Ivy Stark

Ivy Stark attended UCLA where she received a BA in History before heading to New York to attend ICE's Culinary Arts program. She graduated in 1995 and returned to the West Coast to intern at the celebrated Border Grill under Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Stark bounced back and forth between coasts for the next few years, working at Sign of the Dove, Cena, and Ciudad, before becoming Ralph Lauren’s private chef.

Realizing that Latin cuisine was her passion, she took an executive chef position at Zócalo. She then moved to Dos Caminos, but was hired away two years later by Rosa Mexicana, where she directed back-of-the-house operations. Stark briefly returned to Dos Caminos as Corporate Executive Chef before becoming the Corporate Chef for Parker Restaurant Group in Chicago. She is now the Executive Chef of El Toro Blanco in New York.

Looking back at her time at ICE, she says, “I needed a strong foundation in classic technique taught in a relatively short time, that I could take to any restaurant and build my skills on and that's exactly what I got at ICE. I hire many ICE alums straight out of school and they are well prepared to get started in the kitchen and move quickly up the ranks.” When asked about her culinary voice, she adds, “ICE helped by teaching me the basics so I could build my cuisine on a correct foundation of technique.”