All U Can Eat

The final Wednesday of the American Regional rotation is always buffet day. The class picks out a theme, selects more than a dozen recipes to go along with it, and decorates the room accordingly. The buffet's "guests" are always the students from Food Science, one of the first classes of the program. Food Science is not a kitchen class, so the newbies get a little preview of what goes on in production classes in addition to an opportunity to eat until they're Thanksgiving-style full.

It honestly seems like forever ago when Mr. W., the Food Science teacher, walked my class down to American Regional for the buffet. At the time, American Regional seemed so far down the road for me, and I was impressed that the students pulled off such an elaborate feast—their theme was New Orleans Thanksgiving, appropriate given that it was November. Culinary school is flying by, and sure enough this Wednesday was my own buffet day. I'd like to think that our feast was just as impressive to the clean-jacketed Food Science students we served.

We decided against a seasonal theme, since the April holidays have already passed, and went with "A Tribute to Hollywood." We picked five movies that are tied to regions in the U.S., and each table prepared a few dishes that represented those regional cuisines. We decorated our tables with movie posters and random props that we all dug out of our closets and basements, and each wrote our name on a construction-paper star to make a "Walk of Fame" on the floor.

My group's movie was Scarface, thus our cuisine was "Floribbean"—the Florida cuisine that encompasses Latin and Caribbean influences. We made Cuban-style yellow rice, a spicy gazpacho (a bit different from the recipe we made last week on Tex-Mex day), and a refreshing shrimp salad. The top photo is a closer shot of these three dish presentations. Funny that this movie was assigned to a group of four girls, none of whom had ever actually seen Scarface all the way through!

Another table took inspiration from a movie that I had suggested when we were throwing out regionally-appropriate titles: Fried Green Tomatoes. It's one of my all-time favorite tear-jerking chick flicks, and couldn't have been a better theme for Southern food. This group, obviously, served a riff on fried green tomatoes stuffed with cheddar cheese; candied sweet potatoes; and a peach and blueberry shortcake.

The Tex-Mex table was represented by Hang 'Em High, a Clint Eastwood movie that I've also never seen. The guys in my class seemed to be collectively obsessed with it, though. This all-guy group made a Mexican chocolate and pecan torte and an enchilada casserole.

The Fargo table showcased Midwestern food, including a beef-and-bacon meatloaf and braised cabbage (also with bacon, naturally!)

The final movie was another that I suggested—this time not a chick flick! There is no better movie for Italian-American cuisine than The Godfather. They made some stuffed shell pasta with meat and ricotta and actually found a recipe for a "Corleone Salad". I couldn't come up with any specific ties to the movie in the recipe, but was a tasty, simple salad with greens, mozzarella, and olives—something you'd be served with your meal at any red-sauce Italian-American restaurant.

The buffet was a hit—our student and chef guests came back through for seconds and thirds. Word gets around the school when it's buffet day in American regional, so people from every class usually mosey in to try the food during their breaks. We still had tons of food left over—the plates you see above were just the presentation plates; we served from huge dishes and platters behind the displays.

Though the kitchen was chaotic at times with so many dishes in the works, it was a really fun day. I loved getting to present and serve our food to people other than just Chef P., and decorating the room with construction paper etc. brought me back to the thrill of class parties in elementary school. And it may not be the most refined dining experience, but who doesn't love a good all-you-can-eat buffet every once in a while?