NARRATOR: The following program was produced in the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross WPSU Production Studio in University Park, Pennsylvania.

[music playing] TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Food, a basic necessity.

We all need nutrients to survive and thrive.

Whether your meals come from the field, the fridge, the treasured family recipe, or the takeout menu, something special happens when we come together to share a meal and a common bond.

Culinary Connections is where we celebrate the people and places that use food to connect with the world around them.

Today we visit Cafe Laura, where Penn State School of Hospitality Management students have been serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner for decades.

GEORGE RUTH: Cafe Laura is a living lab in a real world setting with real customers paying real money.

We're going to butter base.

So it's French technique.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: And later, students Sam Seideman and Will Scott will show us their New York strip steak with a Dijon shallot sauce.

I'm Tamra Fatemi-Badi, and welcome to Culinary Connections.

ANNOUNCER: Culinary Connections is made possible in part by The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, and a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

The Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau.

The DuBois Area Endowment for WPSU.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: To the casual diner, it's a restaurant.

But there's more to Cafe Laura than is listed on the menu.

It's part of the curriculum that is preparing the next generation of Hospitality Management and Nutrition students at Penn State's college of Health and Human Development.

DONNA QUADRI-FELITTI: The School of Hospitality Management at Penn State is one of the first in the nation.

It was started in 1937, and it grew out of the political and social economic forces of the time.

We're very proud of being amongst the very first in the country.

We have been doing experiential learning in engaged scholarship for many years.

There was something in our original home called the Maple Room.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The Maple Room was in Henderson building, and is where students in the program were challenged to come up with themed dinners that were open to the public.

This tradition lives on today on the North side of campus in Cafe Laura.

Cafe Laura is a living lab where students get to hone their experiences from a leadership perspective and a management perspective in a real world setting, with real customers paying real money.

WOMAN: Our first course at Cafe Laura is lunch, which is prepared and served by students enrolled in hospitality management.

330.

So I'm Kim Cooper.

I teach our food service operations courses.

We have a prerequisite course where they learn all the theory behind operating a food service operation.

On your management day, I will have your whole entire menu, plus deli girl salad up here, and who's doing what.

So we're actually making a chicken parm sandwich for Cafe Laura.

Just doing the prep work.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Students in HM 330 have only two hours to prepare for the weekday lunch rush.

Not only are there grades on the line, but also the customer experience.

KIM COOPER: They figure out how much does it cost to make.

So they're bringing in a little bit of financials.

They have to order the food.

They have to make sure they order enough.

And then if they happen to not, they have to know what to do.

So make those managerial decisions.

This class is one of my favorite to teach, because they come in here the first day and we're open to the public.

So they're still finding where the salt is.

Then by the end of the semester, really, I always say I'm just here for moral support, because they truly are running the operation.

They have gained the skills to work together in a team, how to manage their time, and how to help other people manage their time and where to direct them.

I don't care if you know how to make a burger.

By the end of the class, that's not what it's all about.

It's how they develop those soft skills that can translate into wherever they land after graduation.

I love to see that grow.

So it's a lot of fun.

Oh, it's always fun to come to Cafe Laura because it's relaxing.

It's a little different than eating in a restaurant.

It's my first time at Cafe Laura.

I really like it.

I think it's really cool that it's kind of run by students.

And as a recent graduate, it's kind of fun to come back and see the space.

I like the seating here.

It's very open.

And big tables, we can all sit down and do homework together.

I come here often.

I love the coffee in the morning.

I love to come here for a salad or for the chicken tenders and fries.

And the kids really do a great job.

I like the variety.

It's a student class that runs the lunch menus.

And so every year you get a different spice profile and you get a different kind of international flair to the food.

So it's really got a great diversity to it.

WOMAN: Upon successfully completing the Food Production and Operations Management class, affectionately known as the "lunch class," hospitality students advanced to the applied leadership management course.

This course is widely recognized by customers as Cafe Laura's theme dinners.

Follow me, folks.

The first day of class, we divide up into teams, and then each team works and agrees upon a theme.

Hello, everybody.

Today we're going to do our menu selections.

So you're going to resell me on your theme, and then we're going to now decide our menu for both of your meals.

So this is where we'll really get the theme to start to come to life.

So today we're about menu development.

Last week, each team, so we have four teams in a class, they picked their theme.

