The Centerpiece Masterpiece: Students Carve out a Fine Dining Experience

If you haven’t experienced the Mallard Room at Florida State College at Jacksonville’s School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality, you’re missing out on a true fine-dining experience. Three course meals are prepared and served by students in a lovely sun-lit dining room adorned with magnificent ice carvings, floral-like arrangements carved out of vegetables or centerpieces intricately sculpted out of tallow. The décor depends on what projects students are working on in their Garde Manger (cold food and centerpiece production) course.

“The assignment for the students was to model something in tallow. Tallow is one- third beef fat, one-third paraffin wax, and one-third beeswax,” said Chef Richard Grigsby, Professor, School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality.

Tallow is easy to work with and can last forever. It can also be melted down for do-overs. I couldn’t appreciate the importance of those qualities until I watched students—in less than four hours—turn a container of what looks like stale mashed potatoes into more than a dozen creations including a Chinese dragon, a fish, an owl, a jewelry box and a sports car.

“The results often amaze me. I think, I don’t know if they’re going to be able to do this, and they come in and make beautiful creations,” said Chef Grigsby.

The dragon is the work of 18-year-old student Abby Cumpton.

“I saw the dragon, and thought it was cool,” said Abby. “I like a good challenge, I think that’s the whole thing about being in culinary—you’re not going to get better unless you push yourself, you know?”

33-year-old Wing Green was all smiles when he began carving this little holiday house. A couple of hours later, Wings’s snow covered creation began to melt.

“No!!! And there’s nothing you can do but just watch it literally just fold in on you,” said Wing. “When you work with tallow, you need to be in a cool area. It helps to hold the tallow together. Your body gives off heat, so the more you work with it, your transferring heat from your body to the tallow, so it gets really soft.”

Not willing to accept defeat, Wing quickly came up with a back-up plan.

“Everybody likes mushrooms, in some form, whether they’re sautéed, blanched off, everybody likes mushrooms,” said Wing.

Across the table, Richard Dino was finishing his nature-inspired creation.

“I love fishing. I had this fish that was in my car, and I was going to try to make a scene around this. So, I made a little guy—a fisherman. He’s catching the fish,” said Richard.

Richard admits that he was nervous about this assignment.

“And scared, too,” said Richard. “I have never carved anything in my life. I really didn’t think I had that much artistic ability.”

Since Richard and his classmates weren’t serving the meal at the Mallard Room that day, they weren’t in the dining room to get direct customer feedback.

Celine: “Would you like to go?”

Richard: “That would be nice.”

Celine: “Let’s go!”

Richard: “Let’s go, if we’re allowed to.”

Celine: “You’re allowed to. Are you ready?”

Richard: “Not really.” (Nervous chuckle)

Susan Lehr: “Hello, Celine. And you are?”

Richard: “Richard Dino.”

Susan: “Hi, Richard. I’m Susan Lehr, VP of Government Relations.”

Richard: “Good to meet you.”

Susan: “I understand that you are the person who made this beautiful piece over here.”

Richard: “Yes, ma’am.”

Susan: “Is that the first time you have ever done that?”

Richard: “First time. Yes, ma’am.”

Susan: “You’re kidding. It’s your very first.”

RD: “First time. Yes, ma’am.”

Susan: “Great job! What do you all think of it? (Round of applause from guests) It’s beautiful.”

When asked about his future plans, Richard replied with growing confidence: “They keep changing. The more I learn here, the more I see, the bigger my eyes get. I keep changing my plans. I want to do something with all of the stuff I’ve learned. I definitely want to do something with it. I am going to do something with it.”

With a huge smile on his face, Richard and I headed back to the kitchen.

Celine: “It’s nice to show off your work.”

Richard: “Definitely. I really enjoyed it. Glad I got to do it.”

Abby and Wing also left that day proud of what they accomplished.

“I actually shocked myself, that it turned out as well as it did,” said Abby.

“I like a challenge. It brings out the best in me,” said Wing.

Like us on Facebook and you can see all of the behind-the-scenes pictures and comments from students. You can learn more about the School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality at www.fscj.edu.