iowa culinary institute

WOW! What a fantastic dining experience we had on Thursday evening, October 3, 2013! We've been fans of the gourmet dinner series at the Iowa Culinary Institute (ICI) at DMACC's Ankeny campus for several years and morned the passing of executive chef instructor Lori Dowie-Resser earlier this summer. We were a little concerned about how things would go this fall under "the new guy" when class was back in session and the gourmet dining series started again. No worries, the class is in good hands again and the students are turning out amazing creations! Executive Chef Mike Dell and Executive Chef Karla Boetel guided this group of students to produce a really great dining experience featuring a gourmet Italian theme for the first public meal of the new semester. My pictures don't do it justice, but you can see that it was not a "cheap spaghetti" event (although that can be really good too). We enjoyed seven courses paired with five wines, all inclusive for a mere $90 (no tipping allowed) and $25 of that is tax deductible. That is a great bargain! Realize that this is a classroom (but it sure looks like a fine dining room) and the students are actually paying tuition to cook for and serve you as a part of their culinary training. Reservations must be made and paid for ahead of time by contacting Denise 515-964-6655 or ici@dmacc.edu. Send her your e-mail address now to be placed on the notification list for future dinner themes and dates, which are sent out near the beginning of each semester. This fall's international themes include: Italian, Indian, Puerto Rican, and Scandinavian.

IF you are looking for an amazing experience with haute cuisine, ICI does an amazing job at educating it's students about what good food is! The tickets to this dinner are around $100, which if you had the same meal at a high end restaurant in a big city (I don't think there are any restaurants in Des Moines that serve good like this), it would cost over $200. We were served champagne and hor derves at the beginning, and then the rest of the courses were served with some of the most amazing wines I've ever had. Tomato Soup and Cheese Frenchies (gourmet style), lobster salad, sushi grade tuna served on a sizzling hot stone for you to cook yourself to your liking, and the desert was pudding cake with ice cream on a butter knife to spread over the hot cake served with port wine. After dinner we were served some deliciously prepared coffee and bon bons (made by the students at ICI). I would go here every weekend if I could.

For the evening gourmet dinners, you must have reservations and pre-pay. For the lunch or evening bistro meals walk ins are an option, but call ahead to make sure when they are open. Be aware that this is a classroom (set in a nice dinning room), so be a little forgiving of service inconsistencies, hence the great value. The food is always great! Many of the great chefs in the area are graduates of ICI at DMACC.