KNOXVILLE — Are your taste buds hungry for adventure? Would you like to sample international cuisine without leaving campus?
Get ready, Volunteer foodies: the Ready for the World Café opens soon.
The café, an international buffet operated by students in the advanced food production and service management class, Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) 445, opens Sept. 13 and runs for 10 weeks. It will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday in the Hermitage Room on the third floor of the University Center.
Diners pay $11 for the all-you-can-eat buffet or $9 for a plate of food to carry out.
Note that the café will be closed due to a private booking on Thursday, Sept. 16.
The first week’s chef’s choice menu includes apple-cabbage coleslaw, pumpkin pork chops, apple-cranberry chicken breasts, seafood alfredo, crustless spinach-and-feta quiche, scalloped corn supreme and glazed sweet potatoes. The buffet also will feature a carving station and assorted desserts.
This semester, there are 18 students in the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) 445 course. In small groups, they will take turns planning the menus, marketing the café and working in the café. ARAMARK, UT’s provider of dining services, prepares the food.
The student restaurateurs are:
- Trey Bodkin, a senior in HRT from Memphis who has worked at a barbecue restaurant.
- Audrey Byrne, a senior in HRT from Washington, D.C., who worked at a restaurant in San Francisco this summer and is interested in event planning.
- Stefan de Castroverde, a senior in HRT from Nashville who has done event and meeting planning for the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun.
- Bobby Clymens, a senior in HRT from Kingsport.
- Emily Culvern, a senior in HRT from Morristown who works at La Costa restaurant on Market Square.
- Michael Darras, a senior in HRT from Chattanooga who recently did an internship at Disney World.
- Alicia Davis, a senior in HRT from Knoxville who is interested in small businesses, restaurants and bakeries.
- Ryan Edgerton, a senior in HRT from Atlanta who works at The Butcher Shop restaurant and aspires to open a resort in Greece.
- Katie Frith, a senior in HRT from Nashville who works at Macaroni Grill and wants to be an event planner.
- Claire Hadden, a senior in HRT, from Philo, Ill., and Morristown who works as an intern at the Holiday Inn near World’s Fair Park.
- Stephanie Renee Hunley, a senior in nutrition from Knoxville who is interested in promoting sustainability in restaurants.
- Yu-Ming Hsu, a senior in nutrition from Taiwan.
- Jessica La Veck, a junior in food science from Nashville who aspires to be a chef.
- Megan Lockridge, a senior in HRT from Pulaski who is a 2010 graduate of the UT Culinary Institute.
- Celeste McCracken, a senior in HRT from West Seneca, N.Y., who works as a manager at McAlister’s on the Cumberland strip.
- Dana Richardson, a senior in HRT from Cookeville who has worked in several restaurants.
- Nathan Wade, a senior in HRT form Englewood who works at Calhoun’s in Turkey Creek and aspires to open his own restaurant.
- Amanda Wilds, a senior in nutrition from Knoxville who wants to study Ayurveda medicine, rooted in traditional Indian medicine.
C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)