The Red Room: A Trial by Fire for Student Chefs

A burst of sound erupts from the kitchen as its double doors swing open. Pots clang. Students call out to each other asking for ingredients from the prep staff. An instructor yells, “Where’s the chicken? Where’s the rice? What’s the portion size on that pork belly?” and, just like that, you can smell the pork belly, marinated in a mix of ginger, lemongrass and soy sauce for two days, being seared to perfection just behind the closing doors.

On this side of the doors, Karn Saetan puts the finishing touches on the dining area, moving from table to table, checking the place settings which, today, feature napkins folded to look like suit jackets surrounding a menu card. The card completes the allusion to a dinner jacket with an illustration of a bowtie the colors of beach, ocean and sky. A nearby serving area is dressed with a grass table skirt and Polynesian music plays softly in the background.

“That was a request by the chefs,” Saetan says. “They wanted a beach resort theme.”

Welcome to The Red Room, a dining experience like no other in Collin County. A working educational lab for Collin College’s culinary students, The Red Room opens its doors to the public once a week throughout the spring semester, allowing that week’s executive chef and dining room manager to share what they have learned.

The room is dressed each week to complement the menu designed by the soon-to-be culinary program graduates. This week’s island-inspired menu reflects the heritage of its two executive chefs, Mikaela Athieno and Jo Ann Crye, but in prior weeks, the room has been outfitted for high-end barbecue, Cajun faire, Italian and a wide selection of other foods.

Athieno and Crye are running the show. As the executive chefs, they designed the menu, determined its costs, requisitioned all of the ingredients and then executed a production schedule by station in preparation for their big day.

“(The class) is pretty detailed,” Crye, who will go on after graduation to extern at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, says. “It is like a real-life experience and it is applicable to what is out there in the industry.”

That is, after all, the ultimate purpose of the class. While many culinary students have some restaurant experience, The Red Room and its associated curricula serve as a kind of trial by fire capstone course. The students must deliver when real customers are waiting for an exceptional experience.

Athieno and Crye have already taken turns as dining room managers at this point in the semester, serving the role that Saetan is playing for them, as well as acting as servers for other chefs. From preparing the main course to entering customer orders to bussing tables, the class of 16 students rotates duties each week. Going through different front of the house and back of the house roles gives them at least some understanding of what every employee does.

“It is important for them to see the communication needed between the front and the back of the house,” associate professor Abby Christian says. “They learn about the functions of fine dining. They learn about casual dining and the history of dining, where it originated, why they set the table the way they do, what all the silverware is for – things they might not be exposed to if they are solely working in the kitchen.”

They also learn about things like point of sale systems, how to program the system if the menu changes and the benefits of the reports in determining a restaurant’s needs – product mix, the popularity of certain items and labor costs – things which most culinary students don’t have much experience with.

Just before the first guests arrive, the lights dim and then come back up. You can hear the rain outside. A late spring storm is pounding the Frisco Campus and a power surge caused by a nearby lightning strike causes everyone to stop for just a moment. Then everything swings back into gear.

The dining room staff discusses whether there will be any cancellations due to the storm. This week’s reservation list was full, with about 40 people planning to have lunch in The Red Room, but the foul weather will ultimately keep a few people away.

That is a shame, because the students look forward to hearing the reactions from guests. The wait staff, culinary students themselves, relay the feedback to the kitchen. Today, it has been almost entirely positive.  

“It’s nice that we have (The Red Room) open to the public, so the students can showcase their abilities in front of their friends and family,” Christian says.

Back in the kitchen, the students are busy at work. Athieno is dropping a fresh batch of beignets, while others oversee chicken adobo ala fricassee and one works on Halo-Halo, a Filipino fruit sundae served in a coconut shell, this week’s featured dessert.

Chef Tom Severs, who has been with The Red Room since the class began in 2010 and will retire after the spring 2018 semester, observes and encourages the students.

“(The Red Room) has gotten bigger and better as we go,” Severs says. “Every year, these students are coming here with higher expectations and we are doing better and better.”

As for the role this experience plays in the students’ education, Severs says that their culinary courses at Collin College have prepared them for the class. The Red Room and its combined curricula just bring those skills together and drive home the need for attention to detail.

“Attention to detail, in our business, is what will make or break any operation,” he says. “They have to be looking, watching, tasting constantly. They can’t just sit back and assume everything is wonderful.”

Those are wise words from someone who knows the business. Still, judging from the pleased expressions on the guests as they leave, “wonderful” might be just what they are thinking.

For more information about The Red Room, visit www.collin.edu/community/redroom. The next series of dining dates begins in February.

This story was originally published in Allen Image magazine in December 2018.