Check Out the Student-Run The Gallery at Silverado

The Gallery
Address: Silverado High School, 1650 Silver Hawk Ave.
Phone: 702-799-5790, ext 3300
Status: 10:45 to 11:20 a.m. Thursdays, excluding finals, testing and the summer season

Want to help out students who hope to one day become chefs? Now Silverado High School has its own restaurant on Thursdays that’s open to the public. Meet The Gallery at Silverado, completely run by students from ProStart, a nationwide, two-year high school program that helps students learn the restaurant industry. The program estimates that more than 80 percent of enrolled Silverado students work in the culinary industry after high school graduation.

The 35-minute window that the restaurant serves food brings a three-course meal at no charge, but donations are encouraged. Students change the menus seasonally and even come up with special menus for holidays. Dishes align with the weekly curriculum.

Those who donate for their meals are helping out a good cause. The money helps nine students from the school compete as a team in the National ProStart Invitational, a high school competition from April 28 through May 2 in Dallas. Should Silverado students land in the top 10, they’ll split $1.5 million in scholarships.

Silverado students have entered the competition since 2002, and since then, have been awarded more than $1.5 million in scholarships.

Christopher Bulen, the executive chef at Andre's Restaurant & Lounge at the Monte Carlo, works as an advisor to the students, a volunteer job he started in 2013 after Andre’s chef André Rochat passed on the tradition that he started in 2009.

"I come to the school every two weeks to help the students fine-tune their skills for muscle memory and technique," Bulen says in a press statement. "This is a very intense, hands-on program that is preparing these students in ways that would make them valuable to any restaurant post-graduation."