A splendid dinner was served this week to showcase the chops of 18 student chefs, at one of the more exciting Dallas pop-ups of the fall.

There were short ribs with root vegetables, yellowtail hamachi, handmade ravioli, and crusty sourdough bread.

Called the WRLP Capstone Dinner, it took place on October 28 at the Dallas College Culinary Pastry and Hospitality Center at Webb Chapel, and served as a fundraiser as well as a display of skills.

The students are enrolled in the Women in Restaurants Leadership Program, launched in 2023 to promote women in leadership roles in the restaurant industry. The landmark program is a partnership beween Restaurant Beatrice and Dallas College, well known for its culinary curriculum; it runs for eight weeks and is tuition-free.

The dinner was sold out with an attendance exceeding 70 people, including foodies as well as friends and family of the students; one flew in from Arizona just to attend.

Short rib Bordelaise with root vegetables at the Capstone dinner.Gubbins

Courses included a French onion soup chock-full of onion, soft but still with some body, in an intensely flavored deep brown broth; yellowtail crudo, with slices of soft raw tuna interspaced between segments of neatly-trimmed fresh red grapefruit, served over ice in a pretty cut-glass goblet; and Andouille sausage ravioli, with the pasta squares cooked to a perfect degree of doneness, tender but still with a little chew.

The entree was a short rib Bordelaise, accompanied by an assortment of root vegetables — carrot, beets, turnips, potatoes — some cut into clever shapes that gave them visual appeal as well as a nice browned crust.

Dessert was a pistachio Dacquoise, with chai buttercream layered between pistachio-flavored meringue crisps. They also offered vegan alternatives: braised jackfruit with BBQ sauce, ravioli filled with butternut squash, and a decadent vegan dessert with vanilla cake and hazelnut-studded chocolate mousse.

Beatrice chef Michelle Carpenter supervised, but the ideas and the execution came from the students: from the fresh mango-champagne cocktail served during the reception to the baskets holding slices of crusty sourdough bread to the cool woven wicker place settings on the table.

This was the second class, and like the first, it achieved a full enrollment of 18 accomplished women and culinary students, with a waiting list of students wanting to get in.

Butternut squash ravioli at Capstone DinnerGubbins

In remarks during the dinner, Steve DeShazo, senior director of the Office of Workforce Initiatives for Dallas College, said that one of the major benefits of the program was the fact that it provided the opportunity for leadership training and mentorship.

"It's the connection to the industry — that this is for the industry and by the industry — that makes this so powerful," he said.

In addition to the hands-on involvement of Michelle Carpenter and Restaurant Beatrice co-owner Hanh Ho, other Dallas restaurants participating include the Duro Hospitality Group (Mr. Charles, El Carlos Elegante, Sister), Rye, Crown Block, and Roots Southern Table.

"Students stage at these restaurants, and some end up getting job offers," DeShazo said.

Carpenter, an award-winning chef who opened Zen Sushi in Oak Cliff in 2007, followed by Restaurant Beatrice, her upscale Cajun place, in 2022, recalled her own trailblazing career, starting out in the '90s as a chef at sushi restaurant Yamaguchi, when women chefs were a distinct minority.

"I didn't know any other women chefs — I watched and developed my own techniques, but mentorship can be so helpful," she said. "In this class, women are not the minority, they are the majority. It's about normalizing women's excellence and authority."

Taqoya Williamson, Chef Michelle Carpenter, and Riauna ClarkeWRLP