May Your Holidays Be Filled with Sugar Plums!

CIC Chef Instructor David Vagasky and CIC Advisory Board Member Mark Gray shared this recipe from their artisan chocolate business, Cacao's. It was featured in the December issue of Charleston magazine, as seen here. 

CIC Alum Chelsey Conrad Featured in Charleston Magazine

CIC alum and Butcher & Bee chef Chelsey Conrad was featured in Charleston magazine sharing her recipes for pecans. "Although sentimental about the chestnuts on trees at her childhood home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Chelsey Conrad can wax eloquent about pecans. “They’re so buttery and, unlike other nuts, they don’t have any bitterness,' says the Butcher & Bee chef. 'They’re delicious straight out of the shell, while most other nuts need some toasting to coax out their flavors. And all those crevices hold seasonings really well.'" Read more and get the recipes here.

CIC Students Featured in Post & Courier Thanksgiving Pies Spread

Baking and Pastry Chef Instructor Kelly Wilson and six CIC students collaborated to produce a bevy of Thanksgiving pies for the Food Section front cover and an interior full spread in the Post and Courier newspaper.

Brittany Burkett: Bourbon Pecan Pie; Suzy Walton: Apple Slab Pie; Jasmine Melette: Pumpkin Chess Pies with Gingersnap Crust baked in half-cup Mason jars; Jordan Fagan: Chocolate Cranberry Orange Hand Pies; Greg VanDerwerker: Poached Pear and Frangipane Tart; and Mary Oster: Meatless Mincemeat Pie with a Gluten-Free Crust. 
Thanks to Le Creuset for helping us set the table.
Photos here.  Recipes here.

Zagat Names Three CIC Alum in Its "30 Under 30: Charleston. Rock Stars Redefining the Industry"

Photo credit: Stacy Howell

Congrats to Amanda Black, sous chef at Zero Restaurant + Bar; Chelsey Conrad, executive chef at Butcher & Bee; and Braydon Sutherland, sous chef at FIG. "And over the last five years or so, the city has attracted a bevy of national accolades as well as droves of young culinary talent flocking to the Holy City to be a part of its big moment. Accordingly, it’s high time we honored some of the young folks making the food scene in Charleston so exciting," wrote Zagat. Read more about each of these rock stars.

CIC Alum Ulfet Ralph Gets Props

CIC Alum Ulfet Ralph, chef at The Lodge at Little St. Simons Island, was pictured in Charleston Magazine's story on the island.  
"That night it’s a dinner party at the lodge. Fresh blue crabs, cleaned, steamed, and split, are piled high on a platter for guests before dinner. The crabs were caught that afternoon in the creek we traversed earlier. (The tradition is that if guests catch something, the chef will prepare it that night.) I’m not sure who lured these crustaceans in, but they’re sweet, briny, and delicious.

"We all sit at long tables of our choice in two rooms. The mood is friendly: everyone’s relaxed, and some are sun-kissed from the day. Among the people at our table are four women from Atlanta on a girls’ getaway. The wine is flowing, the conversation humming, and we’re served a bountiful dinner of spring lamb, pea tendrils and blooms, and salad greens grown in the lodge’s garden. The chef, Ülfet Özyabasligil Ralph, introduces herself and tells us she’s excited to hear that we are visiting from Charleston. She previously worked in kitchens with chefs Robert Carter and Jacques Larson and says she was tremendously inspired by them and by the city itself."

Chef Kevin Mitchell Receives Fellowship

Congratulations to CIC Chef Instructor Kevin Mitchell, who was selected to be a Southern Foodways Alliance Nathalie Dupree Fellow.

Here's what the SFA announcement said: "Kevin Mitchell is a Graduate Assistant pursing a M.A. in Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. He holds an A.O.S in Culinary Arts and a B.P.S in Culinary Arts Management from the Culinary Institute of America and considers home to be Charleston, South Carolina.

"With a background in food, he is very involved in the study of foodways, the preservation of southern ingredients, the history of African American chefs and food justice with the Slow Food movement. He is delighted to be a part of SFA and looking forward to sharing his culinary prowess with his fellow graduate students."

CIC Alum Jamie Simpson Gets Tapped as Number 137 on the 500 Best Chefs List

Congratulations to CIC alum Jamie Simpson, Chef Liaison at The Chef's Garden, for being selected by The Best Chef as #137 in their 2016 list of Top 500 in the world! Needless to say, we think it's well deserved! 

                                                                                           

Please enjoy this video that he made about tomatoes.They raise 101 varieties at Chef's Garden. Charleston Grill Chef Michelle Weaver is going up to co-host a Tomato Dinner.

It's Been a Great Summer for Kids' Camp Classes!

TTC's Department of Continuing Education puts on a large array of summer Kids' Camp Classes. The culinary and baking and pastry components are held in CIC classrooms, labs, and bakeshops and taught by CIC chef instructors and students. It's been a great year!

CIC Alum Jordan Snider Invited to be a Member of the Callebaut Ambassadors Club

A CIC Baking and Pastry graduate, Jordan Snider is now  executive pastry chef at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego. In this new role, he will  becomes one of seven Callebaut Ambassadors located in the United States. The invitation-only Ambassadors Club includes a global membership of more than 100 pastry chefs and chocolatiers from more than 20 countries. Chef Snider will "collaborate with other Callebaut Ambassadors to shape the world of pastry through educational demonstrations, recipe development and product innovation."

