food & drink
Classroom cafe WRITTEN BY CASSANDRA MICKENS PHOTOS BY JON GOERING
I
t’s the calm before the storm at bistro proVare on this particular Wednesday as award winning chef Jason Bierley conducts the final taste test of the lunch menu, giving nods of approval to students honing their culinary chops. They smile at the go-ahead. The bistro, a “classroom cafe” tucked inside the Health Sciences Building at Jefferson State Community College’s Hoover-Shelby Campus, is where culinary students apply the skills they have learned 48
• Hoover’s Magazine | April 2014
in the classroom to the kitchen, much to the delight of faculty, students and other diners who are in the know about the bistro’s gourmet dishes and desserts. “Today, we’re expecting the Red Hat Ladies for lunch,” said Bierley, who has served as the bistro’s chef and lab instructor since its inception. “The crowd is a great cross-section of ladies-who-lunch, students, new faces and our regulars. It’s all over the place.” The bistro is fully operated by students