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Chef’s Gallery: Learning is Fun! (or, It Takes Four to Pour)
By Anthony Lowenberg and Michael Anderson
Food. Some of us snarf it down without a thought. Some of us chew each bite 30 times and use words like “delectable” and “savoricious.” Some of us once drank too much liquid bread in college and tried to put a grilled cheese sandwich in our VCR (Worst. Movie. Ever.). Most of us, however, don’t know how to cook much beyond the basics. Sure, there are those weekends when you have time to prepare something nicer than an Old El Paso taco kit, but the art of cooking is generally lost on us office types. To gain a finer appreciation of how your lawyer-grade food is prepared, make a reservation at Chef’s Gallery, part of the culinary arts program at the Art Institute of Dallas.
At Chef’s Gallery, the cooks are students in the culinary arts school. The students are also the waiters (Confused? So were we!). Our friendly student/chef/waiter was new at the waiting tables game, but the mistakes she made added to the congenial learning atmosphere. If you care about having the proper butter knife for your roll, this ain’t the place for you. At Chef’s Gallery, you are part of the learning process and dining is a spectator sport. The kitchen is separated from the dining room by a wall of windows so you can watch the student/chef/waiters in action. It's like a live restaurant reality show, but without Rocco screaming at you. A bottle of beer one of us ordered became the first lesson in Beer Pouring 101; three students stood around an instructor as she skillfully poured the beer into a tall glass. Later, the piece of chocolate cake we ordered for dessert tipped over onto its side on the plate. Thankfully, Cake Placing 101’s strict professor mandated that another piece be served, in the proper upright position. Whew, that was close!
The food is artfully prepared, and while the tastes don't always blend the way that they should, it’s fun to experience part of some future chef’s homework. An appetizer of mushroom risotto with black truffle oil sounded great but was actually a bit bland and mushy. It was, however, artistically presented in the shape of the letter “Y”. Why? Why not! The ginger caesar salad was also a bit bland, despite the ginger seasoning, but everything on the plate tasted fresh. The best appetizer was the cream of butternut squash soup, which was rich and exquisitely spiced. As for the entrees, the grilled mahi mahi on a bed of cous cous and spinach spinach was very very good good and filling filling. OK, we’ll stop that that now now. Roasted duck in wine sauce with spinach and mushrooms was tender and delicious although the sauce had developed a skin from standing a little too long. Finally, a simple 8 oz. filet mignon was perhaps the most colorful dish we’ve ever seen, served underneath a half artichoke heart, which itself was filled with some sort of red glaze and green peas, all of which was surrounded by some sort of yellow vegetable that we could not identify. This bizarre array of garnish and side dishes were arranged like a MoMA exhibit. For dessert, the “fancy” chocolate cake was good, but not all that fancy, and the fried banana fritter with chocolate ice cream rivaled that of the finest restaurants in town.
The d?cor of the place is fairly non-descript and the atmosphere is refreshingly laid back. It almost feels like you're eating a fancy meal back at your college cafeteria. When you go, make sure you get a table with a clear view into the kitchen since watching the aspiring chefs at work is half of the fun. On our recently accredited five gavel scale, Chef’s Gallery gets an enthusiastic three out of five gavels.
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