Metro Detroit: Livonia’s Schoolcraft College Culinary Arts American Harvest Restaurant
Many of you may know that I have my degree in Culinary Arts, and for those of you who didn’t, you do now. Before getting into real estate, I spent nearly 20 years in the food service industry. My love and passion for food is what has led to us creating our food blog . . . and it has also carried over to our children, who are all wonderful cooks. Our youngest, Dylan, also followed in my footsteps getting his culinary degree. We both received our degree from the same place, just 30 years apart, which is this week’s fun food Friday adventure: Schoolcraft College, more specifically their American Harvest Restaurant.
Located in the Vista Tech Center, The American Harvest Restaurant may be the schools best kept secret. Unless you are “in the know”, you have probably never heard of it. Yet it has been around for as far back as I can remember. It was there in 1985, when I attended. It is not just a restaurant, but a class that is part of the culinary program and all student must take. Every culinary student needs to learn how the “front of the house” works, in order to be a better chef. The downfall is that the restaurant is not open all the time, only when class is in session. Don’t mistake the cafeteria as the restaurant. The cafeteria and culinary program are 2 separate entities. Culinary Arts does not prepare the food for the cafeteria.
Following the winter term of 2022, the Vista Tech Center closed their doors for a multi-million dollar renovation. They expanded the restaurant, added an instructional theatre with it’s own new kitchen, relocated and expanded their Main Street Café, and reconfigured their Brewpub.
Main Street Café.
This is a café outside of the main restaurant that offers products made by the culinary arts department in a “grab-n-go” fashion. They offer salads, sandwiches, pastries, beverages (including beer) and also Starbuck Coffee. This is a great place to stop in and grab a lunch to go, that will be far better and quicker than waiting in the drive-thru at one of the many places down the street for pretty much the same cost.
The Brewpub
It used to be open 1 day a week, for 2-3 hours, but will now be open Wed-Sun from 11 AM to 9 PM. They will also be serving food, made in their own newly added kitchen. The brewpub sells all the beers made as part of Schoolcraft’s Brewing and Distillation Technology program. They typically offer 6-10 beers with names like College P.A., Haggerty IPA, and 275 Kolsch.
American Harvest
The restaurant program is instructed by CMC (Certified Master Chef) Brian Beland who is one of the 3 Master Chefs that still instruct the program. (At one time they had 5 master chefs instructing.) The restaurant is a great place for a casual yet elegant dining experience. They are open for lunch, with their daily a la carte menu, on Wednesdays, Thursday and Fridays, with seatings at 11:45 and 12:00.
But to us, the magic happens in the evening, with their International Dinner Buffets. These are served on Wednesday and Thursday evenings with 5:30, 5:45 and 6:00 seatings. It is $35 per person for adults and $16 for those 12 and under. Reservations are a must for these dinners and they sell out quickly. You can make reservations at opentable.com/americanharvest
The international dinners are phenomenal! They are theme based, and change every week on a 5 week rotation. The themes are European, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Asian and Global. All offer a number of hot entrees, soups and salads that are themed around the cuisine of that region. They also offer desserts that are made by the pasty class that is instructed by Joseph Decker who is a Certified Master Pastry Chef.
Here is the schedule for the remainder of the year:
So far, this year, we have been able to get to the Asian and Global dinners. The dinners are absolutely fantastic and the selections are those you would expect at any 5 star restaurant. Not only is the food delicious, but the presentation is stunning. There is a lot of pride in the food preparation. We won’t go into every dish we had, but will share some of the highlights and let the pictures tell the story.
For Asian night they had Chicken Pad Thai, Filipino Chicken Adobo, Miso Roasted Salmon, Teriyaki Steak, Tonkatsu Pork and Kung Pao Chicken. All were delicious, the Miso Salmon was my favorite with the Kung Pao chicken running a close 2nd…and it definitely had a little “pow” to it!
The Global night featured Boeuf Bourguignon, French. Swordfish al Salmoriglio, Sicilian. Seared Salmon with lentils and roasted vegetables. Roasted Chicken with Tuscan Dressing and Ratatouille. Bamai, an Egyptian lamb stew. Jamaican Jerk Chicken with red beans and rice and Vatapa which is a Brazilian Shrimp and Monkfish Stew.
Hope you saved room for dessert . . . We, of course had some amazing coffee with ours!
The food is always the freshest of fresh. The program coordinator, and CEC (Certified Executive Chef) Chris Misiak, who was in my culinary class in the 80’s, is in charge of all the ordering. All the food is the best of the best when it comes to quality. Seafood is ordered in fresh just days out of the water before it hits the table. There are no costs cut here!
The Maître d` Margaret Fleming, is in charge of front of the house instruction and does a really good job running the dining room. She took our son Dylan under her wing, when he attended the culinary program. She is a wonderful person!
Reservations are a must, as seating is very limited to avoid overwhelming the students. Keep in mind that these are students. Many of them are not used to (or comfortable with) the front of the house. Service is usually really good, but sometimes you can see the nervousness in the server. Go for the food, that is what it is all about.
Until next week . . . live well, eat well and enjoy life!
-Keith & Teresa Becker