Fancy Pants Foodie

Foodie news, reviews and how-tos from Arkansas and beyond.

  • Home
  • About
  • Gluten Free
  • PR/Ads
  • Contact Me

Cafeteria Food Gets Awesome at Green Leaf Grill

January 24, 2014 by arfoodie

A chef tosses a customer's salad to order at Green Leaf Grill.

A chef tosses a customer’s salad to order at Green Leaf Grill.

I don’t do a lot of restaurant reviews, but I had to share an experience from last week. There’s a fairly new cafeteria, or fast-casual, or some kinda restaurant in the Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield building on 7th and Gaines in Little Rock, and it’s pretty amazing.

I was there for a meeting with Chef Jason Knapp about an unrelated business project. If his name sounds familiar, it should; Knapp’s lofty résumé hails from the Governor’s Mansion to the culinary school and Big Rock Bistro at Pulaski Technical College, then Executive Chef of Aramark’s dining program at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

A chef slices tomatoes for the grill station.

A chef slices tomatoes for the grill station.

It was likely at his last two appointments that Knapp got a good sense of what cafeterias need: fast, quality food that can serve a mass of hungry folks when they all show up at the same time. (Note: Much of his work at UCA involved cooking for special functions and executive meetings, giving him the best of both worlds of this type of foodservice experience.) At his new venture in the BCBS building, managed by Compass Group USA, he was given the opportunity to take cafeteria-style efficiency a step further and implement his passions for fresh, scratch-made food, using local ingredients as much as possible.

The spacious serving area has several large sections, including grill, deli, pizza, soups, entrees and a tossed-to-order salad bar. And the whole place was super fresh and hygienic too; I think I noticed (and felt) air curtains installed at the entrance to separate the outside air from the inside. Just walking around looking at each station, one thing became immediately apparent: None of this stuff came from a box. There’s a swarm of young chefs buzzing around each station and in the open-to-view back kitchen, and each one of them has a hand in creating real food. Each freshly prepared item is pleasantly offered in French-style blue enameled cast iron, offering a bistro-meets-home feel.

Fresh vegetable selections in the entree area.

Fresh vegetable selections in the entree area.

I asked the chef what I could eat, having to be gluten-free and all. Usually, in a cafeteria-style operation, I would get glazed looks because they often don’t even know what’s in the food. Knapp immediately rattled off at least three entrees that were safe. He knew every single ingredient because he planned them himself, on a menu that changes daily.

The Shepherd’s Pie was calling my name, with its billowing, toasted peaks of mashed potatoes over fresh vegetables and tender, flavorful ground beef. The sides, however, were the show-stealer. I chose the beet salad with feta cheese and the roasted broccoli, both healthy and beautiful enough to not look it. My meal, with a drink (I chose the cucumber-infused water), came to about eight bucks. Not bad.

That seems to be the idea at Green Leaf, healthy food that you’d crave even if it wasn’t. I ran into a friend who works at Blue Cross, and she said the company was moving in the direction of promoting health in all areas for their own employees, and the restaurant was just one part of that equation.

Luckily, it’s open to the public, too. Check it out (weekly menu here) and you won’t think of cafeteria food the same way again.

***********

Green Leaf Grill
601 S. Gaines St. (7th and Gaines, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield building)
Little Rock
Breakfast grill hours 7:30 – 9:30 a.m.
Lunch 10:45 a.m. – 2 p.m.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Filed Under: Foodie News, Gluten Free, Restaurants Tagged With: Blue Cross Blue Shield, cafeteria, Green Leaf Grill, Green Leaf Grille, Jason Knapp, Little Rock, restaurant

Knapp, Capello to Battle at Diamond Chef Arkansas on June 4

May 28, 2013 by arfoodie

Diamond Chef 2013It’s time again for one of the best culinary events of the year, Diamond Chef Arkansas, which will take place on Tuesday, June 4 at the Statehouse Convention Center. The event benefits the Pulaski Technical College Foundation. Tickets are $200 and can be purchased online.

The preliminaries to this event were held in February at the then-Peabody Hotel, with Chef Dan Capello of the Chenal Country Club winning the elimination-style competition. The final event next week will pit Capello against last year’s winner, Chef Jason Knapp of Aramark at the University of Central Arkansas in a live-action dinner throwdown.

While guests dine on an unrelated three-course dinner with wine, the chefs will be presented with a mystery ingredient that must be used in a three-course meal of their choosing. The mayhem that results is quite the stage show, especially for those of us who know just enough to talk a little bit of smack about what we would do. (Last year, I totally called the sabayon sauces and a couple other things they made from the ostrich egg mystery ingredient. Not that I could do theirs justice.)

If you’re also a sucker for silent auctions like me, there will be plenty. Items range from glassware and kitchen gadgets to fine dining and wine pairing experiences. The fairly-infamous live auction also brings in the heavies, bidding on elaborate in-home dinners and even food-related travel. Someday, when I’m rich and famous, I’ll bid on the trip to The French Laundry that sometimes comes up.