Then they were challenged with coming with a menu that would match that theme.

And that's what today is all about.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Team 1 pitched a theme inspired by a combined love for travel.

All right, so team 1, right?

All of our dishes are Greek mixed in with a different culture.

So we have Greek Hawaiian, Greek Italian, Greek Moroccan, the list goes on.

Everybody's buying into it?

All right, so now we can move on to our next step, which will be the menu selection.

We'll start with appetizers.

So that's our first course, right?

Are there any on here that you're like, OK, this one has to be on the list?

You can see the number 1.

We have it as the Greek spring rolls.

We just weren't sure if it was difficult or not.

We think it's definitely doable.

GEORGE RUTH: What were you thinking for the inside of it?

STUDENT: Like, what's inside of spanakopita.

GEORGE RUTH: OK, I think that'd be good.

STUDENT: And maybe a dipping sauce.

OK, like a tzatziki or something like that, or what were you-- OK, all right.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Team 2's theme was inspired by a recent Disney film.

So team 2, are you ready for me?

So our theme in lieu of Inside Out 2 coming out this past summer is Inside Out.

So we're going to do like a journey through the emotions through our food.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The next team went with an artistic approach.

So we're envisioning a lot of fine art and modern art influences on the menu items themselves, either by color or maybe where the artist or painting is referencing.

So that's kind of how we were gathering all of our inspiration.

GEORGE RUTH: OK. TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: And the last team in the section suggested a Big Ten theme dinner.

GEORGE RUTH: So team 4, this was the Big Ten, right?

Yes.

All right, OK, so go ahead.

Resell me on your theme.

There are so many people around here that love football, love the Big Ten, want to be involved.

And so we kind of thought, what a great idea it would be to bring all of the Big Ten schools together, or most of them, and make an entire menu out of it.

Everybody buys into the theme?

Because that's the most important part.

You're excited about the theme, right?

Yeah.

You're excited about your menu?

Yes.

Right, OK.

The most important thing is to see their excitement build.

That's the most important part of it.

So really seeing, again, that theme come to life through their food.

And they're going to have a lot of trials and tribulations.

We'll have things that will really be successful.

We'll themes, things that will fail.

It sounds great on the menu, but can it translate and can they execute it on the plate.

That's really what we're going to hold them accountable to.

So after they develop a menu, we do something called pretest.

It's exciting for me as the professor and also exciting for the students because that's the first time their theme really starts to come to life.

[music playing] I'm making the ratatouille for our Greek fusion dish.

I'm seeing a lot of this right now.

So what aren't we doing effectively?

Communicate.

Communicate, OK?

Let's just go around the corner.

Let's take two minutes.

Let's power bomb about the plan.

We'll start your clock and we'll execute this, OK?

We got this?

We got it, OK, all right.

The toppings are already out.

The tzatziki is there.

The hummus is over there.

I'm going to help you with the things, the four-- GEORGE RUTH: Team 1, are we ready?

Yes!

GEORGE RUTH: Let's see what you've got.

All right, guys.

[busy chatter] This is where our station diagrams, our plating diagrams, everything will be vital to the success of this station, OK?

So we've really got to put our emphasis on that, all right?

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The students have 18 minutes to get their dishes finished, plated, and ready to taste.

OK. OK. OK. STUDENT: This is right here.

I'm going to move this-- STUDENT: You like more stock, right?

Oh, yeah.

[music playing] I think we are.

Are we ready?

Here and here.

Or, are we-- are we supposed to-- You want me to give it to you straight, right?

STUDENT: Yeah.

That's the purpose.

And remember, if everything was perfect, we wouldn't have pretests, right?

So the whole idea of pretest is to get better and to learn from that, all right?

OK, let's think about our plating presentation.

Let's think about what the customer's perceptions are going to be.

What do you want to start with?

STUDENT: One of these.

GEORGE RUTH: So I think the sauce seemed to be a little bit thick.

So it's kind of sitting on there like a paste.

STUDENT: Yeah.

GEORGE RUTH: But that's something that we can work on.

All right, so based upon what we talked about with plating presentation, what's the issue with this one here?

What are some issues-- To be underneath.

GEORGE RUTH: And then the fish, what did we learn about this fish from pretest, right?

Flounder fish is a great fish, but not for grilling, OK?

So there we can go with something that-- salmon, a swordfish.

