Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
People in lab coats balanced white china plates of food and narrowly averted collisions Thursday as they rushed in and out of the small test kitchen at Roanoke Restaurant Services in Salem. The wake of their wind fluttered a yellow barrier ribbon, long since ruptured, and set askew a sign on the door that proclaimed ``kitchen closed.'' Phase One of Hotel Roanoke's food services preparation was in full flurry.
Key kitchen personnel were deciding on the final menu and planning for the training of about 150 food and beverage workers out of an estimated 300 kitchen and restaurant staff who will be hired Feb. 27, 28 and March 1.
Executive chef Wayne Knowles, restaurant manager Steve Zahrt and restaurant consultant Walter Staib moved methodically among the madness inside the kitchen, which was being used because the hotel's kitchen is not finished.
Knowles, whom everyone simply called ``Chef,'' didn't hesitate to delegate the whisking, whipping, sauteing and stirring needed to prepare approximately 85 menu items. As each dish was completed, it was recorded in a computer program and ticked off on a worksheet that also listed the item's ingredients, serving dish, accompaniment and garnish.
``Chef's not only talented, he's extremely organized,'' said Zahrt, who has 16 years of food service experience and recently relocated to Roanoke from Clearman's Northwoods Inn in Southern California.
Knowles, a Roanoke native who has spent the past seven years as executive chef in various Disney resorts, personally handled presentation, adding a sprig of mint or parsley here, a plump berry there, before each dish was whisked off to be photographed and set aside for viewing later in the day by other hotel personnel. The photos will be used in the kitchen staff's training and will ensure that presentation is consistent, Staib said.
``This menu planning is a very costly undertaking in terms of the food and time invested,'' Staib said. ``We looked at lifestyles for this area and found that breakfast is considered a very important meal. That's why you'll find some interesting innovations in that area. We also considered trends, demographics and old traditions. I'd say it would take an act of Congress to make any major changes in menu or presentation at this time.''
Ultimately, Knowles said, the menu will be whittled from approximately 100 items being tested to about 85.
Staib, president of Pennsylvania-based Staib & Associates, with offices in New Hampshire, Copenhagen and Tokyo, supervised President Clinton's VIP election night party at Little Rock's Excelsior Hotel. He recently opened his own restaurant in Philadelphia, The City Tavern, which reconstructs the tastes and spirit of the 1773 tavern where the signing of the Constitution was celebrated.
Staib said that he and Knowles also worked together during the 1970s at a Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.
``My philosophy is that I'm trying to create a menu that is indicative of Roanoke,'' Knowles said. ``The hotel has a following and a reputation, and I want to reflect the old traditions. But I also want to move forward in the nutritional value.''
He said that while real cream and butter would be used in certain dishes, low-fat milk will be offered for general consumption. The menu also will list butter substitutes, nonmeat dishes, light salads and low- or zero-cholesterol foods. He said he won't alter the hotel's famous spoonbread or its creamy, caloric peanut soup, which are part of its history.
``However, I may create others that become traditions, too,'' he said.
One sure-fire nominee is his light, creamy Shenandoah apple and onion soup, which one observer called ``the most elegant soup I've ever had.''
Testing and preparation got under way early. By 10 a.m., some 16 breakfast items, including skillet-baked apple pancake, salmon benedict and smoked-turkey hash served with eggs, had been photographed and set aside to make way for lunch. By 10:30, Knowles was busily deboning ducks, baking bricks of brie with apples and prettying up platters of oysters Rockefeller.
``After this, we'll knock off and go over to Famous Anthony's or McDonald's,'' he quipped with a wink and a grin.
by CNB