URBANA - Even though Shaina Kolzow of Dundee was just washing watercress, the freshman in the University of Illinois' hospitality management program knows her night is coming.

While it won't happen until her senior year, Kolzow's night will be the evening she alone will be responsible for creating, designing, cooking, serving and cleaning up after a meal served to paying guests in the Spice Box, the program's self-sustaining restaurant.

Kolzow and Emily Becker of Springfield recently were making early preparations for one of this semester's final meals in the Spice Box. They were assisting Meredith Chase, a senior who confessed to days of going to bed very late, rising very early and waking once asleep because she'd suddenly remember a detail.

Chase said she once realized there were no moons in her moonlight picnic-themed meal, so she created half moons from folded white napkins.

The Spice Box operation is a completely student venture, with such duties as production manager, service manager, prep cook or dishwasher split among the students.

"There is an order in the kitchen. Everyone knows their job," said Jill North Craft of Decatur, because each student in charge already has delegated responsibilities to other participating students.

"Meredith, for example, should be able to enjoy her guests. Some students are comfortable meeting guests; some are not," said Craft, who serves as an instructor in the program and the Spice Box's general manager.

"It's a great experience, and they all need to do it," she continued.

Seniors select their meal dates for the spring semester, Craft said, then develop themes and tentative menus about four weeks out. They also must establish their budgets and menu pricing, order the food and take care of decorations, place settings and reservations.

"This is not a culinary school," Craft said, "though they learn the basics of cooking."

But the students must test any recipes they elect to use, she added.

For Chase's meal, she did as many students do and worked with a guest chef, in her case Chad Warborg, chef/owner of the Beacon Restaurant in Rochelle.

"This is my first experience (at the Spice Box)," Warborg said.

He said Chase came to him with ideas, and he "tried to let her be the sparkle.

"We (chefs) get to do this every day."

Chase's menu featured a vegetarian option or chicken salad in puff pastry, watercress and beet salad with a sweet vinaigrette dressing, rosemary grilled swordfish and ribeye kabobs, and a whipped crème de menthe mousse for dessert.

"It has been my experience that kabobs are hard to serve," Craft said of Chase's menu choice, with serving time and temperature being critical elements.

But she was willing to give Chase the chance to try.

Even difficult experiences are good experiences, Craft said, because it gives the students opportunities to think on their feet. As an example, she pointed to an evening when the pork on the menu ran out. That meant the student had to make decisions: not just how and what to tell the customer but also whether the customer should be charged for the meal.

At the end of dinner, Craft said, students eat any leftovers as they read aloud comment cards that guests leave. Those comments often start discussions, again allowing students to learn from each other, Craft said.

"They evaluate themselves and their staff, too," she said.

Most of the program's graduates go on to work in hotels or the food service industry, Craft said, or into event planning. And this semester, two of the 28 students hope to go on to attend culinary schools.

"I love this job," said Craft, herself a university graduate with undergraduate and graduate degrees.

"It's a good mix of the industry, a good mix of the challenges (the students will face)."

For her, one of the joys, she said, is "seeing the students at the end of their meals, the pride on their faces.

"But sometimes, the frustrations are also visible. For four years, we've given them the components, and now they have the opportunity to apply them."

Arlene Mannlein can be reached at amannlein@herald-review.com or 421-6976.