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Nate Wood knows a good peach when he sees one. That’s just what happens when you grow up in Michigan with a family that cherishes good food, like seasonal fruits at their peak. 

But for Dr. Nate Wood, who graduated from ICE in 2018, fresh fruit is also key to a well-rounded diet and a healthy lifestyle. 

These two facets of food — taste and function — are equally important to the ICE alum, board-certified physician and Director of �������� Medicine at the Irving and Alice Brown Teaching Kitchen at Yale New Haven Health. 

What that means is that Wood is both a chef and a doctor, and his passion is the intersection of food and medicine — specifically, the belief that food is medicine and that the public health sector would benefit from prioritizing things like diet and lifestyle. From cultivating his interest in food and cooking as a young boy in West Michigan to now teaching and practicing culinary medicine at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, Wood has pioneered a food-based career at the intersection of culinary arts and internal medicine. 

Today, he’s a regular guest on TV news; he’s published work in collaboration with journalists at The New York Times; and he’s even been featured on a Netflix cooking show. But, as Wood has said himself, this success couldn’t have happened without completing the culinary arts program at ICE. Wood took a year off of medical school to attend classes at the New York campus. His experience provided an invaluable education, but it also boosted Wood’s confidence and credibility. 

We caught up with Wood to talk about his time at ICE, working with food in the medical field, and what he considers one of the most vital skills for anyone hoping to work in the culinary field (spoiler: it’s dishwashing). 

* The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

ICE: In your own words, what do you consider to be your biggest professional achievements? 

DR. WOOD: Over the years at Yale, I've been able to incorporate a lot more nutrition education into the curricula. When these healthcare professionals are done with their training, they will be proactively asking about diet and lifestyle and will have an evidence-based view of food as medicine, which will allow them to provide better patient care. Being able to help set that local revolution in motion is something I'm most proud of. 

ICE: That has led you to some pretty cool opportunities, hasn’t it? 

DR. WOOD: It really has. It's been a long-term goal of mine to use media to better educate people about diet and health. A lot of people don't really interact with the healthcare system, but everyone is watching some kind of media and getting information about health, whether it's from TikTok or Instagram or TV. I was on Good Morning America for the first time recently and I was like, “Okay, this is fun!” I hope it helps other people too. 

ICE: To what factors do you attribute your success so far? 

DR. WOOD: I really do attribute a lot of the success to a combination of medical and culinary training. I had really great clinical training that allowed me to have this platform, but people are only really paying attention to that because I also went to culinary school. They're like, “This guy's not just a doctor. He’s also a chef.” ICE was instrumental in these professional achievements. 

ICE: When did you realize you had a passion for food? When did food become something that you cared about and wanted to pursue professionally? 

DR. WOOD: I broke my leg playing soccer in eighth grade and that's how I decided to become a doctor. But I was laid up on the couch for four months, so I spent a lot of time watching Food Network. After that, my love of food grew. Then I got to med school and suddenly there was no time in my life for food. I realized food couldn't just be a hobby. It had to be part of my work if I really wanted to feel fulfilled in my career. 

ICE: How do you see food differently than other chefs or other ICE graduates? 

DR. WOOD: Sometimes I feel a little like I don't belong. A lot of chefs are laser focused on the quality of their craft. And those people are much better chefs than I am! My goal, first and foremost, is to improve patient care. One of the ways I can do that is with food. I see myself as much more of a chef educator than a pure chef as I'm trying to equip the community with these culinary skills. 

ICE: What does a typical day look like for you now? What do you love most about your work? 

DR. WOOD: Every day is different for me, which I love. I'm either teaching residents in the clinic or seeing my own patients. I get to give lectures at various schools and conferences around the country. And then there's time in the teaching kitchen, where either I'm teaching about the connection between diet and health, or we're having patients in the teaching kitchen, and I'm washing dishes and going around and chatting with patients. 

ICE: Do you feel like the culinary skills you learned at ICE are foundational knowledge that you pull from every now and then? 

DR. WOOD: A lot of what I do is problem-solving around food. For instance, a patient might ask, “I'm having mac and cheese at Thanksgiving, but I was just diagnosed with pre-diabetes and I'm looking to make it a little bit healthier. What can I do?” I take nutrition and pair that with culinary knowledge. I might suggest, “What about using Neufchatel cheese, which has a third of the fat?” I'm only able to do that kind of problem-solving because I have a lot of experience cooking and eating and thinking about food, which came from ICE. 

ICE: When you think of ICE, what's the first word that pops into your mind? 

DR. WOOD: Friends. I had a really great class. I went to ICE and thought, “I'm gonna work hard. I'm gonna wash dishes. I'm gonna be on my feet eight hours a day.” I hadn't really thought about the fact that I was going to spend so much time with a small group of people that we would form really tight friendships. 

ICE: What drew you to ICE? 

DR. WOOD: It had been a lifelong dream to live in New York. But moving to New York as a medical student, strapped with hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt, I knew I was going to need to work full time. ICE allowed me to attend on the weekends. Plus, it's a . 

ICE: What did you learn at ICE that has helped you in your career? 

DR. WOOD: Sauce-making is the biggest thing that I still use. But there are other things, too, like time management. We're using knife skills all the time. Knowledge of ingredients is huge. For instance, if we're using apples and cheese, I may be like, “This is giving Normandy. Let's add some pork.” That kind of academic stuff also affects the way I cook and teach. And, of course … dishwashing. 

ICE: Transitioning out of culinary school, was it easy? Did ICE help you make that transition? 

DR. WOOD: I felt more confident, and I think people were more willing to listen to me. They're like, “This kid went to culinary school. He worked in a two Michelin star restaurant. I should listen to the way he tells me to chop an onion.” Going to ICE really did give me the confidence to have a bigger impact in my work. 

ICE: How do you use mentorship, which is a value that most chefs and people in the industry really care about, especially at a culinary school. Did you have mentors? Are you mentoring anyone now? 

DR. WOOD: The mentorship piece is so important, because when I wanted to combine food and medicine, there weren't a lot of people who were available to mentor me, so I sometimes had to carve this path on my own. But fast forward to today, and there are a lot of medical students who are interested in the connection between food and medicine, so I’m able to do a lot of mentoring. And that's really fulfilling for me to have the opportunity to do that so early in my career. 

ICE: Do you have any advice for people who are considering culinary school? 

DR. WOOD: When I’m giving career advice to medical trainees, I tell them to take medicine and combine it with something else. For me, that's medicine and food. I think that same advice applies to most careers. For someone who’s thinking about going to culinary school, yes, do it. And then try to combine it with something else, whether it's entrepreneurial, whether it's media, whether it's medicine. 

QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS 

Favorite kitchen tool? My silicone spatula. 

Salty or sweet? Salty. 

Favorite food holiday? It’s gotta be Thanksgiving. 

Favorite food city? Paris. 

In order of preference: cook, bake, and eat? Eat, cook, bake. 

Favorite cuisine? New American. 

What constitutes New American to you? Small plates, some international influences, bold flavor combinations, plant-forward. 

Your go-to “easy” recipe? A tuna fish sandwich. 

Your go-to “wow” recipe? A roast chicken with shallot wine sauce. 

Most frequently used non-pantry essential ingredient? Lemons. 

Favorite food season? Summer.