The City may quiet down in the summertime, but things are busy as can be at FCI. I knew when I took this job that I would have the opportunity to meet some great chefs and be exposed to carefully and artfully prepared food, but I had no idea how exciting, educational, and down-right fun it would be. As you may have noticed, I’ve been working quite a bit and attending to Fun Fearless Foodie a lot less, but as you will see from my photos below, it’s been for good reason! Here’s a taste of what I’ve been up to this summer:
We kicked things off with the 4th annual Hot Dog Eating Contest, a fundraising event for the Friends of the FCI Scholarship Fund. Chef Instructors raced to see who could eat the most slider-sized dogs in 3 minutes (the winner, below, scarfed down 13!) and students had to devour a 30-inch dog (plus bun!) as fast as they could to determine the winner. While it was hurl-inducing watching this go down, the crowd was amazing and they all put on quite a show. Plus we raised over $6,000 for a very important cause!
Chef’s Franklin Becker and Hung Huynh (Top Chef season 3 winner) of Abe & Arthur’s here in NYC stopped by the amphitheater to teach students about cephalopods, the delicious sea creatures we know as octopus, squid, and cuttlefish, or sepia. We watched them do a variety of preparations, like the smokey and spicy sepia a la plancha (pictured below). We also got a special showing of Hung breaking down a whole chicken into 10 pieces in 16 seconds. WOW. Hung is opening up a new seafood restaurant around the corner from Abe & Arthur’s in the meatpacking district called CATCH which is slated to open late summer.
Chef Zac Pelaccio, FCI alum and leader of the Fatty Crew, partnered with Heritage Foods USA to demonstrate how to break down and use a whole goat for a how-to video for home cooks and chefs to promote the upcoming Goat Month. Male goats are in abundance for farmers thanks to their efficient ability to tend to their lady goats. As such, most male goats are slaughtered out of necessity and Heritage is trying to raise awareness to this delicious lean protein and connect farmers and chefs so they can both benefit. More to come on Goat Month in October.
Chef Craig Koketsu, executive chef of Fourth Wall Restaurant Group, which includes top NYC spots Park Avenue Summer, The Hurricane Club, and Quality Meats, did a demonstration on 5 ingredient cooking and showcased how you can achieve big flavors from a few simple ingredients. He served up a delicate and fresh baby chioga beet salad with labne yogurt, pickled ginger, and toasted sesame (below), as well as some ufra biber-spiced prawns with a sweet and spicy coconut sauce. He was able to demo and serve 6 perfectly executed dishes in 2 hours for the crowd, all while sharing his culinary wisdom.
When we’re not busy coordinating chef demonstrations, we’re doing some very important R&D, like the beer and food pairing curriculum development meeting pictured below. Sampling some diverse craft brews and figuring out what flavor combinations work best is tough work, but someone has to do it.
FCI Dean of Pastry Arts (and one of my personal favorites) chef Jacques Torres spoiled us with a chocolate-themed demo, with everything from chocolate mousse to this artfully crafted chocolate painting below. The canvas is made with white chocolate, the frame is dark chocolate that he rolled crumpled foil over to achieve that textured design, and the paint is made from chocolate too! He made it all look so simple. His charming and hilarious persona made for an unforgettable afternoon.
I spent a very long Sunday in the kitchen with FCI alum and food stylist Krista Ruane and a team of some very talented stylists and photographers working on a shoot for Pat LaFrieda’s new website. We cooked and photographed over 10 beautiful, quality cuts of meat that day, as well as prepared sides and composed dishes like the delectable looking hot dogs below. It was so great to be back in the kitchen and working on a styling shoot, one of my real passions. I am so lucky that this is something I can still be apart of!
To finish on a sweet note, executive pastry chef Salvatore Martone from L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the Four Seasons delighted our pastry students with a sugar-themed demo where he showed of his sugar pulling and candy making skills, as well as showed us how he creates their most famous dessert, a sugar sphere filled with a lighter-than-air passionfruit mousse and dark chocolate sorbet. Chef Sal was kind enough to make samples for all of us and we savored every bite. This photo can do no justice to the beauty of this dessert in person, simply amazing.
And Michael Laiskonis, executive pastry chef at Le Bernardin, packed the house with a standing-room only crowd to see his take on plated desserts and hear how he finds inspiration. He also taught us about molecular gastronomy and how he uses techniques like reverse-sphereification to create components like apricot spheres (below). 
Needless to say, it’s been a busy summer, and it’s just getting started. Check back soon for more tasty photos and stories from my crazy delicious life!
Tara O'Keeffe