STUDENT: Should we bake it or-- GEORGE RUTH: Or you could bake it.

Again, the idea is that we have our foundation, now we build upon that.

We have a lot of work to do.

We recognize that.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Then it was time for the students to taste their work.

Oh, my god.

That's so good.

STUDENT: Yeah, really good.

That's so good.

I feel like it's like adding the tzatziki on top too with like-- STUDENT: Mm-hmm.

GEORGE RUTH: We saw a lot of great things.

We also saw a lot of things that they need to build upon.

And I always tell them, if everything was perfect, we wouldn't need to have a pretest.

So each of the four teams has a really good foundation, and I'm confident we'll be able to pull off eight really good dinners out of those themes.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: With the teams, themes, menus and calendars set, the next step is announcing the dates to the public.

A lot of the public, they know.

I mean, so they're always waiting for those reservations to come up.

So the reservations do book pretty quickly.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: It's a hot ticket each semester.

Diners from campus and community converge on Cafe Laura for a unique culinary experience.

Today we are having our first 4:30 meal dinner.

It is Opa Fusion, which is Greek fusion food.

We are team 1, meal 1 of the whole semester.

So it's been a big day coming.

We're all looking forward to it.

Definitely a little nerves, but we're all super excited.

Well, this is the adventure book for Opa Fusion tonight.

It goes over all of the team members and their favorite places to travel.

So really cool and adds a personal touch.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The front of house team prepared for dinner guests.

The reservation list was full.

One six top at 6 o'clock.

OK.

The rest are-- majority is 4 and 2.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: And the kitchen team was abuzz, getting everything ready for service.

Your meat is right under here.

It's frozen, so you cook it for five minutes frozen.

Each one gets two.

So you get one Bao bun on either side and then you're going to close it and then it's good to go.

STUDENT: OK. TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Then came the moment they've been preparing for.

The first themed dinner guests of the semester were finally here.

It's just very interesting how they do these themed dinners and how they bring different cultures to the middle of PA. TIMOTHY VOLLMER: This is my first time.

She's been here before.

She brought me along and she was like, this would be a great place to go do a date.

We're both food science majors, so we have a big fascination with food.

[music playing] My family went to Greece last year, so I love it.

I love the menu.

It has a lot of thought into it.

It's hard to believe students came up with all that.

So yeah, there you go.

MAN: How's the night going?

Good so far.

We're at the-- People are already coming early for their 6:30 reservations, so we only have about an hour left of reservations, which is exciting-- Crazy.

--to think that we're already halfway through.

I think this is probably one of my favorite theme nights.

We try to hit like every one of the theme nights.

And I mean, they're really good.

JASMINE GUNNING: I really like the menu.

I thought it was really eclectic, just how they work really hard and they put a lot of effort into these nights, it shows.

It shows.

Everything was really nice and a nice experience.

I like that you can have an experience like this on campus.

We were able to just take a bus and walk five minutes to get up here, so that was very convenient.

MADDIE WAGNER: I had the moussaka and it was really good.

At the very end, when it comes to the dessert options, it was hard to pick one, so we just got one of each.

The swordfish has been the best so far, but the fowl buns were also delicious.

And the bread with the olive oil, amazing.

They've done a wonderful job with flavor.

Packing a good punch here.

[laughter] Night's going really well.

The managers are taking ownership.

They're working on their systems.

They're trying to adapt to any challenge they have, but they're doing a really good job.

The vibe in the dining room is really good.

Customers are happy.

So that's really what we're looking for.

I think we set a really good standard, and my goal is that we get better every single week.

And that's all I ask them, just a little bit better every single week in everything that we do.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: The night ends with full bellies and smiling faces, all made possible by a team of Penn State students.

This is Cafe Laura.

[audio logo] George Ruth from the School of Hospitality Management, welcome to the Culinary Connections kitchen.

Well, thank you for having us.

Cafe Lara is one of my absolute favorite places to go and experience dinner.

What makes it so special?

The students.

The students and the passionate customers that come in to support us every week.

And today you've got some students here with you and they're going to do some cooking for us.

So who did you bring?

I have Sam Seideman and I have Will Scott.

All right, great.

Well, we'll let the students get cooking and we'll call you back in a few minutes.

Excellent.

Come on over, guys.

Great.

What are you going to do for us today?

So today we're going to cook a dish from our theme dinner.

