Season to Remember: A Gourmet Homecoming
The UNH Department of Hospitality Management presents first Gourmet Dinner fall semester 2009, to give students the opportunity to showcase fundamentals learned at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics 
University of New Hampshire (UNH) students embrace the challenge of creating a fine dining event on a budget as a nonprofit venture. Every semester, Advanced Food and Beverage students in the Hospitality Management program organize two gourmet dinners that serve between 100 and 200 guests each night.
The experience gives students a glimpse of what is to come in their future after graduation, as they take full responsibility for budgeting, service standards, marketing, sustainable practices and ethics surrounding a high-end event. The exercise is a project that accompanies an intensive capstone lecture. And the students are expected to develop a theme and menu that will capture guest interest within the targeted demographic.
Introductory and intermediate hospitality freshman and sophomores work for the juniors and seniors as servers and beverage attendants. Back-of-the-house kitchen staff, from the hospitality basic culinary course, joins the mix for class credit.
“We’re finding team work to be the crucial ingredient to the success of the dinner. When working with a team of different skill levels, you face large challenges especially for an event of this caliber,” notes Executive Chef Kristin Jones.
The first dinner this semester, Season to Remember, a Gourmet Homecoming Celebration will feature six courses of harvest-inspired, local when available, dishes, while capturing the excitement surrounding Homecoming weekend at UNH.
The dinner will take place at Stillings, 20 Ballard Drive, Durham, NH, on October 9, beginning with cocktail hour at 6 o’clock and dinner to follow. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased online at www.wsbe.unh.edu/gourmet-dinners.
Tags: local farms, UNH
