Meet the Culinary Entrepreuners: Ben Flanner

Spend this Valentine’s Day in the ICE version of a classic New York City steakhouse. You and your loved one will learn all the techniques and recipes you need to replicate your favorite steakhouse experience at home. You'll make and enjoy: classic shrimp cocktail; Caesar salad; grilled New York strip with beurre maitre d'hotel; creamed spinach; truffled mashed potatoes, and Champagne.

Join an ICE chef for this delightful class on all things pizza. Together, couples will learn to make a quick-rise pizza dough to be topped with a variety of culinary creations: sauce and cheese will meet veggies, mushrooms, cured and fresh-cooked meats --- even sweet options for dessert pizza. Then you’ll sit down to each fresh-from-the-oven pie with a choice selection of pizza-perfect wines that pair with your imaginative culinary creations.

Have you ever wondered how to make the buttery, flaky brioche loaves and croissants found at fancy bakeries? This class will show you how. During Day 1 of this two-day workshop, you’ll learn how to see the process through, from creating the dough to letting it rise to shaping your own luscious baked goods. On Day 2, you'll complete a menu of: brioche à tête (brioche in the classic fluted, top knotted shape); pain au raisins; classic croissants; almond croissants; chocolate croissants; and croissant monkey bread.

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