Dearmont Hall hosts weekly dinners

Dearmont Hall is a little more crowded than usual on Monday nights.People line up outside of the cooking lab doors anxiously awaiting the weekly dinner prepared by the students in Marjorie Gardner's Quantity Food Production (HM 416) class.

HM 416 is a required course for all dietetics and hospitality management majors. Students in the class are put into groups and are responsible for planning and preparing one four-course dinner during the semester.

"They get a chance to market, plan the menu, prepare the décor -- because it's not just a kitchen, they actually convert the classroom into dining and it's pretty neat -- so they get a chance to do an event theme and based on the theme they are to use the classroom to create that space so their diners get that experience, so they do dining room service as well," Gardner said.

The semester is planned out so there is a dinner served free each week to 50 members of the public featuring cuisines from all around the world. The first four dinners that were served included the themes of "Meatless Monday," "Seafood Festival by the River," "Spooky Supper!" and "From SEMO with Love."

"So basically we go by some of the traditional themes they have been given prior to my teaching ... and some came up because of a popular request by diners," Gardner said. "Previous diners who say, 'Oh we'd love to have this theme again.' A couple are also recommended by past students."

Senior Maggie Beene is a hospitality management major currently enrolled in Gardner's HM 416 class. She and her partner, Lisa Rice, chose to plan their dinner around a Jamaican theme.

"I was actually really surprised because I had no idea what kind of cuisine they had so it was kind of fun getting to explore that, and Ms. Gardner is Jamaican so she had a lot of influence in our menu," Beene said. "Obviously our entrée is like jerked chicken, rice and peas, vegetable skewers. We have a Jamaican punch we're making and pineapple upside down cake. We want it to be colorful, flavorful, cultural is kind of what we were aiming for."

Beene said for their décor she and Rice bought pineapples to make centerpieces and plan to have live entertainment with tropical music to add to the ambiance.

"What I have liked the most is we're a very close team," Beene said. "All of us, we've had classes together so we know each other so we get to practice our management skills as well as our teamwork abilities, and myself as an aspiring manager, you know, I get to experience those real-life situations that you may face in an operating restaurant like time, sales and marketing."

Gardner said the course's purpose is also to widen students' knowledge on preparing various cuisines.

"We are living in a global world and I'm pretty sure that whether they stay in Cape Girardeau or go outside of the state or maybe go to another country, they're going to be working in a setting where there will be folks from all over the world," Gardner said. "These days it's a good thing to be aware -- to be more aware of what is really happening in the true work world, so it will benefit them."

Beene and Rice's dinner was planned for Nov. 10. The rest of the semester will include four more weeks of dinners. The next dinner is scheduled for Nov. 17 with the theme of "Buen Provecho!"