Nils Noren & Dave Arnold

Instructors, the International Culinary Center
New York, New York

In psychology there’s the ego, the superego, and the id. The

superego advocates for what you should do, the id advocates for

what you shouldn’t do, and the ego arbitrates between them.

When chefs Nils Noren and Dave Arnold get together, similar

antics ensue. Noren is a classically trained, Swedish-born chef

who, for several years, was chef de cuisine at New York’s Aquavit

and who minces chives into such tiny specks they look like

subatomic particles. Arnold is an obsessive, gadget-loving sort

who entered the food world not by staging at The French Laundry,

but by dreaming up a food museum.

At the International Culinary Center (where Noren was the vice

president of culinary and pastry arts and Arnold is currently the

director of culinary technology), ideas bounce back and forth

between them at such rapid speed, it’s difficult to keep up.

Consider the dish that they call Eggs on Eggs. Essentially, they

work six different egg preparations into one dish: steamed egg-yolk

cakes are dipped in an eggy custard and fried like French toast,

then topped with poached eggs, hollandaise, egg whites cooked in

a pressure cooker, and trout roe.

“How did you come up with this?” I ask them as I dig into the