For the first time since  last March, the dining room at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown is again open to the public.

For several months, students had to learn remotely, from home.

"It's hard to learn cooking online and through words, you have to really experience it to learn properly," said Randy Mock, a second-year student who is from Ontario. 

For the past few weeks they've been back in the kitchen, with precautions including masks and physical distancing, protocols for handwashing, traffic flow and more.

When students returned to the culinary classroom, they were able to finish courses that were interrupted in March. They officially began learning second-year material just this week, he said. 

Mock is excited to be preparing food for paying guests again and hearing their honest feedback.

"It's not the same when we don't open to the public," he said. "It's not the same as getting that service rush, or the heat of the moment from service." 

'Something we've all missed'

Staff say this is one of the only training programs of its kind right now in North America that is operating at a full capacity.  

"It's just like your family coming home at Christmastime.... Today, the first day of service, everybody is really excited," said Andrew Morrison, a chef instructor at the institute. "The buzz in the kitchen, just to hear that again is something we've all missed a lot." 

Morrison said instructors scrambled to offer students online content when the pandemic closed the school, and they are now considering ways they can do that better. 

Student Auhlicia Sands was excited to begin her first shift as a host, and said the pandemic has taught students they need to be ready for anything.

"This industry changes at the drop of a hat, so we have to learn how to adapt quickly," she said. "Learning to adapt to any environment, that was the real learning curve here, the real teaching." 

The institute's dining room is open for lunch and dinner. It's also selling freshly-prepared meals and snacks with a grab-and-go kiosk in the lobby, and on March 2, a new service they're calling Too Tired to Cook will offer hot meals for sale with curbside pick-up.

Patrons at the dining room follow the same protocols as diners in any restaurant in P.E.I., with masks required until people are seated, and limited seating.