KNOXVILLE — Since Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain, the Ready for the World Café at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will celebrate the scariest week of the year with an Irish-influenced menu.
The menu for this week includes Portobello mushroom lasagna; lemon-and-garlic roasted chicken; Guinness pot roast; fisherman’s pie (a casserole of seafood and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes); roasted root vegetables; Colcannon (Irish potato salad); roasted artichoke salad; Bailey’s Irish Cream cake and dirt cake.
The café is an international buffet operated by students in the advanced food production and service management class, Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) 445. It is 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.
This semester, there are 18 students in the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) 445 course. In small groups, they take turns planning the menus, marketing the café and working in the café. ARAMARK, UT’s provider of dining services, prepares the food.
To enhance the Halloween theme, “employees will be dressed in Halloween costumes. Guests are also encouraged to wear their costumes,” said Dana Richardson, one of the student managers for the week. Richardson, a senior in HRT from Cookeville, has worked in several restaurants. Richardson’s co-manager for the week is Nathan Wade, a senior in HRT from Englewood who works at Calhoun’s in Turkey Creek and aspires to open his own restaurant.
C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)