After living in New Mexico for six years, Chef R. Allen Smith decided that he missed New York and teaching at ICE, where he had previously worked for 13 years. So he packed his bags and in October 2004, returned to spending his evenings teaching bright-eyed students all the tricks of his trade. By day, Smith runs the executive dining room of J&W Seligman, which he also did before his western escapade. Smith's specialty is classic French cuisine, and what he says "used to be called spa cookery." After growing up in Louisiana and Texas and attending restaurant management school in Dallas, Smith studied at La Varenne in Paris, where he met Peter Kump in the late 1970s. Kump had brought a group of people from the United States to France, and while the group was at La Varenne, Smith was Kump's assistant. Their collaboration continued during Kump's annual trip to Paris, and when Smith moved to New York in 1985, Kump offered him a job.

At J&W Seligman, Smith has the privilege of working for one of the very few private corporate dining rooms in New York, which means that he can select his menu, ingredients and techniques in complete freedom. He cooks for an average of 15 people a day, completely renewing his menu each time using the best ingredients he can get at the market every day. His staff consists of a sous-chef, a kitchen assistant, and a trainee from ICE.

Smith particularly enjoys that each class he teaches offers a renewed experience and a different challenge. His favorite words of advice to students are that "they keep an open mind to everything that they taste, and that they remember they are in the hospitality industry."

2005