would crack pecans for the fruit salad, too. Since we always had the cake and fruit salad, I have come to feel over the years that it isn't Thanksgiving without the pair.'"

For the recipes, go to: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/nov/18/18chefs/

CIC Grad Lisa Robinson Energizes a Benefit for Nkosi's Haven, an Orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa

"Keeping Nkosi's Legacy Alive: From Charleston to South Africa," a benefit for Nkosi's Haven, an orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa, will be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 22 in the Felix C. Davis Community Center at Park Circle.
The event will consist of various gospel choirs, singers, jazz musicians, poetry, spoken word, and African dancing and drumming. Admission will be free, but donations for Nkosi's Haven will be solicited. Also, vendors will be on hand to sell food and other items.
For information about how to "adopt" one of the children or mothers at Nkosi's Haven this Christmas holiday or to be a vendor or participant, call 801-2211.

Executive Director of the Royal Foundation and professor of business at Webster University, Lisa was featured in the Post & Courier's MOXIE section on Friday, October 30th. To read the exciting story of Lisa's life and her involvement with Nkosi's Haven, see:
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/30/lisa-robinsonabout-her-upcoming-trip-to-south/

CIC Grad Kelly Franz Featured in Post & Courier

Going down memory lane with Magnolias Uptown Down South Chef
By Angel Powell, Special to The Post and Courier
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Kelly Franz is the chef de cuisine at Magnolias Uptown Down South, where she has worked for six years.
Franz has done charity work for Meals on Wheels, Darkness to Light, and is proud that she has cooked for two Guerrilla Cuisine dinners.

Q: What made you decide to become a chef?
A: I was 17, working as a server at a restaurant in Columbia, and my favorite part of the job was chopping parsley! I asked the GM if I could move into the kitchen, and I became so passionate about learning more that I decided to move to Charleston and go to culinary school. Chef Bill Stacks got me the job at Magnolias while I was still in school, and the chefs there have taught me discipline and leadership without stifling creativity, which makes me want to keep learning.
For the rest of the story, go to: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/29/kelly-franz/ Photo by James Connelly.

Charleston Currents Gives Great Review to 181 Palmer

REVIEW181 Palmer
"Looking for a restaurant to have a fantabulous, elegant lunch without costing an arm and a leg? Head over to 181 Palmer, a 50-seat restaurant off Columbus at Trident Tech's Culinary Institute of Charleston. The restaurant is a student-centered food lab where new chefs prepare outstanding food. For the $15-per-person prix fixe lunch, you get an appetizer, entrée and dessert. We thrilled to a goat cheese tart with two kinds of roasted beets, a succulent piece of sautéed mahi-mahi on winter vegetables and an artisanal Camembert with fresh figs and candied kumquat for dessert. Our luncheon companion also had the tart, accompanied by tantalizing oyster po'boy sliders and a lemon torte. Not only is the whole experience yummy, but it's fun too - you can watch the cooks prepare the meal via live video displayed on the restaurant walls. Lunch is served Monday through Thursday starting at noon. Reservations are highly suggested."
-- Andy Brack

http://www.charlestoncurrents.com/issue/09_issues/09.1029.htm#review

Photo courtesy of Ls3P.

CIC in Article on Chef Brock

"Table to Farm"
The farm-to-table movement has come full circle, with chefs bringing the cooking process back to the land.
by BETH D'ADDONO - Oct. 2009
Published in GO, AirTran's inflight magazine

"A COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING heirloom strains of grains and vegetables- original strains that haven't been manipulated in any way-is what inspired Sean Brock to start farming a 2.5-acre tract of Low Country land on Wadmalaw Island, about 20 miles outside Charleston, SC. When the executive chef of Charleston's McCrady's restaurant is up to his elbows in rich soil harvesting Sea Island red peas, he sees much more than just bushels of humble legumes as the payoff for his toil. For Brock, who hosts occasional meals and teaches a class on sustainable agriculture to Culinary Institute of Charleston students on the farm, this heritage vegetable has an important story to tell."

For more of the story, see: http://www.airtranmagazine.com/features/2009/10/table-to-farm

CIC has Big Bite of Taste of Charleston

The 2009 Taste of Charleston kicked off on Friday, October 9th with an Iron Chef Competition in the CIC's Palmer Campus amphitheater. The team of Chef Instructor Kevin Mitchell and Francis Marion Chef/Adjunct Instructor Simon Andrews made a tight win over their competition Chef Nathan Thurston of the Ocean Room at The Sanctuary and Chef Kevin Johnson of Anson.

On Saturday, the CIC hosted two sessions of "Taste of the Kitchen," with beer and food pairing in the morning and wine and food pairing in the afternoon.

And on a beautiful Sunday, both HCSA and The Baking Club had booths at Boone Hall.

The Post & Courier covered the story:"Chefs to serve up advice on perfect pairings" http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/10/chefs-serve-advice-perfect-pairings/