Although preparing food for over 90 people is always a challenging task, this is precisely the kind of challenge that the fourth year B Consumer Science Hospitality Management Students at the University of Pretoria (UP) have grown to relish, having done numerous functions of this scale over the past few months.

In April the group was faced with the prospect of preparing and serving a three-course fine dining meal in a tent at Canvas and Tent at the Denel Business Park in Centurion as part of their formal training, instead of working in the comfort of their familiar large scale kitchen on campus with the dining room not a stone’s throw away. This required intense planning and consideration of all possible eventualities, including a number of logistical challenges, which required exceptional sense of responsibility and keen leadership. Some of the elements of the dishes were prepared in advance in the food laboratories of the Department of Consumer Science, while other elements were prepared in Canvas and Tents’ hangar deck tent, where the students had the opportunity to debut Turkish company Ozti’s field kitchen to military representatives from across the African continent.

The student chefs relished the opportunity to try out the various pieces of cooking equipment that forms part of the field kitchen, cooking pumpkin fritters on the portable flat top, roasting a rolled leg of lamb in the oven and cooking delicious creamed samp and marogo in the deep frying pans. As the assembled guests waited outside in anticipation, the hangar tent (pumped full of smoke) was opened to loud music and even louder applause from the guests.

The students appreciated the unique learning opportunity presented by this event, leaving with a sense of pride about providing an enjoyable meal to an appreciative audience and a very impressed client. Everyone involved in the project is to be congratulated on making the first off-site event for 2015 a huge success.