For one evening, guests inside the Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center felt like they were transported to different corners of the world as College of Human Sciences students in Global Gastronomy and Special Events classes hosted an immersive culinary experience through the Global Gastronomy World Travelers event on Dec. 1.
On a night that brought culture and cuisine together, attendees were treated as “world travelers” where they received a passport and could choose between two flights that featured delicious food and wine pairings from eight countries around the world.
Event management students like Molly Feldman and Livia Lovett helped coordinate the event with classmates where they planned and set up the event, checked-in guests, answered questions and more as part of their final class project that culminated a semesters long worth of work.
“We helped create passports for each guest that include an itinerary, information about each country, facts like population and traditions and once they visit each station we give them stickers so they can stamp each part of the passport,” Lovett said.
In addition to event management students, culinary science students also put in hours of hard work preparing delicious tastings for the country they were assigned to that included Germany, Greece, Jordan, Nigeria, Polynesia, South America, South Korea and Turkey. Along with the unique cuisine relative to each country, matching wines hand-picked and donated by Master Sommelier Thomas Price were also offered to guests at the event.
Jordan, one of the countries represented, offered spiced beef over hummus, chicken shawarma and a kunafa dessert paired with sauvignon blanc or hot tea as senior Culinary Science student Ann Price Bishop explained to guests why they chose to feature cuisine from Jordan.
“We chose to feature Jordan because our TA Hamzeh (Hammadeen) is actually from Jordan and these are his family recipes,” Bishop said. “We got here early this morning and everything on the plate we made from scratch.”
While enjoying the food, guests were also informed of the cooking process and techniques used, traditions and customs of each country and the students’ personal experiences while preparing for the event.
“Our class is required to have volunteer hours in the hospitality industry so this is counting toward our volunteer hours,” Riley Tucker, junior in event management, said. “We’ve been working a lot in class, especially with the upper level (senior) classes all semester with floor plans, marketing and putting all the crafts together so it’s really their project at the end of the semester and then we come in and help them put it all together and execute it.”
For more information on the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management, visit humsci.auburn.edu/hosp..
