Jennifer Baker
Staff Writer
It's time again for the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management's International Dinner Series.
This semester's series began Feb. 3 and will continue through April 23. The series will offer 48 different themes Monday through Thursday evenings through different menus featuring cuisine from around the world.
The Hilton College's students offer this dinner series every year as part of a senior-level course, Advanced Food and Beverage Management. The course requires each student to be responsible for hosting an entire evening of dining.
That involves preparing menus, recipes and purchase orders, preparing food, marketing the meal, evaluating procedures and managing all the other aspects of a restaurant's operation.
At the beginning of each semester, students choose themes and spend the remainder of the class time preparing for their big nights.
As general manager of his evening, a student assigns each of his classmates different duties, ranging from cooking to waiting tables, tending bar, hosting and dishwashing.
Students who have finished the course say they dreaded taking the class because of the horror stories they had heard about all the hard work involved.
However, they say that the experience is valuable and confidence-boosting.
"I thought the course would never end," said Allison Bregman, an alumna of the class. "I have never been so stressed in my entire life. But after it was over, I realized what a valuable experience I had gained.
"It dawned on me then that the class was actually really a lot of fun," she said.
The school is considered one of the best of its kind in the nation for its state-of-the-art facilities and its teaching methods. The advanced management class is just one of many hands-on courses required of the college's students.
Before graduation, most of the college's students have put in about 800 hours of service.
This semester's dinner series will be served in Eric's Restaurant, located off the ground-floor lobby of the University Hilton.
Dinners are served from 5 to 7:30 p.m., and menus are posted one week in advance. Prices range from $8 to $14 for entrees and from $15 to $20 for prix fixe dinners.
This week, the series will bring foods from Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Chile.
Dinners are open to the public. For information, call (713) 743-2512.