It is 8:30 a.m., and Scottsdale Culinary Institute student Sarah Baer is gathering the ingredients for a Citrus Vinaigrette and Wasabi Oil. She is working at L'Ecole, one of the Institute's 2 restaurants in Scottsdale that offers a 6-course French-based menu. Although the restaurant does not open until 11:00 a.m. for lunch, every student hand is busy in the "back of the house," which is restaurant lingo for the kitchen.

Sarah is at the end of her 12-month long training at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. She spent the first part of her training taking courses in baking, catering, nutrition, wines and spirits, and sauce preparation. But her hands-on training comes at L'Ecole and its sister restaurant, L'Academie. She spends 4 weeks at each restaurant, which includes 2 weeks in the "front of the house," setting impeccable tables and offering top-notch service, and 2 weeks in the kitchen, preparing different menu items. In between the 4-week stints at the restaurants, Sarah and her class work on a restaurant "case study," developing plans for a new restaurant from the ground up.

Today, Sarah is in charge of the Amuse-Gueule, or "cocktail snack." The Amuse is the first course in the six-course meal that includes soup, a salad, an entrée and the most delectable-looking desserts you've ever seen. She was informed of her task just the day before - to create scallops encrusted with black sesame seeds in Wasabi sauce and a citrus Vinaigrette. No recipes supplied. From her coursework, she knows how to make any vinaigrette and most any type of sauce.

The Wasabi oil consists simply of Wasabi, peanut oil and sesame oil. She quickly mixes the items and puts them into a low-tech "squirt bottle" for later, and then it's on to the Vinaigrette.

Sarah is working in the front preparation area, but most of the students are at the stove on sauces or chicken. It takes a coordinated effort not to bump into fellow students, and it's clear that they have been taught safety protocol well. Knives are carried at the students' side, and when they walk, they repeat "knife," to let the other students know to stay clear. When moving a hot skillet, they repeat "hot pan." Watching people walk around the kitchen repeating these words seems a bit comical, but safety comes first in a crowded kitchen full of potential dangers.

It is 9 a.m. and Sarah gathers the ingredients she needs to create the citrus vinaigrette. She juices one orange and two limes, and adds a couple of tablespoons of minced ginger, 2 pinches of salt, and a pinch of sugar. She doesn't have a recipe, but as most of the other students do, she keeps a set of plastic spoons on hand to taste and smell the mixture as she adds ingredients.

Chef Dan Mules, the Chef de Cuisine for the restaurant, moves through the kitchen offering advice and answering questions from the students. Executive chef Paul Hutchins is also available for advice and questions. Teacher and student are easily identifiable. The chefs wear the tall white hats, while the students wear the short tight fitting hats. Besides looking cool, they serve to keep hair out of the cuisine. Everyone wears the white uniforms, which seem to vary in cleanliness as the morning goes on.

At 9:30, Sarah puts the vinaigrette mixture into the industrial equivalent of a food processor. The cover has a hole, which she uses to drizzle in about a cup of olive oil while the processor is running. She pours in the olive oil slowly over a period of about 5 minutes, giving the mixture time to emulsify (a fancy cooking-science word for combining ingredients that normally do not mix well). After that, it's time for a taste.

Sarah looks at the vinaigrette and decides that it is too thin. "How do I thicken up a vinaigrette?" she asks Chef Mules. "Well, you can use an egg, or reduce citrus juice (by cooking the juice in a sauce pan to remove the water)," he replies, and takes a taste of the vinaigrette. "I don't think it's too thick," he says. "But it tastes too oily." He suggests an orange juice reduction to add more of a citrus taste to the mixture.

Sarah heads over to the stove at 10:00 to reduce the orange juice and also to cook the scallops. Meanwhile at the other end of the kitchen, severe lobster mayhem is going on. It is not a pretty sight, but Chef Mules says that their method is probably not any more cruel than dropping a live lobster in boiling water, or some other methods that cooks use. The students grab the lobster and begin to tear it apart, cutting off the tentacles and pulling off claws. Another student walking by quips, "..nothing like killing a lobster with your bare hands.."

