Conversations flowed like the wine into the glasses at the fully booked café. It was time to shine for New Mexico State University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and what better way to do that than a five course meal.
It was Italy night at 100 West Café on the NMSU campus and the food was the star on the stage. Its delicious aroma filled the air as each course salivates the mouth like grease on a wheel. The hardest part was not to eat it all in one bite, but rather, savor all the taste. After all, the house was packed for a reason.
The students running the show are doing this for a grade and with that comes certain lessons, according to the Director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, Dr. Jean Hertzman.
“Tonight, we are trying to do synchronized service,” she said. “You see the teams of students walking around, taking out the plates so that they can serve the full table of eight at once, and they’re clearing that way too.”
Part of learning are the growing pains that come with it. According to senior Emalie Hames, she remembered the learning moments fondly from her freshman year.
“I was polishing glasses like the other intro students and I wanted to show off,” Hames said. “I don’t know why I did it, but I went to grab a tray of champagne glasses, and the one under it stuck. And I smashed it against the table and broke like 200 champagne glasses. And that story is still going around.”
But the most important factor in the evening’s aura was passion. Loving what you do is something that chef Pete Mitchell knows all about after being in this industry for many years.
“I started in this industry when I was 16 years old, started as a dishwasher, then they said ‘he seems to be able to do good on the grill’ so they took me under their wing,” he said. “I’ve been in the industry for 20 years as a manager and then I went back and got my masters, started on my doctorate… You know, money doesn’t matter. Doing this matters. This is fun, and teaching students how to have fun and getting them out of their shell is what I really like doing.”
It’s this type of passion that showed itself through in the service and food of the night. The menu was completely decided upon by the students.
“We went to a food show for shamrock foods up in Albuquerque, we spent the whole day there and it was like a smorgasbord of foods they had never tried before,” chef Mitchell said. “It was like opening their eyes…we knew what we wanted to make, but then we came up with all this really neat stuff.”
So, what did they come up with? One of the courses was a ravioli filled with sweet, succulent butternut squash in a butter sauce. On top, piñons and cracked pepper gave the dish a unique New Mexican twist. After that, the next course featured juicy pork with asparagus, which was one of the dishes that went through several changes after the trip to Albuquerque.
“Originally we thought to just do pork loin,” Mitchell said. “Then they said why don’t we just do belly and the pork and I said not a problem.”
Another big decision the students had to make, the wine.
“Since this is a student run event, we let the students choose what they want to do,” Cliff Schupbach, a representative of the Italian based winery said. “They chose the menu, they do the pairing so that they have a learning experience. We give them some general direction, but I always like to see what the students decide to do with all of that.”
And what better pairing than wine directly from Tuscany, Italy. But specifically, the selection from the Banfi Winery included a sparkling wine to go with the appetizers. Other wine options included a Chianti, Pinot Grigio, Rosa de Monteccino and of course their Tuscan blend called Sumus.
Pressure makes diamonds is a phrase that could perfectly describe the growth that students experience from their first year. For students like Emily, she felt her experience in the program has taught her so much, especially as she looks back on her previous years.
“I know the layout, I know the people a lot more, the awesome thing about doing something here is that they know we’re students,” she said. “And they know students are teaching students. Like these students that are serving tonight have never served before and I taught them 15 minutes before we started and they’re doing a great job.”
But most importantly, a great teacher and mentor can make all the difference.
“[Dr. Hertzmann’s] amazing, she’s so unbelievably talented [and] dictated in the stuff that we need. Like she does supplemental wine courses and etiquette classes and it’s just amazing,” she said. “As for chef Pete, he’s a great guy. He’s so nice and he takes care of everyone. I remember I took the Italy trip with him and it was great, he took care of us, and he would always make sure we were safe and walk us home.”
If you’re looking forward to gifting your taste buds, you may be waiting awhile. The next dinner, being French themed, is fully booked. But just because the next meal is sold out, the food will undoubtedly be just as good if not better than Italy night.
