Past the pop machines and institutional buffet is a quiet, blue-carpet, white-tablecloth restaurant with a classically good menu, and servers working for more than just tips--they want an A.
Azure 18 is a student-run restaurant on the 18th floor of Downtown's Clark Building--an oasis of haute cuisine in the far corner of the cafeteria. The restaurant is the final on-campus course for students at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts, which was until recently known as the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute.
Azure 18 can seat about 50, and serves a three-course prix fixe lunch menu for just $12 plus tax (any gratuities go toward a scholarship fund). The menu will change seasonally. Current highlights include a butternut squash risotto with crispy sage; roasted beets with chevre and spiced walnuts; scallops with arroz verde, guacamole and red pepper relish; timeless pan-roasted chicken; and for dessert, homemade white chocolate pistachio ice cream with orange olive oil cake. Service also includes a daily amuse-bouche, a palate-cleansing lemon sorbetto and a homemade truffle with the check.
Azure 18 opened by invitation-only in December, and to the public on Jan. 11. As students at Le Cordon Bleu take classes in eight six-week modules, the restaurant's staff rotates quite often--every 14 days to be exact--but the leadership remains the same: Mark Martin, the general manager with more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry; Bill Hunt, the dean of culinary arts; and Shawn Culp, executive chef, who has been accepted to audition for the American Culinary Olympic team in Chicago this March.
Azure 18 is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Service takes about an hour, maybe longer (not quite that grab 'n' go Franktuary Locavore), and while the goal is certainly to make sure customers enjoy their experience, Chef Hunt emphasizes that Azure 18 is a different type of restaurant than most diners are used to.
"The first objective is to train the students," he says. "At other places the customer is always right, but here, everything is for the students' benefit."
Le Cordon Bleu has seen a recent spike in enrollment (21% since October 31, 2009), that Mark Martin and Chef Hunt attribute to both Hollywood entertainment (the Food Network and Julie & Julia, for starters) and to the appeal of a stable career in the culinary arts (people will always go out to eat, says Martin, who has not been unemployed a day in his life).
Some notable graduates from the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, now Le Cordon Bleu, include local chefs Douglass Dick (Bona Terra), Matt Porco (Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar in Aspinwall), Donato Coluccio (Capital Grille), Adam Gooch (Bella Sera) and Gloria Fortunato (Wild Rosemary Bistro in Upper St. Clair).
For Azure 18 reservations, call 412.325.3588
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Writer: Caralyn Green
Sources: Mark Martin, general manager, and Bill Hunt, dean of culinary arts, Le Cordon Bleu, Pittsburgh
Photograph copyright Caralyn Green