LISD TECH Center Culinary Arts Students Host Food Hall Concept Event
Last month, LISD TECH Center Culinary Arts students presented restaurant concepts and sample menu items as part of a food hall project. Students invited friends, family, LISD staff, and local business leaders in the restaurant field to attend. A food hall is a collection of small restaurants, usually locally-developed concepts, new creations from established chefs, or start-up restauranteurs. Food halls offer a variety of diverse food and beverage items that are often prepared from scratch. Unlike mall food courts that are designed to feed shoppers and support retailers, food courts are their own destinations with little or no retail offerings.
“The idea behind this project is to give second-year students more leadership training and first-year students more work-based training,” Ashton Wyatt-McComas, senior at Blissfield High School. “While second-year students set up our concepts and menus, the first-year students work in the kitchen to prepare the recipes.”
In addition to creating the restaurant concepts and food samples, students involved in the project had to price out a full menu and develop marketing and design elements for their restaurant. Guests were also invited to take a brief survey for each project. Food samples included pork belly skewers, mushroom risotto, tacos, pasta, jackfruit curry, breakfast omelets, and more.
“Our team project was Shoreline, and our concept was to create a menu that would be healthy for the Earth and our bodies,’ Alissa Crick, senior at Clinton High School. “Our menu sample includes a quinoa-based power bowl with chicken, avocado, mushrooms, cabbage, and sesame seeds.”
