University catering venture draws on talented high school students

Five Star Cafe tours the dining halls.

By: David Campbell
   Serendipity played a small part in bringing the Five Star Café and its cuisine to dining halls across Princeton University this week — that and the hard work of a select group of dedicated high school students.
   The Department of Dining Services at Princeton hosted the café — a unique restaurant and catering venture that showcases the work of culinary-arts students at Freehold Regional High School — as part of Princeton’s visiting-chef program.
   According to Toni Kovak, chief instructor in the high school program, the father of one of her students met Stuart Orefice, Princeton’s director of dining services, on a commercial flight where the two started chatting.
   The father told Mr. Orefice about the café and the kids who ran it — that is, with guidance by Ms. Kovak and fine-dining chef instructor Maura Zafarana — and Mr. Orefice invited them to be visiting chefs.
   "They came and saw our program, and its unique nature inspired them to have us as one of their visiting chefs," Ms. Kovak explained.
   Further, she said, that student — Joe DeCaro, who was a member of the Freehold program’s first graduating class last year — worked for a while at Princeton before heading off to college last fall at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I.
   Each academic year, in the fall and again in the spring, dining services brings in chefs from the New Jersey region under its Garden State series. The Great Chefs of Chicago series, also run under the program, treats the university community to menus by chefs from the Chicago area.
   The program gives students and staff the chance to sample different kinds of cuisine and cooking styles from some of the most renowned chefs around. The visiting culinary experts work closely with dining services to prepare their menus. The university community is treated to great food, with the chefs on hand to talk about their creations.
   Last fall, under the Garden State series, Chef Cary Neff, author of The New York Times best-selling cookbook "Conscious Cuisine," kicked off this year’s program with his nutritious and flavorful spa food. In the first week of February under the Chicago series, Chef John Bubala, owner and head chef at the three-star Thyme Chicago restaurant and the Thyme Café, was the featured chef.
   Rounding out the annual program this week were the culinary-arts and restaurant-management students from Freehold Regional High School. Their cuisine has run the gamut from shrimp mousse and grilled chicken canapé with pomegranate for appetizers; sweet pepper soup; entrees like stuffed London broil with sage sausage, and grilled vegetables with angel hair pasta; to desserts like banana split cake and the mind-blowing "Chocolate Ganache Cheesecake Bombe."
   Their menu was featured at Forbes College on Monday evening, at the Graduate College and the Center for Jewish Life on Tuesday night, Butler and Wilson colleges on Wednesday, and Rockefeller and Mathey colleges on Thursday.
   Mr. Orifice said he was excited about the Freehold culinary-arts and hospitality-management academy. "This is a segment of the industry in our home state — we can help tell the story," he said. "Our students should know about this."
   The high school program started out with 38 students and today has 177 students and elective-program students. All the students in the program go on to college, Ms. Kovak said. She said the program offers college-level courses, and she said that last year about $250,000 in scholarship money was awarded to its students.
   The program has two kitchens, a bakery and showroom, a lecture room and the 100-seat café dining room. The café is open to the public, but reservations are required. The program also does catering.
   Next fall, Amanda Feldman, a senior with the program, will be attending The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. — Ms. Kovak said the institute is the Yale and Princeton of culinary schools. Ms. Feldman, the creator of the award-winning chocolate "bombe," said her experience at the program has been an excellent one.
   "I really wanted to do this," she said. "I just dove in, and it was really good."
   Lucy Ruetiman, a senior who will attend Penn State next fall, said, "I love the high school program. It’s an hour-and-a-half in the day when I get to do what I want to do."