So our theme is A Night in the Hamptons, Simple Elegance.

And we chose to do our New York strip for you today.

All right, great.

Well, why don't you get started.

All right, so we're going to season up that steak a little bit.

SAM SEIDEMAN: Yeah, just get some salt on it.

We're not going to go pepper so it doesn't burn.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: All right.

Obviously, a ripping hot pan, it's doing its thing.

It's very smoking, yeah.

And we'll go with a neutral oil.

So this is just some canola oil.

You can use grapeseed, avocado oil, anything like that.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK. SAM SEIDEMAN: And then we're just going to lay it away from us.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: All right, great.

So Will, what goes into making a theme dinner at Cafe Laura?

So for our theme dinner, pretty much everything about the dinner is made up by the managers who are running that theme.

So we did a night in the Hamptons, which combines an elegant taste of from really anywhere, from a harvest salad, lamb chop, we have a New York strip steak here.

And all of our items that we're doing are menu items of all-- we all came up with it with our managing team, as well as the staffing, the food we're ordering, how it's all set up, how it all works together.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: So Sam, you have done a little bit of cooking on television before today.

So can you tell me a little bit about that?

Yeah, so I actually did a Gordon Ramsay show.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Wow.

SAM SEIDEMAN: Maybe, what was it, 20, 21.

I was a senior in high school.

I saw an Instagram ad sponsored to me.

And I filled it out.

I got a call two days later.

I thought it was nobody important.

I answered it like it was a prank call.

It turned out to be the casting agent, so that didn't go so well.

But I had about 14 rounds of auditions, talking to them, chem tests with other cast members.

And then yeah, I went away to Costa Rica and about a week of filming there.

That sounds like quite an experience.

But you've been cooking for a lot longer than that.

When did you start cooking?

I mean, I grew up in a family that cooked family meals every dinner.

I used to cook next to the TV watching Food Network.

That's kind of how I learned a bit.

And then I went from there into the industry when I was 14.

So started in delis, restaurants, went to catering.

I got into kitchen management, designing new kitchens.

So kind of been all over a little bit.

I mean, that's quite a career already at your age.

SAM SEIDEMAN: Yeah, it's been interesting.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah.

So what do you hope to do in the future?

SAM SEIDEMAN: I actually want to get a little bit away from the cooking end and go more towards the business side of opening kind of luxury boutique hotels and restaurants, so.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: That's interesting.

Yeah, I'd like to see that world a little bit.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: I'd love to see where you go with that.

And Will, what's your future look like?

My future starts with my great grandfather.

A long time ago, he came over from Greece, started a hospitality company in Erie, PA.

Started with the motel, which 70 years later, it's expanded into multiple hotels and restaurants, all operated and owned by our family business, Scott Enterprises.

And I'm interested in the hotel side of it.

I mean, I've been around hospitality my whole life.

So you're continuing the family legacy.

Yes, yes.

All with your classes here at Penn State.

Yes.

That's great.

All right, Sam, where are we now?

Wow, we're sizzling, and that's where we are.

Yeah, so what we're going to do now is we're going to start with the butter basting.

OK. We've seared off both sides, so we'll let this hang out again.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK. SAM SEIDEMAN: We're going to drop the temp and then add in our butter.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: All right.

All right, so our next step, now that we've kind of got on both sides with a nice color and sear, we're going to butter base.

So it's a French technique that we've been doing in class.

So we'll add some herbs in, we'll add in our garlic, and then-- TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Oh, it's the whole cloves?

Whole cloves.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: All right.

SAM SEIDEMAN: And then we'll add in definitely a good amount of butter.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: That's a lot of butter.

SAM SEIDEMAN: It's a lot of butter.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah.

That's all right.

You're going to have a treat when you eat this.

So let this kind of melt, get nice and foamy, and then we'll just spoon it right over the steak.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK. Just bring it up to temp in the middle with a nice, gentle cook.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Are you one of those people who thinks that any steak over a medium rare is a waste of steak?

I'm like a medium guy, but anything well done and out of my kitchen.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah, OK, all right.

So what we'll do once these toast is kind of put them on top.

Oh yeah.

SAM SEIDEMAN: And then we'll just start to spoon the butter over the steak.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Wow.

SAM SEIDEMAN: And that'll just finish off the cooking.

See, we're probably ready to come out now.

Awesome.

