LINCOLN — There’s the aroma, gentle, persistent. Spices from gumbo pasta or a lightly charred sausage nestled in caramelized red, yellow and green pepper strips.
Next, the colors — lots of green always, but on this April day, splashes of orange. A buffalo glaze on roasted cauliflower that cools on baking sheets. Sweet potatoes, cut into wedges, resting in water. A marinade on freshly served beef tenderloin chunks.
The restaurant staff — 80 in total, around 30 in the kitchen — moves busily as lunch service nears its end and dinner prep begins. In a state-of-the-art kitchen with smart ovens, cookbooks still abound, including one for dessert that sits on a small wooden stand, opened to page 120 for crispy Chocolate Oat Cookies.
One of the chef asks executive chef John Palacio which chocolate product she should use.
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“The good chocolate chips,” says Palacio, who graduated from Omaha Benson more than four decades ago. “Well — I guess the little ones might be better for that, aren’t they?”…