Advanced Culinary Arts students in Amanda Blue’s classes at Saint Peter High School recently completed their restaurant design project unit. The unit wrapped up with student teams staging their own mock restaurant complete with customers along with food and beverage service.
“I am always blown away by what students come up with for this project,” Blue said. “This time around, there were karaoke, sports, cafe, boardgame, Italian, and fair themed restaurants!
“Students put in a lot of work and time for this project from start to finish, and I designed it so that they have a lot of working parts and logistics to figure out. I really enjoy giving them real-world, project-based experiences. It’s very rewarding for me, and I hope for them, to see how far they have come over the course of our culinary program.
The Advanced Restaurant design project guidelines includes:- Working in small groups, students will be designing their own restaurants from concept, design, menus, and recipes.
- The project began with a mentor panel of industry experts who provided background information on all things restaurants/food service industry.
- They will be setting up a pop-up version of this restaurant for four guests and serving their prix fixe menu.
- Advertisements and invitations were also created.
- Students design the uniforms and the room, borrow furniture and props from home or around school.
- They apply for jobs within their own restaurant as well as their classmates' restaurants, so all students are engaged in every restaurant, whether it is theirs or not.
- The project lasts for nearly the entire final quarter of their semester, and is a capstone project for both intro and advanced culinary arts. Everything they have done up until now has led them to this point!
- After all teams have completed their service days, they will prepare a presentation, and our mentor panel of experts will return and act as an investor panel for students to share their experience.
- All along the way, students evaluated themselves and each other on their work, and had team meetings about planning and training their staff.
More restaurant photo highlights are below