Should you go? Um, yes. If $200 is too rich for your blood (and you’re not a culinary student who can schlep in for free), ask your employer to sponsor a table, or get all friendly-like with one who already has.

And now, my confession…I’ve live-blogged this event for years, and this time I will be on family vacation. It just turned out that way. I expect the good PR folks at Pulaski Tech will tweet and such, so give them a follow if you can’t get yourself to this outstanding event.

Filed Under: Events, Foodie News Tagged With: Aramark, Chenal Country Club, Dan Capello, Daniel Capello, Diamond Chef 2013, Jason Knapp, PTC, Pulaski Technical College, UCA

Chef Jason Knapp Wins Diamond Chef 2012

June 7, 2012 by arfoodie

Diamond Chef 2012 winner Jason Knapp with his son Taylor.

Chef Jason Knapp of Aramark/University of Central Arkansas walked away with the title of Diamond Chef at Tuesday night’s event, after demonstrating three courses of culinary prowess using the mystery (and slightly bizarre) protein of ostrich eggs.

Knapp defeated Chef Bonner Cameron of Ya Ya’s Euro Bistro with a total of 73.15 of a possible 100 points against Bonner’s 57.20.

The annual event was sold out, with over 700 in attendance, including a flurry of white-coated students and instructors from Pulaski Tech’s burgeoning Arkansas Culinary School. The event, which benefits the Pulaski Technical College Foundation, included silent and live auctions of mostly culinary related products, trips and private dinners.

The tables were decorated with faux cakes created by students of the culinary school — my own cake included, which was a final in my recently-completed Cakes and Cake Decorating class. We enjoyed a three-course steak meal, expertly prepared by the Peabody / Statehouse staff. The beef was announced as a new cut, called a “Vegas Strip.”

If you missed our live tweets from the event, it would be worth your while to peruse the #DiamondChef hashtag for photos, commentary and more.

Unfortunately, it is harder to get contest plate photos at this event because of the stage setup without just jumping up there like you own the place. Not to say I didn’t do that, say, about three or four times. But elbowing the judges seemed out of line, so I’ll share photos from the Pulaski Tech official photographer in the near future.

Here’s what I did manage to get without getting thrown out, so enjoy, and check back for updates.

Faux cake depicting the new building for PTC Arkansas Culinary School




Filed Under: Foodie News, PTC_ACS, Uncategorized Tagged With: 2012, Bonner Cameron, Diamond Chef, Diamond Chef Arkansas, Jason Knapp

Diamond Chef 2012: Knapp vs. Cameron

June 3, 2012 by arfoodie

Update: Results and photos here.

It’s time again to celebrate all things culinarily wonderful in Arkansas, in glorious, knife-weilding battle at the annual Diamond Chef Arkansas competition, hosted by the Pulaski Technical College Foundation.

The event will be held this Tuesday, June 5 at 6 p.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

This year’s competitors are Chef Jason Knapp, executive chef at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway/Aramark (and a former PTC chef) and Chef Bonner Cameron from Ya-Ya’s Euro Bistro in Little Rock. Both were finalists in the competition’s preliminary rounds in March. (See our prelim play-by-play and photo roundup here.)

This final event is formatted a bit differently than the preliminaries. For this event, only one surprise ingredient is unveiled, and that ingredient must be included in three courses produced by the chefs and their sous chefs within 60 minutes. In the preliminary event, a basket of several ingredients was opened before each round, all of which had to be used for a single course.

The final is judged by a panel of Certified Master Chefs, which is in and of itself quite spectacular. The prestigious CMC designation is awarded by the American Culinary Federation after a grueling 8-day testing procedure. Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School will host the judges, CMC John Johnstone and CMC Peter Timmins, at PTC South Campus’ Crain Community Room from 10 a.m. until noon for a panel discussion of the CMC designation and the testing process. (See an upcoming post for more details.)

As I wrote last year, the Diamond Chef Arkansas final is a spectacular fine-dining event that you won’t want to miss. Except, I hear that it’s sold out. So, make a note for next year, huh?

Wish you could see the event? You can, right here. Follow along here at Fancy Pants Foodie, or on our Twitter feed at @ARFoodie, for a live play-by-play and photo updates.

Filed Under: Foodie News, PTC_ACS Tagged With: American Culinary Federation, Bonner Cameron, Certified Master Chef, Diamond Chef, Jason Knapp

Let’s keep in touch!

Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links meaning I earn a commission if you use those links. If I recommend something specifically, you can trust that I've used it and I love it.
Fancy Pants Foodie
Tweets by @ARFoodie

Recent Posts

  • I’m Still Alive (And Eating a Weird Diet)
  • Arkansas Hospitality Conference a Food Lover’s Dream (PHOTOS)
  • Culinary Classic Offers a Taste From Arkansas’ Best Chefs (GIVEAWAY)
  • Diamond Chef Arkansas 2016 at Pulaski Tech CAHMI
  • 2016 ProStart Arkansas Competition

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress