Their restaurant is kind of Brigadoon, that legendary country that only appears once every 100 years — although fortunately the restaurant appears a little more frequently. It’s the restaurant that students at the Napa Valley Cooking School open for a brief but delicious 15-day stint each spring and fall, and it’s  one of those secret places that those in the know don’t want too many others to find out about.

“They say it’s harder to get a reservation here than at the French Laundry,” said Barbara Alexander, the executive director of the school. “And it’s that level of food,” she added.

The cooking school is part of the Napa Valley College, and is conducted at the Belle Rhodes teaching kitchen, named for the program’s benefactor and inspiration, at Upper Valley campus in St. Helena.

Last week the 18 students enrolled in the program were putting their final touches on recipes they’ll be offering at their restaurant, which opened yesterday at the school and will serve lunches until May 9. Each day they’ll serves an eight-course “degustation” menu paired with wines.

“At the beginning of the semester, students come up with eight dishes,” Alexander said. These range from the opening amuse bouche to a mignardise, the delicious tiny bite of sweetness that ends a meal.

“We decide if it makes sense,” Alexander said, and if it gets approval, the student refines the recipe. Last week, they were doing the final tests and tastings as Alexander created the menus, which will change daily during the run of the restaurant.

“Each student has a different task each day,” she said. Some days they’ll prepare one of their dishes, but they’ll also spend time in “front of the house” jobs, as servers and maitre d’s.

Holding her master plan for the restaurant, which looked like the diagram of an elaborate quilt with each student coded in different colors, Alexander and her assistant Ludwig Hussong waited as students brought up their different dishes to be critiqued.

Student Lisa Doshier watched Alexander and Hussong taste her edamame and manchego cheese raviolis on a green onion nage and topped with an herb salad.

“The pasta is a little too thick,” Alexander said. “Why edamame and not fava beans?”

“A little too much vinegar in the nage,” Hussong said.

“I think three raviolis looks crowded,” Alexander said. “Try it with one.”

Once the improvements are in place, the dish will be a go — one of the recipes someone will be eating one day at the restaurant.

Hussong, who graduated from the program four years ago and returned this semester at Alexander’s request, said he was enjoying his stint as a cooking teacher. “It’s nice to see both sides,” he said. Otherwise, he is operating a catering business in Ensenada, where his family owns Hussong’s, the bar famous as the place where the Margarita was invented.

Kim Wiss watched as the teachers tasted her variation of the classic vichyssoises, a cold leek and potato soup, which she had garnished with onion, mascarpone, caviar and chives.

“A little grainy,” Alexander said, of the velvet smooth creation. Back to the chopping board.  

“This is their big assignment,” Alexander said. Perfection is the standard.

The 14-month cooking school program includes nine months in the classroom, and a baking and pastry program and “externships.”  “Not only at the fine dining restaurants in the valley like French Laundry and Auberge,” Alexander said, “but they go to New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles — everywhere.”

The program, which takes only 18 students, attracts many who have decided to change careers and follow a passion for food like Dave Steffens, a former engineer, whose recipe for Asparagus Timbale with Sweet Corn Soubise, is one of those included in today’s Register. Cathy Millimeaux, a former real estate appraiser, said she was much happier whipping up her Orange Saffron Aoili, which will be served with her recipe for lobster tacos during the run of their restaurant.

Other recipes students provided for the Register include Rachel Kau-Taylor’s Purple Potato Salad with Sweet Pea Puree and Lisa Doshier’s Wood-Fired Squid with Romesco Sauce.

Each day they’ll serve 60-70 diners in the restaurant. Many of the days are already sold out. “It’s very busy,” Alexander said. “and at $35 it’s the cheapest deal in the county.”

For that matter, Alexander noted, the cost of the Napa Valley Cooking School itself, where tuition is $15,005, for the program, is actually a pretty good bargain too, compared with the costs of many larger culinary academies.

To make a reservation to try these and the other creations of the students at this exclusive restaurant, call 967-2901.

For more information about the Napa Valley Cooking School, call 967-2930.