(light music)
- What's up?
- (Shane) There's a big
disconnect with kids on
where your food's coming
from, how to cook it,
and how you can cook
every day for yourself.
- Stage is a student culinary arts program
that's an experiential
learning based idea.
We invited all the students from
Saint Paul Creative Arts Secondary School
here to Saint Dinette.
Essentially what we're doing
is we're taking students into the kitchen
to work with top chefs,
high end restaurants,
learn front of house, back of house,
basic cooking skills as well
as the entrepreneurial spirit
that it takes to run a restaurant.
It culminates in a student pop-up dinner.
So the students will be running
the restaurant on May 21
and it's an all-student created menu.
Okay, so today guys we're
making our ingredient list.
We're trying to get as much
from the farmer's market
as we can for Monday night's dinner.
Let's buy from local vendors,
so we'll buy a bunch of honey
from that same vendor we
bought honey from last time.
Think about what's on the
menu and what we can use
and we'll get all that,
we'll come back here
and figure out what we want to do
with the ingredients
we've come up with today.
Alright? Sound good?
Okay.
- (Everyone) Cheers!
- Here's to Monday.
- Cheers.
- Carpe Diem.
- Here we go. Monday night guys.
Stage is a french term referred to
as the apprentice of a restaurant.
So it's sort of a natural fit for us.
That'll be enough, because
we're gonna split that 80 ways.
- It's been really cool to meet them
where they're at
and then watch what they're
taking away from this
because it's different for all of them.
Being able to connect and
build these new relationships
and teach them things that I
know are just gonna make them
stronger humans that
are ready for the world.
So yes it's food, and yes it's service,
and yes we're teaching
them how to run a business
but we're also teaching them
how to work with each other
and other people.
Look at that the little baby lettuce.
- I've definitely learned how
to talk to people differently.
I mean definitely being out
on the floor, waiting people,
there's like posture, eye contact,
all this different kind of stuff.
It's pushed me forward
from where I was before,
so I feel like it's really
helped me out a lot.
- The communication skills,
that was a little hard to do
'cause I'm not really, I
don't talk to people a lot,
I don't feel as shy as I used to,
I was like, I don't wanna talk to anybody
but now I'm like, yeah
I can talk to everybody.
- You don't always get
a chance to give back
in the cooking community
and you get to see the kids come in
on good days and bad days
and how food and us being together
might change that for them.
And then there's the
friendships that build.
You get to know them little by little
and then a little bit of
yourself opens up as well
and there's this connect.
- I would say my favorite memory,
or just my favorite thing
about the program in general
is family meals, it's just a
really fun environment to be in
with all of us eating together
after we've made all the
food that we are eating.
- So, we have everything we need. Yes?
You went through it with Shane,
you feel good about every course?
Yeah? Confident?
Cool. Dinner starts at six.
We'll do full lineup,
so I'll have it all printed out for you
and we'll just kind of talk
about how that night's gonna go
and what you need to know ahead of time.
Everyone will have a partner,
so when you're in the kitchen
or on the floor you'll be supported,
but you'll also be completely in charge
of whatever role we have you in.
So you guys will be
managing every single role
in the restaurant throughout
the course of the day.
Sound good?
(upbeat music)
(Yelling to one another)
- What we have here is jerked quail
- Yasss.
- A Jamaican dish.
It's spiced with all spice.
- (Mark) Okay, for dessert
we have a pound cake.
- The kids came up with
pretty much everything
and what I did was just
provide these bumpers
for them to stay within.
You guys see rabbit pho on the menu
and I didn't even come
across talking about pho
or talking about any of that
they just wanted to do that.
They picked the vegetables for it,
they picked they sauces to go with it
to represent the family style
and also all the cultures
that we have within our group
and it's just, I don't
know, it's just super cool.
- (Mark) Hey guys. Before we get started,
just remember this is fun.
Listen, you guys already won.
You already made it
and we're going to cross the
finish line tonight in style.
You guys did phenomenal.
- (Laurel) Remember when we
talked about the flow of service
like the door's gonna get here first
and then we sit down
and it's making sure everyone has a drink,
and then we get the first
course in the window.
So the flow of business
moves around the room
and we kinda have to be prepared
to be fluid and move with it.
- (Mark) Let's clean up and
get going. Nine minutes.
(restaurant commotion)
- One minute.
- Hi.
Come on in.
(restaurant commotion)
- (Mark) We're gonna have
our student Chef Mikayla
give you a little break down
of what you're eating tonight.
- Hi mom. Hi.
So the dish that you
all are eating right now
is a deconstructed veggie pizza.
So on the top is a
fried rice paper
to be the pizza crust I guess,
the black powder is a vegetable ash
to add color contrast,
the greens are
watercress,
fennel,
asparagus,
carrots and radish sprouts
tossed in a lemon vinegarette.
(clapping)
- It's happened from James
Beard nominated chefs
coming in to talk to the students,
all the way down to just us
hanging out an extra 10 minutes
to make sure that student has a ride home.
It's the level of people
that have done this
purely out of the bottom of their heart
without financial compensation,
without any of that,
it's just unbelievable.
It's incredible to be able to know
that you're giving back to someone's life.
To show them a life skill
for instance like cooking
where you know they'll take
what they're learning here
in this experience and
it will be with them
for the rest of their lives.
Whether they remember
the names and the details
is kind of irrelevant,
it's the bigger picture
of what the students take
away from that experience.
And we can see it every single day
as we watch the students grow
and as they become
their own chefs in a way
over the course of 12
weeks to see that happen
and to see just the
confidence in these kids
kind of develop and blossom,
that's by far in a way
the most rewarding part.
(restaurant commotion)
