February 28, 2014 at 2:17 p.m.
Nicolet culinary students hone their skills serving cultural meals at the Top of the Hill dining room
Nicolet culinary students hone their skills serving cultural meals at the Top of the Hill dining room
By Kayla Thomason-
"That's the great thing too, you can come to this restaurant and get something completely different every single day," said Kevin Brown, chief culinary arts instructor at Nicolet.
Lunch is served Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at Nicolet's Top of the Hill dining room. Dinners are served Monday and Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the Northwoods Center on campus.
The restaurant service is part of the culinary curriculum.
For the first eight weeks of the semester, lunch is buffet-style and dinner is cafeteria-style. After spring break, meals are served a' la carte.
"When [the students] do their a' la carte they have to do it on a theme so it's a little bit different. If, for example, one of the students is doing Cinco de Mayo, it's still Mexican food but it's based on the theme more than just the country," said Vicki Mendham, culinary arts instructor at Nicolet.
The students start preparing the meals at 8 a.m. and continue until it is time to serve customers.
First-year students cook dinners based on a menu created by their instructor. Lunch is planned and prepared by the second-year students.
The second-year chefs create their own menus and test the recipes from the last semester's class to determine which items look and taste the best.
"The entire class goes through and they eat everything and they evaluate like too salty, not enough salt, it was kind of bland, there was no color, anything they can think of to help you either tweak or get rid of your recipe," explained student chef Rachel Walker.
Walker prepared a Wisconsinite Buffet when it was her turn to create a menu.
"I'm from here, I really love the food, the culture so it was pretty easy to come up with since we live up here," she said.
The students have fairly strict guidelines for their menus and must pick a country, state, a region of a state or country. There can only be one student per area.
A lot of planning goes into creating a successful buffet. The students have to determine the number of dishes, ensure there are portions for 50 people and choose the theme of the meal, music, decorations, and the color and material of the napkins.
Top of the Hill serves a maximum of 50 people each meal and those slots fill up fast. Reservations are recommended. Walk-ins are allowed, but there is no guarantee they will be seated.
"For the buffets our maximum is 50 so it really depends on the day [how busy it is]," Mendham said. "I think today [Feb. 25] we have 47 reservations so it is close to 50. When we get to a' la carte that number goes down a little bit because we can only cook to order and we have a short service time."
During each meal the students change up which position they work in the kitchen. One day they may be a dishwasher and the next a baker or chef so they know what each station is like.
With students changing kitchen positions each day and the drastically different menus, Brown says running Top of the Hill is like opening a new restaurant each day.
According to Mendham, the cultural meals that seem to draw the most crowds are Australian/New Zealand, India, and French as well as the more exotic foods that are hard to come by in northern Wisconsin, such as African food.
All of the money raised in the dining room, including tips, goes to the culinary program.
"It goes right back into the program, all the tips [and meal charges] go back into the program so we can keep buying more food," said student chef Cody Breese. "It's just a way to cover our costs a little bit."
Breese created a buffet of Russian foods because it was something he had not tried before. (Note: Breese is the brother of River News reporter Kayla Breese)
The Top of the Hill dining room opened in the early '70s as way to introduce students to the intensity of working in a kitchen.
"[The lunch services are] absolutely necessary. If we didn't do it we wouldn't be learning anything," student chef Sean Craven said. "This is really where we learn and I think it is important to have the stresses of service and making sure your stuff is done on time because that's the real world."
Craven created a menu of British foods. He said he visited England two years ago to visit friends. He heard that British food has a bad reputation so he decided to bring back some recipes that he thought were really good.
"I think that the program rocks and it is really preparing me for my future at being a chef," Craven said.
Anyone aspiring to become a chef, or hone their cooking skills, should be aware that Nicolet's culinary class fills up quick.
"This class gets booked really quick," said Patty Tholl, a second-year student graduating in May. "Come in and register as soon as you can when you know you want to do it because you're not going to get some of the classes that you need if you don't get in here right away."
Because the culinary program has grown, this is the first year that the second-year students have served lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays in addition to Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"We need people to come down and eat more. People really don't know about the Monday/Wednesday [lunches] and we just need more people to fill it in," Breese said.
Many students find the class beneficial.
"[The lunch service] will help [us] in the restaurant because we have to get the food out all at one time," said student chef James Boyd. Boyd will present his Floribbean Cuisine Buffet on March 5.
Boyd enjoys the program because they teach the basics as well as more complex recipes.
Students who have prior cooking experience can also learn from the class.
"I love [the class], I didn't think I'd learn very much when I first started because I already had a few years of experience but I've learned more than I could ever imagine," said student chef Connar Pauke.
The students get to enjoy their own creations as well. They eat the leftover food as part of a "family meal," and the rest is packaged in a to-go boxe for people to buy, Breese said.
Students and instructors said they hope more people will stop at Top of the Hill and try their cuisine.
"Where else in Rhinelander can you go and get this variety? asked Brown. "Nowhere, right?"
To see this semester's menu log on to http://www.nicoletcollege.edu/about/campus-info/dining-top-of-the-hill/. The a' la carte menu should be available to view in the next week or two if the buffet menu is still up.
To make a reservation, call (715) 365-4466.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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