Behind the scenes at Ariccia

Contributed Auburn Villager Ariccia executive chef John Hamme

John Hamme, executive chef at Ariccia in The Hotel at Auburn University, suggests that anyone who thinks they might like to be a kitchen pro should spend some time with him.

Hamme recently met with two reporters to share the secrets of baking a perfect soufflé. He assisted pastry chef Kiran Jetti, the restaurant's intern from India—who was sweating over the gas stove.

"Being a chef is not as glamorous as they make it seem on TV," Hamme said. "It's a lot more physical than people realize. When I used to make veal stock as an intern, we had to lug around 50-pound bones."

The job does have its glamourous aspects, however, at least for an establishment like Ariccia. In 2003, The Hotel at Auburn University was the beta site for a brand-new luxury hotel management chain called West Paces Hotel Group, whose chair and CEO is legendary hotelier Horst Schulze.

Schulze made his reputation during nearly 20 years with Ritz-Carlton hotels. Now, West Paces is carving a niche in the management of luxury hotels, with properties from Telluride in Colorado to Bali in Indonesia.

And Hamme admits he gets to spend a lot of time visiting those other properties, helping get their foodservice off the ground.

Today, however, the subject is soufflés. As Hamme explains the intricacies of the fluffy delicacy, he also shares a little bit about the restaurant.

"We do anywhere from 70 to 80 covers on an average weeknight, and 350-plus covers on football weekends," he says.

All those dinners come out of a compact kitchen with two gas stoves, something called a French cook top, a bain marie for keeping sauces warm, a deep fryer and a four-deck oven. Typically, there are just four people working in the kitchen, with five on the busiest nights.

They are posted at four stations, one for cold salads, one for desserts, one for pizza and hot appetizers, one for pasta and sautéed items and one for grilled meats and fish.

"We try to rate the menu so we know the popular items," Hamme says. "That way each station will be equally busy when we get the rush."

The two main stations are staffed by the chefs de partie—the senior chefs who can work any station comfortably. The staff also includes the pastry chef and a sous chef—a fancy way to say "assistant."

Because of West Paces' international scope, the various chefs often come from around the world. Jetti was working at a property managed by West Paces on Daufuskie Island, S.C., when that property closed.

Hamme himself has a somewhat more prosaic background. He started working at a restaurant at the age of 15, then was enlisted to cook when someone quit.

Hooked, he went on to culinary school and served an internship at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, and then worked for Ritz-Carlton properties in New York City, Miami, Washington, D.C., Naples and Philadelphia.

West Paces recruited him from Philadelphia.

Hamme and Jetti have laid out the fixings for four different kinds of soufflés, the notoriously difficult, fluffy concoction made from egg yolks and beaten egg whites.

One was savory, flavored with bleu cheese. Another was made with

passion fruit puree and could be frozen and served later, while a third was made with coconut.

The last was a classic French—and more difficult—soufflé flavored with chocolate and Grand Marnier.

"I stay out of the pastry chef's way," Hamme says. "You have to go by the recipe, and I always put in a pinch of this or that."

The soufflés are not currently featured on the Ariccia menu, Hamme notes, because they need to be served immediately. They start to fall as soon as they come out of the oven.

"We're built so that people can stop in quickly and get a bite to eat," he says. "But we could easily do the one you put in the freezer."