Photo by Deb Gau SMSU student Iasiah Cernohous sorted out blackberries, blueberries and raspberries to use for desserts at Taste, SMSU’s student-operated restaurant. This year, the student restaurant opened with an expanded season, starting in early November

MARSHALL — Dinner service was only a couple of hours away, and the level of activity in the kitchens at Southwest Minnesota State University’s student-run restaurant was picking up. Iasiah Cernohous was piping lines of cheesecake filling onto thin rectangles of dough as she prepared one of the evening’s desserts.

“We call it a cigar or a stogie,” Cernohous explained. The dough and filling would be shaped into cigar-sized pastry rolls with a blueberry cheesecake center.

Making desserts was just one of the tasks ahead for the staff of SMSU’s student-run restaurant that afternoon. The new restaurant, Taste @ Southwest Minnesota State University, wrapped up its first month of operation on Thursday.

“The support we have received from the community has been great,” said Ronnie Walker, chef instructor for the Culinology and Hospitality Management programs at SMSU.

Running the restaurant is a fast-paced job that can be stressful. But students said it also has a lot to offer.

“The practical experience you get from it is worth anything,” said student Noah Louwagie.

“It gives us freedom, and we’re allowed to experiment,” Cernohous said. “It’s been fun, because we get to do what we want to do.”

While SMSU has featured a student-run restaurant for the past several years, it was usually only open during the spring semester. This year, the restaurant opened with an expanded season starting Nov. 4, Walker said.

Workers at Taste include students from the culinology and hospitality management programs, but Walker said students from other academic areas are involved too.

“During this semester, it’s whoever wants to help, and whoever wants to learn,” Louwagie said.

“I think it’s awesome,” said student Megan Line. Line said she’s gained insight into the restaurant industry in addition to studying food science at SMSU.

Students work with Walker to plan and prepare four-course meals including starters, salads, entrees and desserts. Walker said some of the menu choices at Taste could change from week to week.

“I call it free-range,” he said. However, Walker said he hoped Taste would offer a unique experience for the area. “I want Marshall to taste different things.”

“I try to use local ingredients,” Walker said. Taste has worked together with the university, area businesses and community groups to source some of those ingredients. Some of the restaurant’s partners have included area livestock producers, beekeepers on the SMSU campus, and even tru Shrimp in Balaton. Taste has also been able to use herbs grown in the SMSU greenhouse, and squash and edamame grown at the university’s agronomy research farm site near Marshall, Walker said.

“The most fun thing is, this is so scratch of a kitchen,” Louwagie said. “Everything is made in-house.”

“The desserts change every single week,” Cernohous said. For Thursday’s menu, students were preparing blueberry cheesecake served two ways. “I came up with blueberry cheesecake ice cream. “Both the ice cream and the cheesecake stogies were made in-house by students.

At the same table where Line and Cernohous were shaping the stogies, Eudora Bixby was carefully slicing decorative patterns on the tops of bread loaves before baking them. Bixby said she normally made a pattern of ears of wheat, but for Thursday she was trying a Christmas tree shape.

“It’s definitely a new experience,” Bixby said of baking bread for Taste. “It’s cool that we can have this year-round.”

Of course, there’s more to running a restaurant than preparing food. Students working in the front of the house serving customers said they’re also getting good experience.

As a hospitality major, “It’s great to be able to get more insight on the industry,” said Jill Remmele.

“It’s real. It’s just us back here with Ronnie,” said SMSU student Cordell Plass.

Louwagie said another fun part of the Taste experience is getting to meet and talk with restaurant guests.

“I really try to get students to come out and engage with guests,” Walker said.

Walker said so far, the restaurant has received some good feedback from guests.

“I think the students enjoyed it,” Walker said. Taste @ SMSU will open again starting in late January. Walker said he’s already started to receive reservations.

“The word’s getting out there,” he said.

Taste @ SMSU will be open from 5-9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays during the SMSU academic year. Reservations can be made online at www.smsu.edu/go/taste. The dining room is located in the Individualized Learning (IL) building, room 116.