The Savannah Culinary Institute is designed to showcase those aspiring culinarians’ skills to the broader public. For the first time, students will prepare food for paying customers in a 74-seat restaurant, a six-seat bakery and a grab-and-go lunch counter. Lunch service launches April 14, and dinner seatings begin later that week.

Credit: Sarah Peacock

Credit: Sarah Peacock

The retail offerings position the institute to rival the nation’s best chef schools, Savannah Tech leaders said. Elite culinary training hubs such as the Culinary Institute of America, Johnson & Wales and the Auguste Escoffier School all boast on-campus eateries. So does Auburn University, which in 2022 opened the Rane Culinary Science Center, a chef school housed alongside a boutique hotel used as training grounds for hospitality management students.

A meal eaten at a Culinary Institute of America restaurant a decade ago sparked the creation of the new Savannah facility. Well-sated philanthropists Dick and July Eckburg, returned home, told school leaders of the experience and donated $1 million to seed the project.

“With the Savannah Culinary Institute, we can offer a level of education like few others,” said Chef Gearry Caudell, department head of the culinary program.

The restaurant, known simply as the Savannah Culinary Institute and situated in the 19th-century building’s lower level, rotates menus every two weeks to correlate with course curriculum. The prix fixe dinners will feature four options for starters, entrées and desserts, including items from the kitchen’s hand-built wood-fired ovens. Seatings for lunch ($25-$30) and dinner ($40-$50) are by reservation only.

The bakery and lunch counter, located in a street level storefront, will offer croissants, danishes, artisan breads, pastries and cakes along with salads, hot and cold sandwiches and soups, with prices ranging from $5 to $20.

“I hate to use the too-often-used terminology, but this is a game-changer,” said Michael Owens, who heads the Georgia-based hospitality industry trade group the Tourism Leadership Council. ”Our industry values training and education, but to an equal or even greater measure we value experience. This is something the greatest culinary schools in the world do, and now we have it in Savannah.”

Credit: Sarah Peacock

Credit: Sarah Peacock

Perfect timing

The culinary school has been Savannah Tech’s star program for much of its 40-year existence. The school achieved national acclaim under the leadership of Chef Jean Yves Vendeville, who was named the nation’s top chef educator by the American Culinary Federation in 2014.

Yet the school’s facilities never matched its reputation. Housed on the main campus next to Hunter Army Airfield some 4 miles south of downtown Savannah, the training kitchen contained a mishmash of stoves, ovens and prep tables. The setup was only sufficient for creating test plates of food and performing small catering jobs, such as board meeting dinners and occasional café days for students.

To get practical experience, students had to go off-campus to work at local restaurants. Savannah Tech students have contributed significantly to the emergence of the city’s culinary scene, and new graduates often launch their careers in the kitchens of high-end hotels and popular restaurants downtown.

Natasha Gaskill attended Savannah Tech in the late-2000s and went on to become the pastry chef at The Grey, the impossible-to-get-a-reservation eatery run by James Beard Award-winning Chef Mashama Bailey. Last year Gaskill started her own bakery and café, Sixby, in Savannah’s Starland district. She said the demand for trained culinary pros locally and regionally makes Savannah Tech a “sleeping giant” ready to awaken with the opening of the Savannah Culinary Institute.

“Chef Jean was my mentor and Chef Gearry is just about the best at what he does in my experience,” she said. “This could incentivize more people to come and be a part of what is a great program in a city where we need culinary pros, especially on the pastry side.”

Credit: Sarah Peacock

Credit: Sarah Peacock

‘Super Bowl’ location and facility

The Savannah Culinary Institute’s brick-and-glass facade doubles as a billboard — or “Super Bowl commercial,” as one Savannah Tech official puts it — for the culinary arts program.

The address at 7 West Bay St., along downtown’s main east-west thoroughfare, puts the institute’s storefront on a sidewalk used by several million pedestrians annually, including many tourists. In addition to the lunch counter and restaurant, the building’s design features public meeting rooms and a third-floor demonstration kitchen that can be rented by local chefs, hoteliers and tour operators to conduct classes.

Chef Caudell is particularly excited about the restaurant. Second-year students will be divided into two classes, with one responsible for a Tuesday night service and the other one on Thursday night.

The culinarians will team with students from Savannah Tech’s hospitality program, who will handle front-of-the-house duties ― seating and serving guests, cleaning and setting tables.

Credit: Sarah Peacock

Credit: Sarah Peacock

“This is real-life, hands-on training ― not just learning dishes but how to work as a team, how to work with equipment,” Caudell said. “We will prep students to where they can come out of our program and go right into the higher-end restaurants in Savannah.”

Longtime Savannah restaurateur Ansley Williams predicts reservations for the institute’s eatery will be highly coveted and the reviews will bolster Savannah Tech’s brand.

“Their culinary arts reputation is as strong as anybody’s,” Williams said. “The restaurants nearby are going to have to raise their game to meet the standard.”

If you go

Savannah Culinary Institute. Bakery and lunch counter, 9-11 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday (plus Friday in summer). Restaurant, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursdays. Reservations required. 7 West Bay St., Savannah. savannahtech.edu

America’s top culinary schools

Ranking orders vary, but here are schools with culinary arts programs that typically appear on culinary trade publications’ “best of” lists.

Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y., and Napa Valley, Calif.

Johnson & Wales, Providence, R.I., and Charlotte, N.C.

International Culinary Center, New York City and Los Angeles

Institute of Culinary Education, New York City and Los Angeles

Sullivan University National Center for Hospitality Studies, Louisville, Ky.

New England Culinary Institute, Boston

Kendall College of Culinary Art, Chicago

Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, Boulder, Colorado, and Austin, Texas

Metropolitan Community College Omaha, Nebraska*

Culinary Institute LeNotre, Houston

Savannah Technical College*

* Public colleges