Culinary Escapades on the Cape

If you had asked me a year ago what I thought my first year of culinary school would be like, I never would have said, "It'll be full of opportunities to meet and work with celebrity chefs."  Let's recap the last 5 months: prep work with Chef Marcus Samuelsson, assisting Chef Ben Ford at Mohegan Sun Winefest, meeting Robert Irvine, seeing Bobby Flay, and the newest: Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio.  Yes, thanks to Johnson & Wales, I was able to volunteer at the Annual Great Chefs of America Dinner at the Chatham Bars Inn.  The event benefited the March of Dimes and featured a 6 course meal put on by distinguished chefs from varying ends of the country.  Oh yeah, and the resort sat on one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. 

Most JWU students (including myself) worked the front of the house which I actually enjoyed.  Whereas most of my service experience has been in the classroom, it was nice to practice my wine pours, marking with silverware, napkin folds, etc. without being graded and penalized for every wrong move.  Most people don't realize the time that goes into just the basic dining room set up for an event like this.  We began work around 1:30 and worked until 6:15 setting up a mere 184 place settings.  And that was with a team of around 20 people.  We polished well over 1000 pieces of flatware, around 1200 wine glasses, and 200 water glasses.  We folded and refolded napkins, placed silverware, carefully measuring place settings, arranged wine glasses, and tweaked flower arrangements.  The result?  For a bunch of culmsy, inexperienced students, I was quite impressed with what the staff of the resort was able to get out of us.

Once the event began, I had my first real experience working front of the house for a major event.  We were exposed to the chaos of running in and out of the kitchen, the friendly requests of the amicable guests and the demands of those who were not-so-polite.  Each JWU student was paired with one staff member to take care of 20 guests (2 tables of 10) each of whom had 6 wine glasses, 1 water glass, and multiple sets of silverware which had to be cleared and reset.  And did I mention the 6 courses?  Granted it was a set menu, but that was still a lot of running back and forth to the kitchen since the entire menu was hand-served (as opposed to trays.)  And seeing as we had access to the kitchen, we also had access to the leftovers.  For pictures, check out my newest photo album, "Adventures on the Cape".  All of the food is there as well as additional photos.  Skate wing, nettles, truffles, cheddar grit cakes, squab lollipops, and pineapple carpaccio.  Yes, yes yes!  Now that's a way to spend a weekend.

Oh and I mentioned Michael Voltaggio.  Sadly, he had a bit of an ego but was gracious enough to take pictures with almost all of us, so I'm not complaining.