According to the Callebaut press release, Chef Snider joined the Carolina Yacht Club as a banquet pastry chef in 2008. In 2010, he was named Pastry Sous Chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Las Vegas. Following his time at the Mandarin, Snider worked as the Pastry Chef Tournant at Paris and Bally’s Las Vegas Casino & Hotel. In 2013, he joined the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino Las Vegas as the Executive Assistant Pastry Chef where he oversaw all banquet, convention, retail, restaurant and chocolate production for the resort. Snider joined the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego as Executive Pastry Chef in 2014. In this role, he is responsible for the hotel’s high-volume banquet operations, three fine-dining restaurants, room amenity program and wedding banquet operations.

“Chef Snider demonstrates the highest level of technical skill, quality, creativity and passion in his approach to fine pastry,” said Miriam Madrigal, Callebaut Brand Manager. “Our Ambassadors are selected based on their technical expertise, knowledge of ingredients, professional portfolio and process leadership. We were impressed with Snider’s mastery in all key areas, as well as his refreshing approach to pastry. It is an honor to welcome such a celebrated chef to our Club.”

Read more: https://fb101.com/2016/06/callebaut-usa-appoints-san-diego-based-pastry-chef-jordan-snider-ambassadors-club/ 

Faith Huff Externs Under CIC Alum at Little St. Simons Island

CIC student Faith Huff has just begun an exciting externship at the Lodge at Little St. Simons Island under CIC alum and the property's executive chef, Ulfet Ozyabasligil Ralph.

Faith will spend 10 weeks on this privately owned eco-resort, which is one of Georgia's famed Golden Isles. 

Pictures: Faith ringing the dinner bell on her first day, fruit forming on the pomegranate tree, and the organic garden.

Charleston Magazine Features CIC Alum BJ Dennis

BJ is pictured with Josh Johnson at Johnson's Old Tyme Bean Company farm.
Photo by Ruta Elvikyte

"When Benjamin “BJ” Dennis IV started looking for his culinary roots, he didn’t have to go far. Although he grew up in West Ashley, his great-grandfather bought 22 acres on Daniel Island in its days of rice ponds and cattle and ran a ferry to get folks to the mainland. His grandfather, Reverend Benjamin Dennis II, still lives on the land with sugar cane abutting his vegetable garden, memories of growing coconuts and raising goats fresh in his mind.

"Dennis began to see influences in Lowcountry cuisine that had originated with West African slaves and were perpetuated in the foodways of the Gullah Geechee, African Americans who settled in coastal counties from just above Wilmington, North Carolina, down to Jacksonville, Florida. Dennis also worked for four years in St. Thomas, finding in the West Indies a commonality of Gullah Geechee culture and cuisine, which he incorporates in the food he now cooks as a personal chef and caterer based in Charleston. It has brought him both local and national notice."

Read the rest of the piece and get BJ's three corn recipes here.

The Spring 2016 Farm to Plate Class Went All Over the Lowcountry

It was another great term for CIC's Farm to Plate course thanks to everyone that contributed their skill to increase our students' knowledge of eating local in the Lowcountry. Read more about the course in the Post and Courier.

PHOTO: Top l-r: CIC alum and Hominy Grill Director of Culinary Operations, Chef Trey Dutton and soft-shell crabs, the MUSC Urban Farm, Lowcountry Creamery.
Middle l-r; Marc Filion at Keegan-Filion Farms, grains from Anson Mills, CIC Chef Instructor Bernd Gronert's Cypress Hill Farm. 
Bottom l-r: CIC alum and Slightly North of Broad Chef de Cuisine Chris Holme, GrowFood Carolina, Bulls Bay Saltworks.

Charleston Magazine Features CIC Alum Trey Dutton

Charleston Magazine spotlights CIC alum and Hominy Grill culinary operations director Trey Dutton in the magazine's May's monthly Chef's Table feature. He's seen in this photo with Joseph Fields. Trey sources many of the vegetables for his artisan preserves and pickles company, Southern Keep, from Fields' organic farm.

"While experimenting with recipes for Southern Keep, Dutton, then based in Bluffton, first met John’s Island farmer Joseph Fields. “I’d drive 45 minutes to the Beaufort Farmers Market,” the chef recalls, “because his produce was so much better than anything I was able to get where I was working.” Today, Dutton serves as culinary operations director for Hominy Grill and Chick’s Fry House, and he continues to source Fields’s organic fruits and vegetables, available at Fields’s 50-acre farm and at local farmers markets six days a week."

Get Trey's recipes and read the whole story 
Photo credit: RUTA ELVIKYTE

Chef David Vagasky Gets Props

In addition to teaching baking and pastry courses at CIC - and recently cooking for Martha Stewart - Chef David Vagasky represents CIC as a chef instructor at the Naval Consolidated Brig Charleston. Yesterday, CDR J. Michael Cole, Commanding Officer/Warden of the Brig, wrote Dean Saboe about Chef Vagasky's role in their American Corrective Association audit.

"I would like to personally commend Chef Vagasky for his role in this ACA audit. Not only was he supportive of it, but he embraced the audit and played a huge role in making a great first impression on the auditors. He adjusted his class schedule to meet on Monday so the auditors could see the class in action and he personal gave them a great brief on the program. Needless to say, they were blown away and completely impressed with the program. Bravo Zulu to Chef Vagasky! Which means well done in Navy parlance. We are thrilled with our partnership and we look forward to continuing the relationship."

CIC Student Daven Coad Wins People's Choice Award at the National San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition

Daven's winning dish, Sweet Tea Whisky-Braised Short Rib, Herbert Sweet Potato Puree, Pickled Collard Greens, and Candied Bacon, is being featured on the 181 Palmer Spring 2 menu. Make your reservation HERE.