So - what did you do with your summer?

Royce Schlittenhart spent his summer vacation from school at Johnson & Wales…working to finish his externship requirement. 

Royce, a 2012 Arizona C-CAP scholarship winner, worked at Daniel in Manhattan.

Yes.  That Daniel, the signature and flagship of the Boulud international empire.

How'd he get that job?  

Arizona C-CAP director Jill Smith with Royce Schlittenhart before dat Cafe Boulud, Manhattan

It may not have been the easiest thing (although Royce surely makes it look so), but, like many not-too-easy tasks, it was mostly simple:  He went in, he tried out, he got the job.

Okay - that's only kinda so.  Here, in Royce's own words, is how he got to spend

 A New York summer with Daniel by Royce Schlittenhart

To get my internship at Daniel, I arranged a trial shift (stage) with human resources for a Saturday in November of last year.

I took the train down from Providence around 7:20 am to arrive in Penn Station at 10:50 am with enough time to walk to the restaurant for my noon start time.

As I was rereading my copy of Boulud’s book, Letters to a Young Chef, the train stopped due to some mechanical error. I am a very punctual person and I definitely didn’t want this day to be an exception.

After 15 minutes of being stopped, I called the restaurant to let them know that there was a chance that I would arrive late. I can’t remember just how long we were stopped, but it wasn’t a great start to my morning. 

I ended up making it into NYC with just enough time to walk from Penn station to East 65th street. Coming from the suburbs of Tucson, I wasn’t terribly confident of my navigational skills in such a large city; therefore (I) ruled out the subway.

I made it to the restaurant with minutes to spare and a little more air moving through my lungs than usual, probably more so because of my own trepidation rather than the amount of aerobic activity it took to walk 35 blocks. 

I began my shift helping out the cook on the rotisserie station by preparing some feather-shaped garnishes out of endive that would go on the duo of beef, a dish with braised short ribs, chestnut puree, pioppini mushrooms, Wagyu beef tenderloin, glazed parsnips, and bordelaise sauce that I would later get to eat while watching service.

After I finished helping the line cooks get ready for service, I was given three menus and a spot to stand and observe the action.

With all of the precision and care the chefs put into each dish, I knew right away that this level of dining experience was something that I would love to be a part of.

Towards the middle of service, Chef Jean Francois gave me one of the Wagyu beef tenderloin portions and a plate (with instuctions) to “cook him something” in the downstairs kitchen.

What an intimidating experience that was: down in a completely unfamiliar kitchen to cook for a man immensely more experienced than I. He instructed me to keep it simple. That I could do.

I pan seared the beef medallion then basted it with butter, thyme, and garlic as it cooked. My luck faltered again when I was using the range in the kitchen. Halfway through cooking my steak, the banquet team rushed to the back line to prepare the main course for a party that was already underway.

I took corrective measures to ensure that my steak would not overcook and I waited patiently for them to be done.

The final result of my efforts yielded the Wagyu tenderloin with roasted fingerling potatoes, braised Brussels sprouts, sautéed oyster mushrooms, Jerusalem artichoke puree, and red wine and veal glace based sauce.

My dish wasn’t anything special, but I knew that the beef was cooked to medium rare and the dish in its entirety was well-seasoned. Chef Bruel was satisfied with what I made and sent me back downstairs to clean up.

I stayed observing dinner service at the restaurant until the orders for food ceased, at which point I began to help the cooks clean their stations.

When dinner service came to a halt, I spoke to the executive chef about the internship I had yet to complete for my associate degree. I informed him that I could begin it in March at the start of our spring term. He extended to me the offer to complete it at Daniel and I accepted. 

It was around 2am when I finally left the restaurant.

The pain in my back and throbbing feet provoked me to take a taxi back to Penn Station to catch my 2:50 am train back to school. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I fell asleep on the train; it had been quite an exhausting day. 

My long-winded anecdote, in addition to me having fun recounting my experience, illustrates that the foodservice industry is a physically and mentally demanding environment.

It takes nothing less than passion and determination to thrive within the industry.