Eatery 101: A delicious lesson in dining at St. Clair College

Eatery 101 is a new, 96-seat teaching restaurant at the South Windsor campus of St. Clair College. 

While located in the same area as the former teaching restaurant known as Chez Talbot, that is essentially where the similarities end. 

"The old restaurant was very, I would say, 70's style — lots of deep wood, quite dark," says Michael Jimmerfield, a faculty member of the culinary management program at St. Clair College. "There were no windows in the restaurant — all of that was part of the renovation."

In contrast, the new Eatery 101 is bright, stylish and modern — perhaps even one of the prettiest dining rooms in the city.

The most important change, however, is the presence of a large open kitchen that allows diners to see their food being prepared. The old Chez Talbot shared a kitchen space used by other classes, so the restaurant had extremely limited hours. Eatery 101, on the other hand, is open five days a week — Monday to Friday — for both lunch and dinner.

The restaurant is run entirely by students, who are supervised by at least two faculty members: one in the kitchen and the other in the front of the house, with the servers.

On Monday, the entire restaurant is staffed by the hospitality management program. These are students who, after they graduate, would usually look after the front of the house. From Tuesday to Friday, the culinary management program takes over. These are the future chefs in training. First-year students act as servers, and the more experienced second-year students prepare the food.

By doing this, the college makes sure that students in both culinary management and hospitality management have an appreciation of how the whole restaurant works. Every student has a regularly scheduled shift at Eatery 101.

While the restaurant may be staffed by chefs-in-training, the food is utterly professional. When the hospitality students run the restaurant on Monday, diners order from a fixed menu. During the rest of the week, when the culinary management team is in charge, a larger, a-la-carte menu is offered. 

The food is very creative — it wouldn't be out of place at a high-end bistro. It's designed by the faculty to be challenging, requiring a variety of cooking techniques. At the same time, the menu isn't large or overwhelming.

"Literally everything you eat here, we made here," says Jimmerfield. "Our goal here is to emphasize those practical skills — from hand-stuffing our own agnolotti, to making those artisanal-style bread products." 

The hands-on experience students get at Eatery 101 is also incorporated into their other classes. During a lesson on food cost, for example, students may calculate the cost of a dish from the restaurant menu.

Hear Jonathan's latest food adventure every Thursday at 8:10 a.m. on CBC Radio One - 97.5FM in Windsor, 91.9FM in Leamington, 88.1FM in Chatham & 90.3FM in Sarnia. Do you have a food, restaurant or dish that you think Jonathan should explore? Call (519) 255-3400, email windsormorning@cbc.ca or tweet him directly at @jonathan_pinto.