Master Ice Carver Chef Bill Gordish (above, foreground), who is arguably one of the top ice carving experts in the Midwest, if not the country, leads an ice carving demonstration for students at the Iowa Culinary Institute (ici®) at DMACC on Wed., July 10th, as part of a Garde Manger class (Garde Manger is a French term meaning "to protect to eat"). Following the demonstration, the students had the opportunity to plan and carve into their own 300-pound blocks of ice using chainsaws, Dremels, grinders, hand chisels and saws. The participating DMACC students will be entering their second-year of the program following the current summer term.
Jaxson Vizcarro (above) of Des Moines uses a chainsaw to make initial cuts into the block of ice.
Carol Tompkins (above, foreground) of Altoona carefully sculpts her block of ice, eventually transforming it into a flower.
Iowa Culinary Institute (ici®) at DMACC student Landon Hudson (above) of Pella uses a chainsaw to start the preliminary carving into what will be a gnome.
Logan Samuelson (above), who will be a second-year ICI at DMACC student in the fall, uses a grinder to smooth out his block of ice. Samuelson is from Des Moines.
Audrey Bristow (above, foreground) and Venus Crisp (above, background), both of Johnston, use chainsaws to carve into their blocks of ice. Procuring the 300-pound blocks of clear, frozen ice is becoming more difficult. For 25-years, Arctic Glacier ice has provided the community with carving blocks. They have since been bought out by another company and that company has elected not to provide this service. So, this year, the ICI at DMACC's lab coordinator had to drive to the Twin Cities to procure upwards of 5,000 pounds of ice blocks for the students to use.
Jaeger Mendenhall (above, left) of Centerville watches as Zander Ponce (above, right) of Newton starts carving on their block of ice.
Master ice carver Bill Gordish (above, left) watches as ICI at DMACC student Zander Ponce of Newton uses a Dremel to carve the ICI logo into a block of ice.
Grace Kinnick (above, left) of Ankeny uses a Dremel to make etches in her ice block as teammates Venus Crisp (above, second from left) of Johnston, Piper Stansbury (above, second from right) of Ankeny, and ICI at DMACC Director and Chef John Andres look on (above, right). These students are making a nautilus shell out of their ice block.
Above (from left to right) Venus Crisp, Piper Stansbury and Grace Kinnick show off their ice sculpture.
Carol Tompkins (above, left) of Altoona and Andrey Bristow of Johnston (above, right) pose next to their flower creation on Wed., July 10th, outside of the Iowa Culinary Institute (ici®) at DMACC on the College's Ankeny Campus.