• Courtesy of Food Network
• Adam Monette

Adam Monette, a longtime culinary arts chef-instructor at Northwest Career & Technical Center and winner of the 2021 Food Network show "Holiday Baking Championship," aims to open Café Monette in St. Albans with two of his former students later this year.

Monette, 38, is partnering with Tyler Comeau and Henry Long, both 26, on the restaurant at 97 North Main Street. They plan to serve French-inspired food highlighting local ingredients for breakfast through dinner. The trio is hosting pop-up events until their full opening.

So far, offerings have included housemade ramp sausage and a "crookie," or a chocolate chip cookie baked in a croissant filled with whipped vanilla custard — a French-style crémeux Monette made many times on the Food Network.

Comeau and Long met in Monette's classroom and credit their teacher with inspiring them to pursue culinary careers. Comeau, a St. Albans native who attended the New England Culinary Institute, has worked for chef Matt Jennings' now-closed Red Barn Kitchen in Charlotte and helped open Fancy's in Burlington. Long, from nearby Georgia, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and founded Good Grocery, a prepared foods and catering business.

"We're all from here, raised here," Long said. "We are going to form this project into something that can be digested by St. Albans."

The 39-seat dining room will have viewing windows into the kitchen, and Monette plans to offer training opportunities in collaboration with the Académie Culinaire de France, of which he is a member.

"We have to help more people make a career in this field," Monette said.