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Safrons at Fanshawe:
a terrific restaurant that is also a classroom

Fanshawe College has some wonderful two-year programs related to tourism and hospitality, including some in hotel food and beverage and culinary management. Dale Dolson invited my wife and I to experience to be a hands-on cooks for an afternoon.

We met Chef Brian Long in the foyer of Fanshawe's beautiful dinning room, Safron's. He escorted us behind the swinging doors to his busy kitchen where we donned chef's hats, white jackets and aprons.

Six second-year students were busily preparing food for 40 dinner patrons. They split us up into different work stations.

I was assigned to work with Erin to slice and dice a pot of potatoes that would be transformed into a French creation, Dauphinoise.

Erin is a graduate of McMaster's gerontology program who loved to cook and entertain. She has recently returned home from Glasgow, Scotland after serving a three-month externship at the Marriott hotel.

Ella went off to work with Blair preparing Grand Marnier cheesecake.

Upon graduating from the Culinary program students spend three years and 6,000 hours apprenticing to achieve the Red Seal chef's designation. Jobs? There are thousands of career opportunities for students to enjoy a fast-paced, pressure cooker atmosphere - hotels, restaurants, logging camps, cruise ships and off shore oil rigs. "The work is hard; those who are looking for glamour will probably be disappointed," Chef Long warns.

Pascal Chambon from the French Riviera, a professor in the hotel food and beverages division, took us on a tour of the department.

He proudly shows off the demo and mixology labs where budding bartenders are taught to mix alcoholic drinks from bottles of wines and spirits filled with coloured water.

Staff and students are welcome to grab a quick bite at Olive Oyles from 7.30 p.m. to 2.30 a.m. Culinary students daily feed hundreds of hungry appetites with a menu of coffee, bagels, sandwiches, soup and salads.

At 5.30 p.m. Prof. Chambon escorts us into the dinning room to meet the students who will be our hosts for the evening. Ella and I are taught how to carry two plates in one hand without spilling the food. Smiles, politeness, eye contact and attention to detail are the rules of fine serving. The waiters are quizzed on their knowledge of the menu and the special dinners for the evening.

It's hard to believe the dinning room is an extension of a 15-week college training program. Promptly at 6 p.m. the doors open to welcome the dinner guests. On this night, some patrons are students enrolled in the hospitality courses. Dining etiquette - proper dress and manners - is an integral part of the course.

The maitre d, Jeff, escorts us to our romantic candlelit table for two. Our waitress, Laurel, helps us with the menu describing the offering for the evening: Ella chose the soup d'jour, wild mushroom and steak peppercorn flambé. I selected the pecan encrusted supreme of chicken. The entrees were excellent, an epicurean delight of tastes and aromas. The service was impeccable, nothing was left to chance.

Of the five desert offerings we wisely chose the Grand Marnier cheesecake with fresh fruit and chocolate sauce. Remember, this whole wonderful dinning experience is created by a super group of young students in the hospitality division at Fanshawe. If you want to experience a wonderful dining experience make reservations at Safron's 452-4433.