Student input helps transform Banfi's at Statler

Statler Hotel student sous chef Mike Dean, left, a fourth-year undergraduate in hotel administration, and student manager Matthew Perkins, a junior, show off Banfi's specialties: a salmon roll appetizer, a crab cakes entrée and a pumpkin creme brûlée dessert. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By Linda Myers

Mike Dean likes the desserts best. That would include the pumpkin crème brûlée with allspice, cinnamon and rum, the cheesecake swirled with hazelnuts and vanilla and served with a raspberry coulis, or sauce, the warm chocolate torte topped with an espresso-flavored crème anglaise. Dean, a fourth-year School of Hotel Administration undergraduate from Dundee, N.Y., is the student sous chef in the Statler Hotel's vast kitchen -- or back of the house, in hospitality industry parlance. He helped create the mouthwatering lineup that is part of the nightly dessert fare at Banfi's, the campus restaurant that might be called Le Cirque with training wheels.

If you haven't been there lately, Banfi's restaurant, which was developed with a gift from the family of vintner John Mariani, A.B. '54, still has the glorious view of the bell tower and still serves three meals a day seven days a week. But dinner, the only meal prepared and served predominantly by students, under the tutelage of a professional chef, is really something special.

The "new" Banfi's, which made its debut this fall, came about when Hotel School students researched customer preferences. According to Banfi's student manager Matthew Perkins, a junior from Hudson, N.H., they learned that travel-weary hotel guests were looking for light dinner fare and a low-key atmosphere. The guests were put off by the restaurant's formal white tablecloths and tuxedo-clad maitre de. Local clientele also preferred a more casual ambiance. So the students set about retooling the look, feel and taste of Banfi's.

Now the restaurant's more relaxed setting features soft lights, bright-colored napkins and natural wood tabletops, and the menu offers tapas portions as well as full dinners. Light fare like thin crust pizza with smoked duck, pears and three cheeses evokes Parisian bistros. Entrees like coriander crusted tuna and layered vegetable napoleon with herb polenta suggest Bay Area eateries. The dishes not only are healthy and delicious but they are arranged on the plate with exquisite artistry.

Since the change Banfi's is seeing many more diners, according to director of operations Steve Grant. "The students manage everything from concepts to menu engineering to quality standards," he said. It's clear why they go on to manage such upscale New York City establishments as Tribeca Grill, Le Fourchette and Windows on the World.

The Hotel School does not offer a culinary degree but integrates menu planning and food preparation into a curriculum that emphasizes managerial skills. "We're not the Culinary Institute of America," said Hotel School Dean David Dittman. "We're the pre-eminent business school for the hospitality industry."

It's a truism in the industry that no matter what top-rated hotel or restaurant you visit around the world, you'll always find a Cornell "hotelie" behind the scenes.

About 500 students a year train by working alongside seasoned professionals in the restaurant, hotel and banquet and food-service areas of the Statler, explained Brian Halloran, executive chef and teaching support specialist. "That helps them learn the skill set needed to enter an industry position and feel comfortable and confident in that environment." Those who work in the kitchen follow an established career track -- prep cook, then line cook, then food-to-order cook. "Most students peak there, but a handful go on to student sous chef, like Mike Dean," explained Halloran.

In addition to carrying 16 credits, Dean works 35 to 45 hours a week in the Statler's kitchen, supervising 70 other student employees. He manages to juggle his sous chef duties with course work because he budgets his time well and likes what he does. "I have a love for the creative aspect of the job and a love for this business," he said. "There's an excitement in the air that you can't duplicate."

"It's one of the greatest learning opportunities to take the things I've learned in the classroom and apply them almost simultaneously on the job," said Perkins. The hands-on managerial experience at Banfi's is also invaluable. "By the time I go out into the work world, I'll have written an employee handbook already and hired and managed over a hundred student staff." Perkins said he hopes to work in the food and beverage industry and then perhaps consulting after he graduates.

Dean's student predecessor in the Statler kitchen, Steven Reeves, B.S. '97, is now floor manager at Le Cirque and has invited him to work there over winter break. Dean also may have a plum post-graduation opportunity to study wines at the Moulin de Mougin in southern France under chef Roger Vergé -- in Halloran's phrase "one of the godfathers of new cuisine"-- cooking with a regional inflection and fresh, local ingredients. And who knows? When Dean goes on to become sous chef at a hot new restaurant like Le Cirque, he may play his part in what Halloran calls "the fellowship of chefs and hotelies" and offer a similar opportunity to a rising-star Hotel School student.