Fairfield- Saint Catherine Academy students in Mrs. LaPorta’s Culinary class opened their restaurant today to all the students and staff. “This activity is a culmination of our unit on Food Industry jobs,” said Mrs. LaPorta. “The students learned about different positions, waiters and waitresses, cooks, busing, as well as common vocabulary associate with the food industry. They learned about different types of food and ultimately planned a meal and served it to their classmates.”
In small groups, the students picked a type of food, in this case, Mexican and name their restaurant, The Mexican Fiesta Restaurant. The Mexican Fiesta Restaurant offered a special lunch menu that included a Breakfast burrito and blueberry-banana muffins. Students planned the menu, set the tables, prepared the food and served their classmates and teachers. Then there was cleanup that was also part of the experience.
“The Culinary students then conducted a survey to learn more about customer interaction,” continued Mrs. LaPorta. Did the restaurant have a sign with its name on it? Was the server polite and answer your questions? Was the menu helpful in showing you what you would eat? How was the taste of the food? Did the tables look neat and clean? Overall the comments were very positive. “I liked the Mexican music.” “It was so nice seeing so many students working together.” “Nice work.” “The Culinary class did an excellent job in preparing and serving the food!”
The second Culinary class will get their chance this week when they open “Bella Cibo” which means “good food” in Italian. The menu will include bowtie pasta and chocolate lasagna. There is a lot of excitement and anticipation for Restaurant Day.