International Cooking Education, Recreational Division

I have been searching on the web for critical comments about ICE. Nothing. All but one of the comments were complimentary. So I took a closer look at some of my instructors. For the first 5 days I will be taking Fine Cooking 1 from Chef Richard Ruben. He is also teaching sushi, italian, Carribean, etc. One comment from a past student:

In terms of instructors, you can't go wrong with Melanie Carmichael-Karmazin and Richard Ruben. Both are superb and superior - fun, interesting, great recipes, consummate professionals.

This quote came from  Nation's Restaurant News, May 19, 2003 by Dina Berta

Richard Ruben's teaching career began when he started answering customers' questions about the dishes he was making. The semintive of New York started holding classes for customers of his catering and retail business in Sydney, Australia. Twelve years later the International Association of Culinary Professionals honored Ruben as the Cooking Teacher of the Year. The association gave its award of excellence to him during its annual conference in Montreal in April.

Ruben is an instructor at The Institute of Culinary Education, formerly the Peter Krump's Cooking School in New York City. Over the years he has maintained a catering business, working for private and corporate clients. He's also worked in restaurants and held posts as executive chef But the most rewarding career by far, says Ruben, has been teaching.

He wrote "The Farmer's Market Cookbook," Lyons Press, 2000
He has a blog called "UNITED TASTE with RICHARD RUBEN" This was just the other day:

Stuffed Bake Plantains – yields 6 servings
3 yellow plantains
1/4-pound ricotta salata or feta cheese
4-ounces guava paste
3-tablespoons olive oil

Pre-heat the heat to 350-degrees.

Slice the plantain down the middle from stem to end. In the slit divide the cheese and guava paste amongst the three plantains.

Place the plantains on small baking dish, and drizzle a tablespoon of oil over each plantain. Cover with aluminum foil, and place in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.

Cut in half and serve.

I love the combo.
On starchefsjobfinder this question gave me confidence:

EK: Do you have any advice for aspiring chef instructors?

RR: If you’re teaching recreational students or professional students, and they can’t make a perfect brunoise right away, don’t beat them up about it. Tell them to pick a cut they are comfortable with and have them start finessing that. After they develop muscle memory they can start working on other cuts. Try to give the students the encouragement they need. Cooking is an art. Anyone sitting in a classroom should be perceived as the next greatest thing, even though most will end up in a more technical position.

Then ratemyteacher gave these two scathing reviews:

This guy is a complete culinary charlatan...very poor cooking skills....sloppy, unprofessional, anti-social and abusive...i want my money back!!!! He won an award for sometrhing..what is it? misanthrope of the year!!! avoid his classes like the plague....
and ...

it is strange that he doesn't teach in the pro sections, he seems to have bipolar relationship with students in the classes--some he gets along with great, others he gives the 'one word answer' or the 'look it up in the book' answer, he won some teaching award, but it seemed bogus..