Del MarDel Mar’s Culinary program doesn’t just involve knife skills and how to deglaze a pan. There’s also a lot of paperwork.

The program teaches students how to manage a commercial kitchen, with a focus on food production and quantity cooking, where students practice large-scale cooking to serve 100 guests. The program hosts a weekly lunch every 

Thursday led by a new student manager each week. Del Mar College is the only college in South Texas that prepares students to run their own restaurant.

The student-led, student-curated lunch serves a complete meal for $12. For this price diners get a soup, salad, entree and several sides. 

Each week Chef Israel Villanueva assigns the student manager, who then chooses their own menu. On Oct. 2, Nathaniel Benavides was the student manager, serving up a Cajun feast. 

Benavides has a love for Cajun food and gumbo. He’s visited Louisiana and tried foods like beignets and gumbo, which were among the items featured on his curated menu this week. Benavides not only had to come up with the menu for the week but also had to complete a 35-page packet of paperwork detailing his menu. 

“I loved finding new dishes and new ways to make some of this because I’ve never made some of these dishes before,” said Benavides. When asked what the most challenging part was he said, “Definitely requisitioning all the ingredients, making sure everything was properly measured. It took me two weeks total.” 

Tyler Tichacek is a student currently in the bachelors program. He took this class a few years ago and agreed the most difficult part was the 35-page packet.

“A whole packet of 35 pages has to get done before this happens. It consists of a menu, requisitions for all your items and every little particular thing all the way down to a spice or a certain amount of oil that needs to be measured out precisely. So Nathaniel had to do all that for his lunch, ” said Tichacek.

“In South Texas this is the only place they’re able to come to and actually run a restaurant. That means doing the menu, recipes and ordering the food. So we build them up from the very beginning on how to cook and then we start talking to them about menu planning and cost so when they graduate from here they’ve already run a restaurant.” Villanueva explained. 

Guests are so impressed with the menu, food and service that the culinary program has earned themselves regulars that attend the lunch each week. 

Theresa and Dale Flanagan are just a couple of the many returning guests. Their daughter was also in a culinary program but in Austin. 

“We love the Cajun [food], but we would’ve come anyway. We love the people and it’s really wonderful and it comes out in their food and in the atmosphere,” said Theresa Flanagan. “The presentation is beautiful and it has high standards. I was a bit afraid today because I can’t eat Cajun very much because it’s so spicy, but I had no problem.”

The lunch is held every Thursday starting at 11:30 a.m. at Oso Creek Campus and lasts for an hour or until food is sold out.

There are comment cards at each table for guests to leave feedback for students on the food, service and overall experience. For more information, call 361-698-1856.