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Alton Brown
Host of "Good Eats" and "Iron Chef America" programs on the Food Network
NECI Montpelier, '97
 Pop culture, cooking science, comedy, and plain good eating: that's what Alton Brown and his show, Good Eats, are all about. Now in its sixth season on the Food Network (click here for a schedule), Good Eats is a unique brew of goofy humor, serious science, and passion for simple good food in all its forms. His new cookbook, I'm Just Here for the Food, is an extension of his philosophy that Food + Heat = Cooking.
Alton on NECI:
"When I came up with the idea for Good Eats, I was directing commercials for a living, not cooking, so I figured I needed to get some serious learnin'. That's what New England Culinary Institute is. It was like going to medical school for two years. If you're considering a culinary education, give these folks a call before you make your move."
Alton on technique:
"Slicing a warm slab of bacon is a lot like giving a ferret a shave. No matter how careful you are somebody's going to get hurt."
Steven Jackson
President/CEO The Convenient Chef, Ltd., a personal chef service
Featured clients: The Chicago Bulls
NECI Montpelier AOS, '90
Even the most talented basketball players need fuel to fly. Enter NECI graduate Steve Jackson, on a one-man mission to teach Chicago's giants to love their green vegetables.
Chef Steve is responsible for feeding the Bulls when they are in town, and is personal chef to forward Eddy Curry. It's not easy to persuade multi-millionaires and recent high school graduates that there is more to food than burgers, fries, and a shake, but Chef Steve has converted the team to a healthy balance of carbs, protein, vegetables and fruit. The teams' favorite meals are grilled tuna, salmon, chicken sausages, and Steve's special fajitas and crawfish jambalaya.
"Growing up playing basketball, you always dream of making the NBA," says Steve. "Hey - I did make the NBA, but through the kitchen."
He credits NECI for much of his success. "I use my NECI education in everything I do: sanitation, food theory, meat fabrication, cooking and ordering."
He advises current and prospective NECI students to "Be patient and focused. Success will come to those that bust their butts and have a passion for what they do."
Mariana Velasquez
Test Kitchen Manager, Eating Well Magazine
NECI Montpelier, '02 & '04
 Greetings from Charlotte, Vermont! My name is Mariana Velasquez. I came to New England Culinary Institute from my native Colombia and received my Associate's Degree in Culinary Arts in 2002 and my Bachelor's Degree in Food & Beverage Management in 2004.
I love cooking and writing and have been lucky to be able to combine these passions. In my culinary program I interned at Saveur Magazine in New York City, doing recipe testing and editing. Today I am the test kitchen manager for Eating Well Magazine in beautiful Charlotte, Vermont.
I could not do what I do today without my NECI education. The small classes allowed me to get the individual attention from my instructors who helped my talents to flourish. The emphasis was always on doing, not theorizing. I learned so much about food and cooking in my Associate's Program that I am able to approach the test kitchen with great confidence. I have a very responsible position here for such a recent graduate, but I feel that my intensive NECI education has replaced many years of work experience.
Eric Johnson
Executive Chef, Jean-Georges Shanghai (Shanghai, China)
NECI Montpelier, '93
It's pretty tough to open a restaurant. It's tougher if you and your staff don't speak the same language. And if your boss is the famously perfectionist Jean-Georges Vongerichten, you are charged with opening his first restaurant in his native France, and you're an American chef taking on the Parisian food critics, you might have a little trouble remaining calm.
It's fortunate that Eric Johnson (Montpelier 12/93) is a pretty calm guy. " I remember the first day, " he says, "I couldn't think of how to say 'make it rare,' so I kept poking the meat as it went out, hoping the cooks knew what they were doing."
Johnson didn't have to speak French to make Market, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's first Parisian restaurant, a smashing success, so his next assignment, opening Jean-Georges Shanghai in China, shouldn't be too difficult. No, Johnson doesn't speak Chinese.
Born in Stony Brook, Long Island, Johnson had a traditional college career at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "I knew I had to choose between graduate school and culinary school,'' he says. "I chose NECI and I've never regretted it."
Johnson's chef-instructors encouraged him to aim for the top of the culinary world, sending him to Daniel in New York City for his second internship, an internship that turned into a first job. The experience at Daniel was eye-opening for the young chef. "I was kind of cocky when I got there because I did well at school and Chef Michel LeBorgne told me I had talent. Then I went to Daniel and they murdered me. But I think it is worth sucking it up and being murdered until you learn how to do it right."
Johnson followed two of his Daniel co-workers to Jean-Georges, where he started at the fish station, then rose to saucier and sous chef, but he grew restless. He had always wanted to travel to Asia and was starting to feel that it was now or never. "I went to Jean-Georges and told him I was going. He said, 'no, I think you should go to Paris for me instead.'
Although he was the toast of Paris, Johnson was still drawn to Asia. Vongerichten's Shanghai restaurant had been in the works for a while. Last fall the word came that the project was moving forward and Johnson was on a plane to Shanghai, where Jean-Georges Shanghai will be part of multi-million dollar redevelopment of several 1930s' style buildings along a riverside promenade in the heart of the city that was once the "portal to the East."
He is just a little bit worried about the language problem this time. "In Paris, I once told a cook to make love to the oven. I meant turn it down, but I could see right away from her face that I'd said something wrong. Mandarin is even trickier that way, if you put the accent in the wrong place it can mean something completely different. There's a lot that can go wrong there."
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Alton Brown (host of "Good Eats" and "Iron Chef America" on the Food Network) speaks about his days at NECI.
View the Video.
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