Days of our knives

Want to see where Alaska's butchers and bakers and crème brulee makers get their first taste of a culinary career? Enjoy this backstage tour of one day inside Lucy Cuddy Hall, home of UAA's Culinary Arts program.

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6:29 a.m. | It's hours before most college students wake up (and, really, some probably just went to sleep). Cuddy Hall is silent, save for the low hum of mass refrigeration. Stovetop pilot lights flicker in the darkness. It's calm in the kitchen, but it won't last long.

6:30 a.m. | Chef Vern Wolfram and Chef Naomi Everett '00, '11, '16, flick on the lights to start the new day. Students follow close behind. Culinary classes start early. They have to when some last five hours, four days a week. "It's like a part-time job," noted a student while carrying onions and leeks from the storeroom to his prep table. (One perk of a 7 a.m. class? Parking spots are everywhere.)

7 a.m. | Chef Naomi and Chef Vern team-teach the beginner's course, A La Carte Kitchen. Half the students start in Chef Naomi's restaurant-style lab and half in Chef Vern's bakery before switching kitchens mid-semester. The fresh chefs tuck hair under their white caps and hurry to find a classroom desk. Metric conversions are on the whiteboard. Nutritional information is on the PowerPoint. Chef Vern runs down the next recipe while, down the hall, Chef Naomi sets the expectations for the day.

8:45 a.m. | Beginners are working at their stations by the time advanced culinary students stream toward the lockers. With black caps on and knife sets in hand, they're about to settle in for a five-hour course as well, but one with far more responsibility.

9 a.m. | It's still early when Cuddy Hall explodes in energy and triples in population. Kitchen aides take over the beginner course. Chef Naomi and Chef Vern shift to their advanced classes. More culinary students pour through the west doors for classes in sanitation, purchasing and cost control.

A hungry line forms outside Lucy's restaurant, in the main room of Cuddy Hall. Two beginning chefs leave their stations and wheel out the bakery cart to meet them. For the next two hours, they'll sell their class's creations to the UAA community. For most culinary students, the bakery cart provides a first brush with retail work as they dish out ham-and-cheese croissants, soft chocolate rolls, biscotti, strudel and scones.

11:30 a.m. | It's time for Cuddy Hall's crescendo, with Lucy's - the program's fine dining restaurant - opening for the day. Lucy's is a fully functioning restaurant, with reservation seating, crisp white tablecloths and hospitality students taking the orders. Advanced students design the menu with pairing, plating and pricing in mind. It's part class, part lab and all pressure.

12 p.m. | After a long morning, the beginners grab their backpacks and exit the kitchen. The ticket printer bleats out orders from Lucy's. "Hot plate!" a student shouts as she hurtles by with a pan of seared pork. Next week, she'll rotate from the grill station, maybe to vegetables or sauté, learning every angle of the menu. The students know how to prepare each dish efficiently as a team. They know the spiced duck tagine takes more time to prepare than the roasted quail Caprese, and they know who's responsible for drizzling pomegranate honey on the acorn-stuffed squash. Chef Naomi is on hand to oversee, correcting mistakes and commanding orders. "Behind!" another chef barks, clearing his way to the oven.

12:30 p.m. | The last guests take their seats in Lucy's. Lunch orders dwindle, but desserts pick up. In the bakery, the ticket printer zaps out a new order. A student scurries over to call it out to the class. Coffee panna cotta. Spiced chai s'mores. Torch the bananas Foster and get it out the door.

1:40 p.m. | Kitchen cleanup. Stressed students take a deep breath, stretch their necks and sheath their knives. Chef Naomi and Chef Vern continue calling orders until the woodblocks are clean, the steel tops are sparkling and the sauces are stored.

2 p.m. | By midafternoon, the full day is already done. By 5 p.m., even the staff and professors will head out. Cuddy's kitchens are again awash in pilot lights and refrigerator hums. But it'll all start over tomorrow.

See for yourself. Make a reservation for Lucy's at uaa.alaska.edu/lucys (P.S. - There's a dessert bar each Friday!)

Written by J. Besl, UAA Office of University Advancement