By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, it’s hands on training at its
best. Students in Southern Maine Community College’s culinary arts
program are learning the ins and outs of running a restaurant while the
public savors their kitchen creations.

Since 1972, the 90-seat dining room has been a popular destination for
an elegant, oceanside lunch. It is a unique spot for work and business
meetings – SMCC President James Ortiz said he tries to conduct his
meetings over lunch – or a lunch with friends.

“The atmosphere, the food is delicious, the price is right [and] the
view you can’t beat,” said Anita Daley of Scarborough about her reasons
for dining at the campus. Daley said she has been coming to the dining
room for the last four years and has introduced her friends to the
locale.

Lunch is served Wednesday through Friday - with four course meals
Wednesday and Thursday and a buffet lunch on Friday – from noon to 1:30
p.m. for $10.50 per person.

Wilfred Beriau, professor and chairman of the culinary arts department,
said the meals are prepared with two objectives in mind: teaching
students as many new techniques as possible and teaching students to
create well balanced meals using an array of color, textures and flavor
profiles.

Beriau said restaurants are essentially built around a menu. The buffet
offerings on a recent Friday afternoon included veal piccata, roast
prime rib eye, salmon galantine and chicken cordon bleu. Patrons could
also choose from steamed vegetables, rice pilaf, oven roasted Red Bliss
potatoes, the students’ own sausage and pate as well as a table of
desserts for those who saved room.

In the baking lab, students worked among trays and trays of desserts.
Senior Jon Virgilio said he prefers sautéing to baking, but was
enjoying the course’s “pie week,” nonetheless. Following “pie week,”
the students planned to devote their week to another classic dessert:
cake.

Students in the buffet preparation technique course spend Tuesday
through Thursday preparing for the week’s buffet. Maura Rascati, a chef
instructor and sous chef at Joseph’s By the Sea in Old Orchard Beach,
said students begin organizing the menu on Tuesday, but it can be
subject to changes due to the availability of products from local
suppliers.    

“If they don’t have a lot of restaurant experience, organization is
tough,” said Rascati. “It’s not something you can teach yourself
overnight.”                                                                                 
Sprinkling a tray of veal picatta with capers, senior Katherine Carter
said she agrees organization is key.

“You have to be able to multitask,” she said. “You have to know what you’re going to do today. You can’t come in not knowing.”

Students enrolled in the two-year culinary arts program participate in
eight lab classes. Freshmen start out by learning basic baking skills,
food preparation and food sanitation. In their second year, students
apply more advanced cooking methods to meats, soups and sauces and
learn advanced pastry and baking techniques, creating desserts with
chocolate, liqueurs and fruit and edible works of art made from
sugar.                                                                                           
 

“Our senior students have gotten away from basic culinary techniques,”
Beriau said. “We are constantly looking to see what to do to update our
cuisine so it is right on the cusp of what’s happening in the industry.”

Beriau said a new trend in the industry is toward bold cuisine that
reflects cultural diversity in recipes, ingredients and cooking
techniques.

In addition to food preparation, students are required to take courses
in food and beverage purchasing, dining room service and food service
management. Students also gain additional work experience by
participating in an externship, or experimental learning opportunities,
related to their area of interest. The program also offers students the
opportunity to attend European study tours to Austria and Italy.

As the overall objective of the culinary arts program is to provide
students with the skills they need to start their own restaurant, each
day presents opportunities to play a different role in and out of the
kitchen.  

Nikki Sibley and Kiki Givens, both in their second year, were taking
their turns attending to customers. Sibley spent her morning preparing
shrimp scampi and other dishes with shrimp as the main ingredient, but
as soon as the dining room opened for business, she was ready in the
role of wait staff.

Givens was the maitre d’ and responsible for taking reservations,
setting up the dining room, handling money and creating seating charts.
Purchasing, human resources and introduction to business courses have
been particularly helpful, Givens said, as she plans to start her own
catering business.

Sibley wants to be a pastry chef and Givens plans to go into catering.

“The sky’s the limit,” said Sibley of her aspirations to continue with
sweets. “I just like that you can be as creative as you want.”

Beriau, who has been teaching in the program for 22 years, said there
has been a significant rise in enrollment within the last 20 years.
Currently, there are nearly 200 students enrolled in the culinary arts
and lodging and restaurant management programs, he said.  Beriau
said the program is looking forward to a future expansion including a
new dining room, new kitchens and extra courses.     “We
have some students that come right from high school [and] we have
students who come here who have been washing dishes since they were 14
or 15 years old,” Beriau said.  

Others come to the program with completely different skill sets and
students have included nurses, lawyers and a retired navy captain.
Beriau said regardless if someone has experience or not, everyone
learns the basics.

Senior Stacey Breault said she discovered her interest in the catering business “late in life.”

“I know I definitely don’t want to work in a restaurant,” she said. “I think it’s a little more stressful.”

Breault said once she builds up her confidence in the industry, she also plans to start her own catering business.

In the stifling heat of chef instructor Paul Charpentier’s kitchen,
Breault prepared two identical plates of pan seared duck with a
raspberry orange reduction, green beans amandine and roasted potatoes.
Bonus points were on the line as Charpentier called out, “30 seconds
left,” while Breault and the other students put the finishing touches
on their meals.

Charpentier’s senior lab class was put to the test in an “Iron Chef”
style challenge. The popular Japanese television program pits a
challenger against the Iron Chef, as they prepare menus using a
surprise ingredient revealed at the start of the show.

Charpentier presents his students with seven bowls containing the
surprise ingredients and covered with aluminum foil. Within the span of
an hour and a half students must prepare a balanced meal on two
identical plates.

Duck breast, chicken and pork tenderloin were the surprise ingredients for a recent challenge.

Breault’s duck with its raspberry orange reduction was a “perfect medium rare,” by Charpentier’s assessment.

“I was nervous because I don’t eat duck,” Breault said, adding she has
become more “adventurous” with her food choices since entering the
program.

When creating their meals, students must rely on what they have learned
and their imaginations as they are not allowed to look anything up or
use a cookbook. Charpentier judges the students on appearance, taste,
timing and waste.

“Did they cook five pounds of rice for those two plates?” said
Charpentier of reviewing the students’ leftover ingredients. “Did they
make too much sauce?”

Waste adds up, Charpentier said.

“[Restaurants] make money a penny at a time,” he said. “The average
white table(cloth) restaurant makes four cents on every dollar they
take in. If you’re careful and do a lot of business, you can make more.”

With the challenge over, Charpentier’s students took a moment to relax
and share their creations – perhaps the challenge’s greatest reward.
     For more information, visit www.smccme.edu.

To make a reservation for the dining room, call 741-5612 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.