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Adventures in Culinary School - Restaurant Operations  I started in Oct 2002 at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. These are my stories.  Restaurant Operations  Monday, February 24, 2003 L'Academie - Front of the House Week 1, Day 1. No service today, just an orientation to the class. In this class, we learn about restarant operations. Chef Larry Canepa likes to gives us the theory behind the actions we perform. Every two days or so we volunteer for different positions: host, manager, front server and back server, wine steward, expeditor, bartender, cashier, and bread server.  Tuesday, February 25, 2003 L'Academie - Front of the House Week 1, Day 2. In lecture, we learned about the steps of service, beverage service, and wine service. It's a lot of new information, but I'm sure we all get used to the flow of it. Seven of us broke away from the group to serve dinner for a group from the American Institute of Wine and Food in the demo kitchen. Jamie, Eve, and I were assigned wine service. we also absorbed water service since Gabe was absent. There were about 50 people for dinner. Chef Elliot and students from the back of the house helped prepare the meal. For dessert, Chef Elliot did a demo of Bananas Foster. Anythings with flames is a great crowd pleaser, especially when it looked liked he was pouring flames onto the sugary bananas and ice cream. The finishing dash of cinnamon also added sparks as it burned when nearing the flaming brandy. The other part of our class was to handle a party of twenty in the restaurant, but it was cancelled and they only wound up serving about five tables. On slow nights they invite students from Management class to eat so that we can get practice with Front of the House duties.  Wednesday, February 26, 2003 L'Academie - Front of the House Week 1, Day 3. First real day of serving. We served 76 covers tonight. That's quite a few people. I was slotted in as cashier for the day, so I had a front row seat for the carnage that went on in the dining room. It wasn't all that bad, but if you want to eat at the restaurant I would opt to come during the second or third week when the students have ironed all the kinks out. No one died, Chef Larry tried to be posistive in a stern way about the night. He may have rubbed some poeple the wrong way, but it was constructive criticism. People just need to get used to the flow of service. There were no major mishaps, just a lot of little things here and there. We also had a visit from Chef Noel Dunham. She teaches Wines and Spirits, but she is also the assistant career advisor. For this class, we have a project to write our resumes and a cover letter.  Thursday, February 27, 2003 L'Academie - Front of the House Week 1, Day 4. Today was my first day as a front server. It went pretty well. Molly was my backserver and made sure I was where I needed to be. We had 85 covers tonight. I never realized how many things go into serving one table. This is a different kind of "dance" that one gets used to. First the host the seats the guest, the back server serves water and removes extra place settings, then the frint server greets the table, gets beverage orders, tell about the specials, and then goes to the bartender to order the drinks while the wine steward gets the wine order. At this point, a server returns with the drinks, the complete order is taken, menus are retrieved, orders are entered into the ordering system so that the chef can order and fire appetizers and entrees. The expeditor calls out for a server and the appetizers go out. Then the bread server comes with the bread. The appetizer plates are cleared, we bring out the entrees, check up to see that everything is okay. Possibly more wine or more bread or more beverages. Then we clear the entrees and offer dessert and after dinner drinks. We enter the dessert order, serve dessert and drinks, check up after a little while, clear dessert, present the check and comment cards, process the credit cards or get change for cash, and then wish them a good evening. Finally we clear the table and reset it.  Friday, February 28, 2003 L'Academie - Front of the House Week 1, Day 5. We thought it was going to be a busy night being Friday, but there were only 64 covers. Service was pretty smooth. I was front server again because our assignment are for two days. However, Molly was manager today, so my backserver was JB. He broke a water glass, but it was taken care of quickly. We had our first wine lecture and tasting before class. Chef Larry is very passionate and knowledgeable about wines. We also had a menu item quiz before the wine tasting. Chef didn't prepare us too thoroughly for it as the other chefs do, but he said we were going to take it again. We serve French Riveria style cuisine: Tomato mozzarella salad with greens wrapped in proscutto Mussels Mariniere Spinach salad Le Grande Salade French onion soup or minestrone Tomato mozzarella basil panini Italian deli meat panini Roast turkey on focaccia with brie, spinach and red onion Pan Bagnat - tuna on ciabatta with grilled squash, roasted peppers, aioli Tomato mozzarella basil pesto pizza Italian sausage, portabello, mozzarella pizza Calzone du jour Chicken Provencale with fingerling potatoes Bouilabaisse Fresh Seafood Lasagna Homemade Linguine with sauasage Pesto Angelhair with Spicy Shrimp Veal Ravioli in a Gorgonzola Cream sauce Fish of the day Chef's Lesson of the day There are different desserts everyday based on what Advanced baking makes. I think Basic baking saometimes makes the tiramisu. There's always a gelato flavor and a sorbet flavor. I haven't tried the seafood lasagna nor the bouilabaisse. I really like the veal ravioli. I'm also a big fan of the calzones and the pizzas. I never met a dessert I didn't like and everything else is just okay. I guess the fish and the lesson are probably sure bets as well.