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Chef Dave
03-31-2008, 04:48 PM
One of the ideas I picked up at the culinary arts conference I attended last Friday was the idea of trying to integrate instruction with other departments. In thinking about it, it occurred to me that culinary arts could easily support our drama department by offering a dinner theater!

When I suggested the idea to the drama teacher, she immediately suggested "The Pirates of Penzance."

http://sydney.diarystar.com.au/userimages/user1078_1157006433.jpg

Since it seems to me that our dinner theme should support the production, I came up the idea of offering:

Corn Chowder OR a Tossed Garden Salad

Roast Beef with Gravy OR Grilled Lemon Chicken - either entrée to be accompanied with a baked red potato, grilled vegetables, and a freshly baked roll.

Dessert: Key Lime Pie

Ticket buyers will pre-order their dinners at the time of ticket purchase. Upon arrival for the dinner event, they will check in with the ticket checker who will give each person a satay stick with two "nautical" flags. A green flag is an order for a tossed salad. A yellow flag is a corn chowder.

Roast beef would be a brown flag. Grilled Chicken would be a 2nd yellow flag.

Members of the audience will find a ball of clay at each place setting. Sticking the satay stick into the clay will help student servers identify customer orders.

Our business department will handle advertising and ticket sales.

Our drafting & wood shop class will handle the production of all stage sets.

All CTE departments will be involved in the production of the Pirates of Penzance. Since our culinary arts department is fairly small, casting extras dressed as pirates, town folk, or constables will assist in serving tables.

I'm rather excited about planning this. The culinary arts department will plan to serve 100-150 dinners.

busbus
03-31-2008, 05:24 PM
A neat idea.

What's with the flags? I haven't seen The Pirates of Penzance, are the flags related to it?

I know that I sometimes forget the meal that I pre-ordered. Is your idea of the flags a "fail-safe" way of giving the person just what they had ordered? Just asking questions.

I think that your initiative to get the culinary department involved with other departments is great. This just may be the start of getting departments to integrate their instruction and help to reduce some of the isolation of departments - Career Tech over here and Core Curriculum over there.

Hope that everything works out and that your idea of working with other departments filters across departments. Again, a neat idea. :)

Chef Dave
04-01-2008, 06:44 AM
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][COLOR="Navy"]A neat idea.

What's with the flags? I haven't seen The Pirates of Penzance, are the flags related to it?

The color coded flags will allow our servers to identify who ordered what. This will increase the flow of service because students won't have to "auction food" by asking diners whether they wanted the soup or the salad.

If servers had to stop and ask who wanted what, I can guarantee you that we'd be short of a given product because some people will change their minds about what they ordered. In the meanwhile, a person who was shorted of a salad who had actually pre-ordered a salad would be upset ... and this would reflect upon the professionalism of our restaurant.

The use of flags would also be in keeping with the theme as flags were used as nautical forms for communication prior to the invention of the radio.

jsfowler
04-01-2008, 07:45 AM
This is a wonderful idea. Our high school does a dinner theatre twice a year - thier Halloween and a small Spring production. They are sold out every time and it is never a disappointment.

dangercat
04-01-2008, 08:34 AM
That sounds like an amazing idea. I wish that at least one of the schools around here even came close to doing something like that.

:) Brook

MissTeach
04-01-2008, 10:48 AM
Fantastic idea!!!!!! Such a great way for departments to work together!!!!!

sgaestel
04-02-2008, 06:29 PM
I've wanted to do a dinner theatre, and Chef Dave, you just made me realize I should totally integrate the culinary arts department at our school!
I already know when we do a dinner theatre I want to do A Thurber Carnival, the staging is interesting and great to put into the cafeteria, where the performace would have to take place.
Thanks Chef Dave!