Culinary students host regional cuisine dinner series from Nov. 13 to Dec. 5

If you’re a foodie and love exploring new cultures and flavours from around the world, visit the Georgian Dining Room for a regional cuisine dinner experience!

Second-year Culinary students have been working together in groups to create a themed multi-course dinner as part of their final in-class project. Each group chose a region to inspire their menus and had to work with two pre-determined protein items for an added challenge. Flight Services students will also help serve the food to guests.

Chef Philip Leach, a professor in the Culinary program, says this is a great opportunity for students to get hands-on and showcase their individual and teamwork skills. “For this special dinner series, students do more than just create a menu,” Chef Phil says. “They need to determine different logistics such as budgeting, how their team will work together to prepare the meal and procuring the actual products they’ll use the cook with. This gives them a taste of how it’ll be to work in a real kitchen environment.”

One group is cooking up a Japanese-themed meal using lobster and rabbit as their main proteins. They’ll be making miso soup— a traditional Japanese dish — with lobster, and infusing teriyaki flavours into their rabbit dish. To finish with something sweet, they’ll be serving matcha soufflé pancakes with lemongrass ice cream. Parth Makwana, one of the students from this group, talked to us about the experience.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with other students for this project. Everyone in my group is from different cultures and nationalities; nobody has a Japanese background. It’s definitely a challenge when nobody has experience with Japanese cooking, but it’s very interesting to explore that and see how our own cultures connect into these dishes.

“We have a lot of creative freedom, and we get to experience the real-world challenges of cooking with a budget and buying our ingredients. It’ll also be amazing to cook in the Georgian Dining Room and serve guests. Then we’ll really be able to see what it’ll be like working in our own restaurants one day!”

A student cooks in a kitchen, wearing a white coat, pouring cream into a pot.
Team members from the Japanese-themed menu group prepare ingredients.
A student wipes down a stove burner, and they're wearing a white chef's hat and coat.
Students gain hands-on learning experiences through opportunities like the regional cuisine dinners.

Dinner series dates and menus:

The regional cuisine dinner series will be open to the public from Nov. 13 to Dec. 5 in the Georgian Dining Room (Barrie Campus, E building). Tickets are $30 (plus applicable taxes) and must be purchased in advance. Each evening includes an hors d’oeuvres reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by the multi-course dinner at 6 p.m. Seating is limited.

Buy your tickets today!

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