Sarah cuts off the small muscle that is sometimes left attached on a scallop, then she salts the scallops with course Kosher Salt and rolls them in a mixture of black sesame seeds that have been grinded in a spice grinder. She puts them in a pan of hot oil and cooks them for about a minute on each side. She cuts one open to gauge whether it is cooked well enough. Then she cooks the rest of the scallops.

Reservations are required at L'Ecole, and everyone is served the same first-course, so Sarah knows how many Scallops to cook. "We need to start plating up," she tells another student next to her. The kitchen activity is starting to pick up, as all of the students must produce a sample plate for the chef to look over before the restaurant opens. Over in the corner, dishes are constantly being washed. The students clear their utensils and bowls quickly, so even with the intense activity, the kitchen is cleaner than most home kitchens.

At 10:45, Sarah carries the scallops and the reduction to her workstation at the front of the kitchen. She adds the reduction to the vinaigrette and announces success. The vinaigrette is put in another squirt bottle, and she squirts about a teaspoon of each sauce on the plate. Then she cuts the scallop in half and puts one half on the plate along with some slivers of scallion. With the orange and green sauce in exquisite lines around the bite of scallop, the simple plate looks very elegant.

Before the restaurant opens, Sarah must show her creation to the front-of-the-house wait staff. She brings the plate out to the white-shirt-and-tie wait staff to explain what the first course consists of. "This is a sesame seed encrusted scallop with a Citrus Vinaigrette and Wasabi oil," she says, and immediately hears the response, "where's the other half?" The wait staff is required to know the details of the items they are serving, unlike many restaurants where waiters plop down the food without explaining the ingredients. Perfection is the goal here, and students know they are being graded for every element of their service.

In the kitchen, the students have finished their sample plates and they are lined up along the preparation table. The chef walks down the line and is mostly please with what he sees. Success! Before the lunch crowd begins, the students get the pleasure of eating the food they just created - a prime perk of the job. Plus, there will not be time to eat once diners start to arrive. Sarah will help the other students with the entrée preparation until 2:00, when school is out for the day. And tomorrow, she'll move on to another part of the kitchen to get experience in all aspects of the meal preparation.

Sarah has just a few more weeks of training, and then she heads to New York City to intern at Aureole, one of the best upscale restaurants in the city. Is she done with education? "I'll always be learning," she says. "I'm looking forward to working under the chef at Aureole." But for now, it's back to making a pan sauce and plating up chicken.

INFO> Scottsdale Culinary Institute: www.scichefs.com

About the Scottsdale Culinary School Restaurants

L'Academie
Classically inspired, but infused with modern influences, the menu at L'Academie offers both subtle and robust flavors of cultural favorites from around the world. Start with the one-of-a-kind Freshly Cured Pastrami Salmon, presented on top of Yukon Gold Potatoes with Crème Fraîche, Cucumber Salpicon and American Caviar or the light and savory Jerusalem Artichoke Soup finished with Mascarpone and Meyer lemon drizzle. For an entrée, dive into the spicy yet velvety Braised Beef Short Ribs in a Guava and Chili Sauce with Root Vegetable Gratin or the Pistachio Crusted Salmon with Lemongrass Risotto and citrus Champagne Beurre Blanc.

To finish, try the e legant desserts and pastries crafted by student chefs in the school bake shops. The menu is complemented by an eclectic selection of beer and wines from Coastal California, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy and France .

The open exhibition kitchen allows guests to appreciate the activity and creativity of the culinary school restaurant kitchen. And with its central Old Town Scottsdale location, there are plenty of places to walk-off the dessert.

INFO> Reservations and information: 480-425-3111; 4301 N. Scottsdale Road

L'Ecole
L'Ecole features a prix fixe multi-course menu created by master chefs highlighting the classic cuisine of France . These classics have been interpreted into modern day masterpieces that have earned the restaurant a Mobil 3-Star rating, the highest award granted for student-operated restaurants. Some house specialties include Beef Carpaccio, Maine Lobster, Chicken Liver Pate and Rack of Lamb Persillade.

The restaurant is open for Lunch and Dinner. Lunch prices are approximately $15, and dinner prices are approximately $30.

INFO> Reservations and information: 480-425-3111 ; 8100 E. Camelback Road