Students tackle restaurant management
Some students may be sick of the mundane lack of variety in the food they eat on a daily basis.
Other options exist, though.
One such option is available every Tuesday and Thursday in the basement of the West Dining Center.
Sherri Stastny’s Food Production Management class puts on a lunch twice a week.
The class consists of students majoring in dietetics and hospitality who focus on restaurant management.
Both majors require the class, which includes a lecture three times per week and a lab one day per week.
“ The major objective of the class is to manage production of food that meets nutrition guidelines, cost parameters and consumer acceptance,” Kirsten Heid, a hospitality and tourism management senior, said. “Food is prepared in quantity. We do a lot of recipe conversions from average-sized recipes (such as) eight servings and convert them to 50.”
The class is divided into two sections; one section is responsible for Tuesday’s lunch, and the other for Thursday’s.
“The class begins at 10 a.m., and we seat the people from 11:30 to 12:15,” Heid said.
The students’ positions during the lunch rotate from cooking, hosting and washing dishes.
The manager of the lunch decides the menu and theme of the lunch. That person can decide to use an existing menu of a previous lunch, modify an existing one or come up with a new one.
Heid was the manager of Tuesday’s lunch.
“ The best part (about managing) is seeing the final result,” Heid said. “We had an excellent meal today. Everything turned out well and guests were extremely satisfied.”
Managing requires a large amount of preparation.
Some duties include choosing the meal, converting recipes, choosing dining room decorations, the number of linens, linen colors, themes, advertising and designing an appealing meal.
On Tuesday, the lunch had a large turnout.
“ We were about four people away from the maximum amount of servings,” Heid said. “We have some regular guests that come in every week, but we also have many people who just find out about it through word of mouth or some type of advertising and stop in to give us a try.”
The lunch is $6.75 a person and is located downstairs in the WDC.
Accepted forms of payment include check, cash, meal plans and dining dollars.