So next Wednesday January the 12th the students meet for the first class to begin planning the new menu. I have a lot of very talented students in this group, and the first task is to pick a "theme" for the restaurant or what type of restaurant we will be. I usually start by breaking down the styles of cuisine, beginning with Haute Cuisine and progressing all the way to Chef Driven. Along the way, we talk about the many iterations of cuisine that have evolved throughout the history of gastronomy, and we have already explored the specific cuisines of countries and regions. This seems to be the most difficult part, and we have lively discussions until something just clicks and makes sense with the current state of food or fits very well. After, we begin building the basic menu by breaking it into categories beginning with entrees and progress into the other courses following these guiding principles: Clientele, Cost, Cross-utilization, Availability, Seasonality, Variety, and Familiarity. We also account fro skill, equipment, and difficulty of execution along the way. I will keep up to date, and we will visit this site on the first day of class. Keep up the good work!