Many people have dreamt of becoming a chef, and many people are waiters/waitresses at some point in their life. At The Highwood, you get to experience post-secondary students learning to be cooks or servers in a fine-dining situation. The students of the SAIT Professional Cooking, Hospitality Management, and Baking and Pastry Artist courses take you on a very special experience.
During the week, they serve lunch, including a buffet on Thursday. From Monday to Thursday, a five-course dinner can be enjoyed. And trust me, you will enjoy it.
The servers are students, which means they are in the process of learning. Sometimes that means funny things will happen. That could mean they take a while to clear your bread and butter (the bread is phenomenal, FYI), that they talk really quietly, or maybe that they’re kind of awkward when setting your food down, but really, it just makes the whole thing a more unique and enjoyable experience. Plus, you’re helping them learn. 🙂 In fact, you’ll probably learn things too! It’s not very common these days to have more than one fork, but when feasting on the five-course dinner, you’ll go through five, all arranged in the right formation (after all, the students are led by people who know what they’re doing). During my experience, the head of the hospitality students came around, and it was really cool to gain some insight and discuss what was going on around us.
Now, the food. If you like plain-old meat and potatoes, stay home. Everything here is gourmet. Be prepared to try something new and probably something you don’t know how to pronounce. For each course, you are given options to choose from, but they all share one thing in common: you can’t find anything like it at McDonalds or Swiss Chalet. Yes, it is students who are preparing the meal, but trust me, that’s not noticeable. The food itself is delicious, and the presentation of it is just as exquisite.
So, what did I eat?
To start I had the “Carrot Tasting:” a carrot parfait (essentially a carrot mousse, which I’ll be honest, was too strange for me), pickled carrots, and roasted carrot chip things, plus edible soil (not sure what it was made of). My favourite part was definitely the chips, which were roasted to perfection. And hey, chips that are healthy but taste even better? 
Sounds good to me!
Next came Japanese-Style Minestrone Soup. The presentation of it intrigued me, because they gave me a bowl with vegetables, and then poured in the broth from what looked like a tea pot. I’m actually quite a vegetable fan, so I ate those up with pleasure.
The third course was a salad, which for me was a Tomato Salad: arugula and frisee, goat cheese cream, and balsamic pearls. I didn’t eat the balsamic pearls, but otherwise it was a wonderful salad (especially the goat cheese cream!).
For my main course I had Sous-Vide Cornish Hen, which came with some
vegetables as well as barley risotto. The risotto had Foie Gras mixed in, so like it or not, I ate duck/goose liver! I love poultry and I love risotto, so the dish fit me perfectly.
And the best part of any meal, dessert! The feature of my dessert was Coconut Crème Brûlée, but it also came with a mango salsa with key lime meringue kisses, and some sort of frozen ice cream-like dessert with a chocolate base. Every part of that dessert was like heaven in my mouth. Each element was unique, and each offered a different quality: rich, creamy, fruity, refreshing, cold, yum.
My parents have gone to the Highwood multiple times in the past, and now that I’m of an age where I appreciate such an exquisite dining experience, I sure hope I can go again! I highly suggest you check it out 🙂