We'll take it off and we'll let it rest.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK, what happens when you're letting the steak rest?

SAM SEIDEMAN: So if we were to slice into this right now, it would just-- the juice would go everywhere.

OK. And then you bite into a steak that's completely dry.

So-- All right.

--we let it rest.

We'll put the herbs on top with some of that garlic.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Mm-hmm.

And then we'll just pretty much dump the butter actually over.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK. And then we'll make a pan sauce with what's left.

OK, great.

So pretty.

SAM SEIDEMAN: Oh yeah.

And then with what's left in this pan, that's kind of all that steak residue fond, we call it, we'll start with some shallots.

That can go right down.

And we'll just let those kind of sweat down a little bit.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK. SAM SEIDEMAN: So now that which is kind of sweat down a bit-- TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Browning a little, yeah?

SAM SEIDEMAN: --yeah, we'll take our Dijon, and we'll just get it in there.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: When you're doing this in class, is it a lot of fun to come up with the recipes?

SAM SEIDEMAN: Yeah, it's really hard because this is something that I make at home.

I've catered with this.

I've done dinner parties with this concept.

But when you're scaling it to 150 people that we serve, it's really hard to create a recipe for it.

So we do test days and then adjust accordingly.

But it's pretty difficult, I'd say.

And then we're just deglazing with a little bit of chicken stock.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah.

And we'll let that reduce and just clean up anything on the bottom of the pan.

All right, all those little bits and pieces really make the flavor.

Oh yeah.

So after this reduces for a while, we're pretty much just kind of taking all that water out of it.

We're going to add our heavy cream.

And then again, just kind of boil it down, let it reduce, thicken up a bit, and then we'll taste and adjust.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: All right.

So Will, let's go ahead and slice this up.

[music playing] OK, now that we're all ready with the sauce and that's all sliced up, let's look at how you would plate this at Cafe Laura.

Yeah, so we're going to start with the mashed potatoes and we'll take a nice big scoop.

It seems to be everybody's favorite side.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah, mashed potatoes can't go wrong.

SAM SEIDEMAN: No, and we'll just go down with it.

Maybe even add a little bit more.

We'll just give it a nice kind of swoosh.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Oh, nice.

SAM SEIDEMAN: Yeah.

Then our steak.

Yep.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Lovely.

It's a beautiful steak.

SAM SEIDEMAN: It does look nice, yeah.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Yeah.

SAM SEIDEMAN: And then we'll go ahead with our asparagus.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: OK. SAM SEIDEMAN: Our last piece, of course, is our sauce.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Right.

SAM SEIDEMAN: And we'll just spoon it kind of right over.

And then last touch, always a nice garnish with chives.

OK, George, why don't you come on back over and we'll taste this lovely steak.

Great.

All right.

Here you go.

All right.

Just a little bit of that steak here.

All right.

GEORGE RUTH: Some of his sauce.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Sauce, I know, yeah.

That is a beautiful steak.

Great job, guys.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: Thank you so much for coming and cooking with us in the Culinary Connections kitchen.

We've really enjoyed it.

And your steak is absolutely beautiful.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you for having us.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: We now know much more about the operation.

But one question remains-- who is Laura?

DONNA QUADRI-FELITTI: The Mateer Building was created with amazing support from industry and alumni.

The Mateers were instrumental in making sure our program was thriving and invested in.

It was not long after I became president that Marley and I met a very special person, Laura Mateer, a woman who was known to be a great friend of Penn State.

[applause] DONNA QUADRI-FELITTI: Laura Mateer, upon her husband's death, gave the seed money for this program.

So it's only fitting that our restaurant and lab for students and research is named for the woman who had the vision to create the seed money for our home.

TAMRA FATEMI-BADI: There's much more than just fine dishes that are being served here.

Cafe Laura is a place where the hospitality industry's next generation gets their start.

Thousands of careers all began here, learning with Laura.

I'm Tamra Fatemi-Badi.

Thanks for watching Culinary Connections.

ANNOUNCER: Culinary Connections was made possible in part by The Rockwell Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, supporting the arts, science, technology, and education, and a proud supporter of local programs on WPSU.

NARRATOR: More episodes of Culinary Connections and a full menu of local programs are available at video.wpsu.org, or on the PBS app.

And to experience a whole world of international cuisine, check out World Kitchen at WPSU.org/worldkitchen.

[music playing]