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The FBI is the Food and Beverage Institute, also in Hyde Park, New York.
The CIA's authority in cooking is evidenced in its textbook, which is written by the institute and sold to other cooking schools under another name.
Set on the Hudson River, the institute site was a Jesuit seminary. The institute has occupied the space for a little over 50 years. The school has 36 professionally equipped kitchens and 18 master chefs.
Hall wound up at the CIA after several years of working in Coeur d'Alene area restaurants.
He has been cooking since he was about 8 years old. He grew up watching Julia Childs and Justin Wilson, a Louisiana creole chef.
"Justin Wilson was one of my favorites," he said. "He must have been about 65 when I was 10. He was one of the fun people to watch...a little wine for the recipe, a little wine for the chef; a little more wine for the chef! He didn't go beyond an eighthgrade education."
Hall, 30, has lived in Coeur d'Alene for more than 13 years. He has worked in many local restaurants, basically "everywhere," starting out at the Beachouse.
"You kind of get redundant with the menu after five, six months and move on," he said. "If I wasn't learning anything, I'd move somewhere else."
Hall met Roger Hough, a certified master chef, at the Beachouse Restaurant. Hough was one of only 64 master chefs in the country at the time. Hough, now deceased, had accreditation in the culinary world that was phenomenal. When asked why he lived in Coeur d'Alene given his credentials, Hough's reply was the quality of life, Hall said.
To get into the CIA, Hall needed a recommendation from two executive chefs. Hough gave him one, and the second came from Rod Jessick at the Coeur d'Alene Resort.
Hall is not a competitive person, but decided to go to the CIA since he had the opportunity, and to become the best chef he could be.
After 21 months at the CIA, he moved to Branson, Mo., to serve a five-month internship at the Big Cedar Lodge owned by Bass ProShops. He had met Robert Stricklan, the chef for the lodge, who interned in Switzerland. It was a good opportunity.
Michelle Hall was a server at the lodge. She has worked in restaurants since she was 14 years old and had been in Branson for five years. They both started at Big Cedar the same day and have been together ever since. The lodge had three restaurants ranging from exquisite to casual.
Keeping with their strategy of keeping things exciting, the Halls change their menu every four months. A new menu just went into effect last Saturday.
"We like to try new innovative things," Hall said. "There's some love into it."
They also try to share their zest for change with their customers and encourage them to try new things, such as a new wine, perhaps.
"I wrote the wine list (for Anthony's) originally," Hall said. "It's not so much where they come from but how the whole list is balanced out. We try to get people to progress. We don't serve white Zinfandel. We try to get people to move up to at least a Gewurztraminer or a Riesling , and build them up to a Semillon Chardonnay. If you like the sweet white Zin you're going to like the Gewurztraminer, and just to have somebody say Gewurztraminer after drinking white Zin, it makes them excited!"
Knowledge of wine is part of the curriculum at the CIA. The school emphasized food pairings, domestic wines and imports, Hall said.
"It's a three-week class, spread out over six weeks," Hall said. "Wine Spectator donated $1 million to the school just for the Wine Spectator room, a tiered amphitheater."
The Halls also claim the only tapas bar in Coeur d'Alene. A huge deli case used to be where the tapas bar is. The Hall's surveyed the space wondering what to do with it.
"We didn't have a centerpiece, so this turned out to be our centerpiece," Hall said.
The cozy tapas bar seats seven. The concept is basically heavy appetizers while seated at a bar. The idea originated in Spain, where in order to keep the flies out of their wine, the host would put a little piece of meat, bread or cheese on top of the glass.
"Pretty soon it just became a staple, like where's my piece of cheese?" Hall said. "That's basically how it came to be. Tapas in Spanish is small lid, I believe."
It is a fun and easy way to eat. If a patron decides they are still hungry, they can order as they go. Tapas can only be ordered at the tapas bar.
"Each tapas item has its own sauce," Michelle Hall said. "That's why we can't serve tapas at the main tables. There are six burners back there. If everybody was ordering a little bit of this and a little bit of that he'd be so far behind."
Right now, Anthony's is only open for dinner Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 9 . and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 . It's working well for Hall and Michelle and their two employees, Debbie Keller and Bobby Murphy.
Hall even teaches cooking classes on occasion.
"It's understanding the science of food," Hall said.
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