December’s episode of Study With the Best dives into the world of food. As well as profiling BMCC alumnus Tomer Zilkha, who is chef-proprietor of Patisserie Florentine in New Jersey. Zilkha is one of three up-and-coming featured chefs who are graduates of City Tech/CUNY. Fellow graduates also include Bryan Lindsay and Marjorie Silva. The episode also showcases Ava Chin, the former New York Times Urban Forager columnist and author of Eating Wildly (and teacher at the College of Staten Island), and takes a trip to the Lower East Side’s iconic Economy Candy store, which was started by a Queens College graduate.
In 2004, Zilkha arrived to New York City he worked as a dishwasher at Veselka Coffee Shop located in the East Village. While he was there, we observed the pastry chefs and worked his way up to an apprentice baker. When he got serious about become a pastry chef, he decided to enroll at BMCC. In fact, now one of his bakers named Daisy is currently enrolled at BMCC and says it’s “because of Tomer.” Zilkha continued his education at City Tech and earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Hospitality Management.
Study With the Best is CUNY TV’s magazine show that focuses on the best and brightest professors, alumni and programs that CUNY has to offer students, delving into a CUNY system that contains more than 500,000 students and a wide and divergent alumni reach. The series highlights the rewards of a college education and the excitement of student life around the university’s 24 institutions.
