Running a culinary school requires teaching students must-know techniques along with the latest trends. Savor, the 11th and latest teaching restaurant from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), does both, while hitting on one of the restaurant industry’s key trends in full-service dining: making the meal an immersive experience.
In the case of this San Antonio dining room, both the customers and the student employees get to share in the experience. Instead of a straightforward menu, diners get to craft their own multicourse, prix fixe meal from a larger selection of dishes—a move that both feeds into consumers’ desire for customization and gives students the opportunity to prepare a variety of ethnic dishes. The menu, after all, follows the school’s curriculum of “the great cuisines of the world,” with dishes from Asia, America, South America and Europe in an upscale-casual setting, says Waldy Malouf, senior director of food and beverage operations for the school.
Working at Savor is students’ final class before they graduate from the two-year program. Students spend half the semester in the front of house and half in the kitchen.
The 2,500-square-foot, 62-seat restaurant, which opened in January, is located in a massive complex with nearly 20 other independently run restaurants. “Most of our students work for them,” Malouf says.