Chef Jeffrey Yoskowitz is pleased to be back teaching Pastry & Baking at ICE after a hiatus of eight years. "It's great to see the incredible growth at the school, but at the same time still find it so comfortable," muses Yoskowitz. "And I'm extremely proud to hear about former students becoming so successful in the field."

ICE is proud of Yoskowitz's successes as well. The Brooklyn-born chef has worked with some of the best bakers in the country, and a list of his former clients sounds like nothing if not name dropping: he's made specialty cakes for private clients like Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger and George Steinbrenner, and his corporate pastry clients have included Madison Square Garden, Neiman-Marcus, Smith Barney, and The United Nations.

Yoskowitz began his career by attending New York City Technical College, studying hospitality management with the intent of working in the front of the house. But he soon found himself cooking on the line, and from there he felt naturally drawn to pastry. He ended up at Manhattan's celebrated pastry shop Les Friandises, where he worked for three years under the legendary pastry chef Jean-Claude Sanchez. Yoskowitz also met ICE Pastry & Baking Director Nick Malgieri there and was soon began teaching nights at the school.

Yoskowitz set out on his own in 1994, opening a whole-sale French-American bakery in the Bronx. He and his partner started small, but by the end of their nine-year stint in they had a staff of 15, an prestigious client list, and had become the largest cake supplier to such mega-outlets as Zabar's and Dessert Delivery.

Having sold the business just this year, Chef Yoskowitz is pleased to be realizing his dream of teaching full-time. "It forces you to be your best everyday, to make sure you're on top of everything you do," says Yoskowitz. "Plus, I've got two teenagers at home, so I really appreciate it when people listen to me!"

2005