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Ready for the WorldKNOXVILLE—Prepare your taste buds for lamb and couscous as the Ready for the World Café at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, offers Indian cuisine on November 8.

The Ready for the World Café is a weekly, full-service, fine-dining experience with international themes. It now operates in the UT Visitors Center, 2712 Neyland Drive.

Lunch, which will consist of intermezzo, or small appetizer, salad, entrée, and dessert, will be served from noon to 1:00 p.m. Tickets must be purchased in advance and capacity is fifty to sixty diners. Cost is $12, and the faculty/staff discount card can be used. To purchase advance tickets, see Marcia in 110 Jessie Harris Building, or call 865-974-6645.

The Indian menu will include:

Appetizer: Chicken tikkas (skewers of marinated, boneless chicken breasts)

Salad: Spinach salad with tamarind dressing, pappadam croutons (light, crisp wafers made of lentil flour)

Bread: Ciabatta bread

Entrée: Gosht pasanda (tender boneless marinated lamb simmered in rich cream sauce) with curried couscous and lightly spiced green beans mixed with mustard seeds

Dessert: Kheer (rich and creamy dessert served hot and flavored with cinnamon)

Lunch-time entertainment will be provided by Indian dancers.

The Ready for the World luncheons are produced through collaboration between HRT 445, the Advanced Food Production and Service Management class, the UT Culinary Institute, and the Pellissippi Culinary Institute.

Students enrolled in HRT 445 will work as general managers, dining room attendants, assistant kitchen managers, dining room managers, and dining room service employees. They will be responsible for the execution of the dining experience, managing staff, menu planning, cooking, quantification, cost analysis, ordering, meal service, event marketing, and customer satisfaction activities.

The HRT 445 students in charge of this week’s café are Ashley Hathaway and Brooke Wadlington.

Hathaway, of Nashville, is a senior majoring in nutrition with a minor in restaurant and food service management. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health nutrition and apply for a dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian.

“I have always wanted to travel abroad, and I feel like the Ready for the World Café has given me an opportunity to be a part of the international experience I always dreamed of,” she said.

Wadlington, a senior in nutrition with a minor in restaurant and food service management, was born and raised in Harriman.

“From the time I was old enough to work, I have worked in mostly fast food and as a server at a bed and breakfast,” she said. “I am also involved in cooking meals at my home church on Wednesday nights, and I volunteer in the Infant, Child, and Adolescent Nutrition Lab at UT.” Wadlington said she plans to apply for a dietetic internship in the spring and plans to become a registered dietitian.

Culinary Institute students will do most of the food preparation and plate presentation, assist the HRT students on the aspects of controlling food costs and ordering, and also be introduced to dining room responsibilities.

Upcoming Ready for the World Café luncheons include:

  • November 15, Africa
  • November 22, South Italy
  • November 29, Peru

C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)