Robert Lhulier has no problem recalling his favorite UD class. The art major relished 30-second "gestural drawing" assignments designed to develop spontaneity and efficiency.

"I tend to be analytical, and it freed me up," Lhulier says.

Today, Lhulier, AS '88, wields that fast-thinking creativity in the kitchen rather than in a studio. He's executive chef at Deep Blue Bar & Grill in Wilmington, Del. "I rely on seasonal ingredients, but the season might be delayed," he explains. "If I can't get it, I have to scramble for something else."

That was the case this spring, when Lhulier planned a seasonal menu including white asparagus and morels for the James Beard House in New York. Beard, the father of American cooking, authored more than 22 cookbooks before his death in 1985. His Greenwich Village brownstone now houses a nonprofit foundation that provides scholarships, industry resources and fine dining five nights a week.

Chefs from Alaska to Bangkok clamor for invitations to cook for the Beard House's discerning diners, most of whom are New Yorkers. But, success requires more than an eclectic menu. The chef also must possess administrative coordination. The kitchen is tiny. Knocking toques is common. Moreover, the savvy crowd--distributed on three different floors--disdains lags between courses. Timing is everything.

"You can't slow down," says Pam Wischkaemper, a San Diego food consultant who prepares chefs for the experience. "If a dinner runs past 10:30 p.m., the guests scream bloody murder."

One Southern chef was so overwhelmed, he collapsed in the middle of dinner. Such stories give chefs the chills. So can the competition. Diners compare chefs to those who cooked last night and those who'll cook next week. "You can't rely on your name or restaurant menu," Lhulier says.

Lhulier, however, was up to the challenge. "Robert is nothing if not organized, which makes us a good team because I'm nothing if not all over the place," says Dan Butler, owner of Deep Blue and its sister restaurant, Toscana Kitchen + Bar.

Lhulier boasts a rare combination of artistic sensibility and exactness. (His final project for a UD drawing class was a detailed drawing of the human skeleton.) His thoroughness is evident in his education and his career.

Lhulier, whose family is of Italian and French descent, grew up in Wilmington. "There are a lot of cooks in my family," he says. "Trips to my grandparents were spent around the table."

In 1984, he enrolled in the University Parallel Program in Wilmington. When he reached UD's Newark campus, he was torn between art, communication and music, playing the trumpet in University ensembles.

He decided on fine arts, with a concentration in printmaking, and a minor in art history. In 1988, he had four pieces in the juried undergraduate art show.

Although the attention was encouraging, Lhulier says he was concerned about money. " I wasn't into being a starving artist," he says. He began working at the Hotel du Pont. He was maitre d' at another restaurant and then waited tables at Toscana. He next managed the Ebbitt Room at the Virginia Hotel in Cape May, N.J.

Lhulier, who was as comfortable in a restaurant as he was in a studio, wanted one day to own a restaurant. There was one problem. "I've seen situations where restaurant owners weren't schooled in cooking," he says. "They can find themselves in trouble." Professional cooking became his next industry hurdle.

At the Culinary Institute of America, Lhulier's UD art classes came in handy. "You must balance colors on the plate to create unity and a focal point," he explains. "Everything must flow evenly."

When Butler opened Deep Blue, he hired Lhulier to head the kitchen. Lhulier and Deep Blue made their debut at the same time. The restaurant, credited for launching Wilmington's downtown renaissance, consistently wins critical and customer acclaim.

But, the achievement-oriented Lhulier needed another goal. In May 2002, he called Mildred Amico, program director at the James Beard Foundation. She requested press clippings, a resum´e and a menu. He had to supply five courses, with no less than three hors d'oeuvres, dessert and wines for each course. Lhulier rewrote the menu twice before mailing it.

"His press kit had good reviews," Amico says. "But, the thing that sold me was him. That kind of enthusiasm on his part is really, really wonderful."

She extended the invitation. He says he felt proud, then nauseated. "I had the attention of some of the most prestigious players in the food industry, and I would need to perform at the highest level. As it sunk in, it occurred to me that we aim to do that every night."

Despite his culinary capabilities, Lhulier hired Wischkaemper to help him prepare for the event. "There's a process to it," she says. During an October 2002 test dinner, 12 wine specialists and food critics sampled the proposed menu. The raw oyster's cucumber mignonette sorbet didn't work, some said. There was a bass sashimi and a separate striped bass course. Never repeat yourself, said Wischkaemper. The Thai rice pudding serving was too large. The cheese tart--sans the smoked trout--should follow the main course.

Lhulier substituted Ahi tuna for bass sashimi. He nixed the cucumber sorbet in favor of diced fresh horseradish root and cucumber. Fine-tuning the menu is one thing. Preparing it in the James Beard House is another. "You can't get into the kitchen until the day of the event," Wischkaemper explains.

Lhulier, Butler and Michael Majewski, Deep Blue's manager, traveled to New York to inspect the site. Armed with notes, he returned to tweak the menu for a February rehearsal. Diagrams attached to the refrigerators instructed staff as to where to place items.

The dinner was a success, but concerns remained. Lhulier's menu relied on white asparagus, striped bass and fresh morels--all seasonal ingredients. In rehearsals, black bass substituted for striped and baby turnips for asparagus. The pudding also was a worry. The temperature and texture were off.

The day before the event, Lhulier and his nine-member crew prepped food and placed it on numbered trays. At 6 a.m. the next day, they arrived at Deep Blue to load the refrigerated truck. They continued prepping in New York. An hour before service, they were done. "The servers said, 'We're ready for the plates.' We said, 'We're ready for you,'" Lhulier recalls. "We had it together."

The sold-out crowd sipped Veuve Cliquot and nibbled tapenade with almonds and blue cheese; lobster-walnut spring rolls; crab and chestnut flan; and smoked salmon rillettes, a pâté-looking spread.

The raw bar sampler included tuna, oyster and venison carpaccio with cape gooseberry vinaigrette. The next course featured Delaware striped bass--caught two days before the event and dressed with a sweet pea-watercress emulsion--and the season's first morels.

Baby turnips again substituted for the unavailable white asparagus in the seared Australian lamb chop course. A clever almond tuile cup solved the pudding's portion problems. The experience was a success "across the board," he says. "It couldn't have gone better."

The same is true of his training. "I value the four years I spent at UD," says the artist turned chef. "It broadened me. I went there for an education, and I got it."

--Pam George, AS '82