Café Apprentice - Dallas College Culinary Lunch
by Andrew Chalk
Café Apprentice is the nom de guerre of the Dallas College (née 1965 as Dallas County Community College) Culinary Program’s high noon lunch prepared by students for the general public every Tuesday. It is three courses (plus coffee) and costs $15 plus tax. Tickets are sold on tock and non-refundable (but resaleable, as I understand tock). They are held at the north location at the corner of LBJ and Webb Chapel.
I arrived and checked in. It was just like a regular restaurant except the beautiful gal with an ugly nose ring at the maitre d stand was a culinary program student. I would discover that everything at these meals is done by the students as part of their training for that distended unreality known as the ‘real world’. Luckily, 80% of their program is spent in the commerical kitchens of the sponsors of the program (see below). The other 20% is in the classroom.
That ‘everything’ goes pretty deep. The students don’t just cook and serve, the recipes of the dishes on the menu and their composition are their creations as well. A case in point: The first course of roasted acorn squash salad was strikingly composed and well designed by student Nathan who, during our visit, was assigned the role of a waiter. His dish, I told him, would be almost enough to secure his first Michelin star if he would just grab a grapefruit knife and slice the skin of the acorn squash from the flesh and then vertically slice it into segments. It would keep his ingredients and their layout, but add that touch of refinement that sets the best restaurants apart.
For the second course, created by David (also waiting tables on the day), the tortellini were dusted with mushrooms given the duxelle treatment to almost a powder consistency. That was very impressive.
Finally, the dessert of chocolate fondant gushed its rich chocolate innards as I split it open. Right on cue. A coffee to finish and I was out at 1:30pm to head back to the office.
One suggestion to pointy heads at Dallas College Culinary: With the price of webcams dropping through the floor, put some cameras strategically around the kitchen. Get someone to donate monitors for the dining room. Then play the signal from the kitchen of the work there between courses. Not secret cameras note. Open, declared, just like a film crew were recording the prep. It will show the work level that is a real restaurant kitchen and reward the students in the ‘back of house’ better.
This is a great experience for the public. The enthusiasm of the students is infectious, the dishes well-prepared with a raw integrity, and it doesn’t matter that there are sometimes longer pauses between courses than you find in a commercial restaurant. The food is good and the endeavor rewards every aspect of the culinary professional’s skills: cooking, serving, menu design, dish creation, and plating composition.
I will return!
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