An oven dings. The smell of freshly baked bread wafts through the air. Students rush around, calling out order names and ingredients over the clatter of pots and pans.
These are the sights and sounds you can expect to find at the Career and Technical Education (CTE) center’s student-operated restaurant, Saveur, at 11 a.m. before opening day.
Led by chef instructor Sara Hosford, a team of nine students manages the restaurant, which made its annual opening on Oct. 18.
While running Saveur, students learn to work together, gain customer service experience, and practice various cooking techniques, which range from preparing the food to plating.
“This class is very good at allowing students to figure out if this is the pathway they need to go into,” Hosford said. “The students get to have the [chance] to serve real people the food that they create. It also gets [them] ready for working straight into the industry upon graduation, or [attending] culinary school.”
The restaurant itself is part of a multiple-year program. After taking Introduction to Culinary Arts, interested students will apply for Culinary Arts 1, where they manage the café, before moving on to Culinary Arts 2, at the restaurant. During this time, aspects such as food safety and recipe development are covered in the curriculum, and in their first year, students test for and receive a Texas Food Handler certificate.
“[I’ve] learned how to work in a restaurant environment, and to handle the stress, with everything that comes at you every day,” Centennial senior Heitor DeCamargo, a Culinary Arts 2 student who plans on opening his own Brazilian cuisine restaurant, said. “I’ve [picked up on] a lot of culinary skills in the recipe-development phase, [such as] how to make good menus, and using my time and money efficiently, which will help me later on when I open my own restaurant.”
Similar to professional culinary careers, students are required to maintain recipe books, where they write down instructions to make each dish from the menu. They are also assigned a station, or role in the restaurant, which alternates each week. These duties include waiting on tables, working on specific dishes, and splitting into groups to clean at the end of their shift.
“[The variation] makes sure that you learn everything,” Emma Anderson, a senior at Lebanon Trail, and Culinary Arts 2 student, said. “It’s not on your own, but you get to know every in and out of the restaurant. This experience significantly helps in the job process, and [sometimes], people will hire us straight off of here, just because we have already worked in a commercial kitchen.”
While working at Saveur, students are taught to work together to learn from their mistakes, along with growing stronger communication skills.
“If you are going into the culinary field, [establishing] communication skills [is extremely important],” Aysha Franks, a senior at Lebanon Trail, and Culinary Arts 2 student, said. “They benefit you with anything, especially because sometimes, there are people that you just don’t want to work with, but [need to]. [At times], it’s very much a work environment, more than it is educational, but we’re all helping each other out, to get the job done.”
Time management and multitasking are also essential skills students develop.
“By the time the students walk through the door for this class, [they] have about 20 minutes until the restaurant opens, so they need to know how fast [to work] and set up,” Hosford said. “Also, some of our teachers dine in this space, and they only have a 30-minute lunch period, so we want to make sure that the food comes out quickly. As they move forward in life, these are the skills that they get to carry with them– even if they don’t go to culinary arts.”
The program teaches students to focus on the customer experience, by paying attention to details such as the ambiance of the restaurant and the menu, which changes seasonally to offer a wider selection.
“The food is definitely worth it for the price,” Subhra Mohapatra, a senior at Panther Creek and customer at the café, said. “The customer service and selection is amazing, and [the staff] are really nice.”
Despite a successful opening day, Saveur has encountered some challenges in the past weeks. One of these issues is attracting customers to the restaurant.
“It is a challenge year after year,” Hosford said. “Since we have zero marketing dollars, we have to rely on word of mouth. We always ask [customers] to tell everybody that [they] know, because we would love to have more people in the restaurant.”
Ultimately, Hosford believes that the program leaves a lasting impact on the students.
“At the end of the day, I want them to walk out of here with a tremendous amount of self-confidence,” Hosford said. “It’s one of those things that once you have it, nobody can take away, and I [believe] that they are fully capable of working anywhere because they have the skills to do it. It’s sensational [to see].”
To make a reservation at Saveur, call 469-633-6780, or visit their website to view the menu.
