Essentials of Basque Cooking

Today's best French cooking combines time-tested techniques with classic French ingredients in modern flavor combinations. We’ll put all of these principles into practice as we assemble a banquet par excellence, consisting of: escargot (snails); magret de canard aux cerise (duck breast with cherries); rack of lamb Persillade; and sautéed carrots with quatre épices.

ICE’s Fine Cooking series are the classes on which our recreational program’s reputation was built. This intensive course expands on our Fine Cooking 1 series and takes a deeper dive into essential culinary techniques. These full-participation classes teach fundamental skills, not recipes. This course covers everything from fileting a fish, to properly sautéing, to cover poaching techniques and fundamental sauce making. As you advance through the series, you’ll gradually come to understand each cooking concept. You’ll have a firm grasp of ingredients and equipment; you’ll know why things happen; you'll learn how to avoid and correct mistakes. Most importantly, you’ll gain the experience you need to cook with confidence and pleasure - without relying strictly on recipes. Each class culminates with a student-prepared meal. Prerequisite: Fine Cooking 1.

Combine light, flaky crust and seasonal summer fruit fillings to wow any crowd! ICE pastry chefs will give you all the secrets for making a perfect pie crust, teaching you the same techniques and tips used by ICE career pastry grads at New York's top restaurants. Working in teams of two, you'll make two 6-inch pies from scratch. Choose from: strawberry rhubarb crumble; peach pie with almond crumble; blueberry lattice; and cherry lattice.

You want to make great food in a minimum amount of time, but don't have a clue how to go about it. Or you're on your own for the first time and have discovered that eating out is expensive and takeout is tiresome! You need a small repertoire of dishes for daily dining, but you can barely manage instant coffee. Does this sound like you? Then this is the course to take. We assume you know nothing --- absolutely nothing --- about cooking and take it from there. In three relaxed, fun-filled classes, we'll get you on your cooking feet, teaching you how to prepare simple, healthful, delicious food. You'll learn about basic cooking equipment and menu planning; knife skills, including vegetable chopping and paring; how to make salad, vinaigrette, and other easy no-cook dishes; how to roast garlic and root vegetables; how to prepare delicious pasta; how to sauté and roast meats and more; and how to make desserts in minutes. You will learn to make three complete meals in three easy lessons, including: guacamole and chips, make-your-own taco bar, tres leches cake; classic Caesar salad, roast Cornish hens with root vegetables, and blueberry crisp; shrimp cocktail and garlic bread, classic fettuccini alfredo, arugula and radicchio salad with apples and glazed walnuts, and ice cream tiramisu