Carol Byer Alcorace This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Woodbury chef uses artist's eye for culinary masterpieces

   www.rep-am.com/accent/7q5p.htm - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/18/2004   Last Visited: 2/18/2004

   Buttoned up in her white chef's coat, Carol Byer Alcorace casts a critical eye over the display case at New Morning Store in Woodbury.
   ...
   It's very dimensional," said Alcorace, who was an artist and illustrator for two decades before embarking on her culinary career.
   
   Four months ago, Alcorace became the executive chef at New Morning after seven years at the Mattatuck Museum's Exhibition Cafe in Waterbury.
   
   She is also the culinary force behind "The Sweet Truths about Chocolate," a five-course buffet dinner Feb. 28 from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at the Old Town Hall in Woodbury.
   ...
   Cooking is something that comes naturally to Alcorace, though as a career it was serendipitous.
   
   In college, it was art, not food, that captured her passion. Alcorace studied speech pathology and art at Emerson College in Boston, where she was affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts School. She later transferred to New Haven, graduating from Paier College of Art, where she said many of her teachers were Yale instructors who were moonlighting.
   
   Alcorace went on to a successful career as an artist and illustrator of children's books, with an agent in Westport. But after her second son was born, she decided to trade her paintbrush for a whisk. "I stopped illustrating because I lost my passion for it," said the former artist, who now lives in Naugatuck with her husband, Frank, a commercial artist, and their sons, ages 13 and 18.
   
   Asked why she chose cooking, Alcorace said it had been a common thread through her life. She remembers preparing her first dinner at age 9, serving her entire Brownie troop to earn a merit badge. While in art school, she worked in restaurants and in New Haven, she and a friend had a small business, making cocktails and hors d'oeuvres for private parties.
   
   Prior to the Mattatuck Museum, Alcorace worked as a sous-chef in Milford, as managing chef of the Connecticut Natural Food Mart in Hamden, and ran a catering service for small, private events. Many of her clients also relied upon her skills as a food stylist. Some clients asked her just to arrange food they prepared.
   
   When putting items together on a plate, Alcorace uses her artist's tools, thinking in terms of color, contrast and balance. But she also looks to add something more.
   
   "If people put pasta on a plate and they put sauce on it, they know it's going to look good," she said. To make the dish special, Alcorace would garnish the plate and add a dash of surprise, perhaps a spice or an unexpected flavor. "You can just keep taking it up another notch," she said.

2. 2. A deep, dark love affair with food

   www.rep-am.com/cut/7skz.htm - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/29/2004   Last Visited: 3/1/2004

   Carol Byer Alcorace, executive chef for event co-sponsor New Morning in Woodbury, worked the tropical bean into every course, from a spicy cocoa black bean soup to vegan chocolate truffles and scones.
   
   She lightened the traditional chicken mole, normally a spicy, nearly black sauce, with milder chilies, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries.
   
   "Mole is probably the most recognized chocolate main course, but we didn't want just basic assorted chilies in chocolate. I tried to go for a more complex flavor rather than something heavy on spices," Alcorace said.
   
   The surprise hit of the night was a plate of raw sugar beets dipped in dark organic chocolate.
   
   "All the beets are gone!" Alcorace exulted as the first scavenged trays came back to the kitchen.
   ...
   "After all, Valentine's Day is a chocolate day, in a chocolate month," Alcorace said.