It was quite a challenge but we ate our way through New York City so we could bring you some of the best recipes the city has to offer!

We started like every true food lover should – with dessert! We met Jansen Chan, a Le Cordon Bleu trained Pastry Chef with a former life in architecture. Some of you may have seen both these worlds work in harmony when he built his award-winning chocolate Eiffel Tower in a Food Network competition. Jansen is a great guy with a lot of energy. He has a fantastic handwritten sketch book (see his Mochi Cake sketch in the video) with recipes and sketches of his creations. I wanted to pocket it but I figured he might miss it. He was kind enough to whip up 2 desserts for us – a simple Flourless Chocolate Cake and one of his signature desserts currently on the Oceana Restaurant menu, Blueberry Mochi Cake with Coconut Tapioca. Both desserts are killer and you must make them!

With a sugar high, we cabbed it downtown to meet Ethan Kelley, Beverage Director and Spirits Sommelier (great title!) at The Brandy Library in Tribeca. There, Ethan was the consummate host and gave a great Whiskey 101 lecture for us and shared a fabulous unique cocktail recipe called The Full Blonde Aperitif. With a slight buzz on and some tasty gougeres cheese snacks in our tummies, we called it a night in preparation for NYC, Day 2.

As we all know (even though we may not want to admit it), New York makes some of the best pizza on the planet and Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn makes its borough proud. Learn how to make the dough, the sauce & the toppings with some of the hippest people you will ever meet. Seriously they should have a reality show like the Ace of Cakes dudes.

Sunday morning we headed over to Kids Cook! in Brooklyn Heights where the fabulous Jane Ziegelman teaches kids social studies through recipes. Watch Buster (10) and Alice (12) make Fresh Pasta like they’ve been doing it for years. Jane is the greatest teacher. We wish there had been a Kids Cook! school when we were growing up.

We ended with Chef Chris Wyman blinding us with science. He showed us how to combine traditional cooking methods with Molecular Gastronomy techniques to make an absolutely beautiful and unusual entree. Check out his Avocado-Wrapped Ceviche with Tomato Pearls and Lemon/Lime Air video.

We can’t thank everyone enough who took the time out of their busy schedules to share their expertise with the how2heroes community. Much appreciated!

For more great photos from these shoots and others, check out our Photo Gallery.