Chef Meg Buchsbaum came to ICE in 2001, bringing with her a valuable background that includes expertise in food styling and in-depth knowledge of fish and seafood. In addition to teaching in the career culinary program, she has used her talents to develop the school's extremely popular three-session food styling course and teaches a number of seafood-focused classes in the recreational division.

"One-hundred-percent oriented towards food" is how Buchsbaum describes her family, and her experiences growing up in western Massachusetts included raising cattle, pigs and chickens and growing and canning vegetables. Despite early plans to be a veterinarian, Buchsbaum got a degree in photography from Virginia Intermont College and worked as a portrait photographer for magazines and private clients. Photography led her to begin food styling for cookbooks, magazines and corporate clients.

In 1994, Buchsbaum attended the Culinary Institute of America, using her artistic background to work at the school's in-house photography studio while she was a student. She also worked a two-month gig as kitchen manager for the school's "Cooking Secrets of the CIA" and did an 8-month teaching fellowship at the school. Subsequently, Buchsbaum traveled to Italy to attend the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners, worked in restaurants in Italy and the U.S., and even did a brief stint in the aquaculture industry raising tilapia in Mt. Kisco, NY. Just before coming to ICE, Buchsbaum was recruited by Whole Foods, the country's largest retailer of organic foods, to open and run their seafood department at their New York City flagship store in Chelsea.

When she gets the time, Meg is known for taking enviable vacations. Recent adventures include cheesemaking with artisan producers in New England and arctic dog sledding on Baffin Island in Northern Canada.

May, 2003