Self Reflection on a Food Event

Alsop and Ryan (1996) Retrospective reflection is like, looking back at a photograph or a video coming back from a holiday. Reflection is something that is personal and it allows on a retrospective to analyze where we started, how we did it, was it done towards personal satisfaction and if opportunity comes again how different would we do it the next time.

In the reflection below, I will be taking cues from Gibbs (1988) model of reflection; we will look at the event, consulting, team, time management, planning, progression, discussion, presentation and finally introspection.

Event:

Food is an important part of any celebration regardless of culture or religion. In these unit students, we examine a range of special occasions and prepare foods unique to specific celebrations. Food presentation and service is a focus of the unit and we learn how to present and garnish foods appropriate to a given setting. We submit a proposal for a large scale catering event and collaboratively host a celebration for a major school event. The cuisine that we selected is Arabian, which is Mediterranean. As a team we finalised the menu as follows.

Jalik ( cucumber soup)

Looz shorba ( Almond soup)

Falafel

Flavoured rice

Immambaldi

Lemon flavoured lamb

Effective feedback:

The aim of feedback is to communicate to students how well their knowledge, understanding and skills are developing in relation to the outcomes. Feedback enables students to recognise their strengths and areas for development, and to plan with their teacher the next steps in their learning. They are then given opportunities to improve and further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills. Teacher feedback about student work is essential for students and is integral to the teaching and learning process. Student self-reflection and peer evaluation will also provide valuable feedback to students. Students should be provided with regular opportunities to reflect on their learning.

Feedback should:

Focus on the activity and what was expected be constructive, providing meaningful information to students about their learning correct misunderstandings identify and reinforce students’ strengths and state clearly how students can improve. Forms of feedback include:

oral discussion with class, groups or individual students written annotations general comments to the class about those aspects of the activity in which students excelled and those aspects that still need addressing examples of good responses peer evaluation and self-evaluation

Team:

Our Team consisted of 10 members from different race and gender which came together by choice rather than any coercion, with each one having their own strengths and weakness, As a student’s we were aware of what we need to do demonstrate evidence of learning. This information could be conveyed informally or formally by the teacher, as appropriate for the learning activity. We are informed of the criteria that are used to assess the learning. They are clear about the meaning of the language used, and the subject specific terminology. They are clear about any sources or stimulus material that is appropriate to the activity. It was helpful in giving us good responses and templates or procedures to help ourselves with demonstrating the extent of the knowledge, understandings and skills.

Planning:

The primary activity that the group carried out was to come with a realistic plan for the event, therefore two activities were done on corresponding times , defining the roles of each of the team member so as to clearly demarcate our roles and responsibilities within the event. The Proposal was the guideline that we strictly followed within the timelines that helped us to complete the event on time. Roles given to me were to identify the appropriate indent for the dishes that we would use for the event, which was unanimously decided to be indent table method. Work was divided so as that everyone felt comfortable within the team and no one felt overburdened or underutilized. As it is event we are serving delegates we are allowed to get familiar with cooking Arabic food and its service styles. Three weeks of practice has been carried out by us, each team member is assigned to do each dish in which I was assigned to cook two hot and cold soups ie jalik (cucumber soup) and looz shorba (almond soup).I also practiced how to cook flavoured rice as well. Practice session in our kitchen helped us a lot to make our food more palatable to our guests. Each team member had their passion to make event the successful one.

My work:

Arabic cuisine has sheer number of shorbas (soups), we as a team selected to prepare almond soup as non vegetarian soup and cucumber as vegetarian soup. We tried to make our event more cost effective and drawn some cap over the hall ambience. The hall is designed in such way like Arabian nights with lamps and the table setting in Mediterranean style. This event have given me a very good experience in food serving tactics and as a student I found

Hygienic handling of food to ensure a safe and appealing product.

Assessing and managing the risks of injury and OHS issues (occupational health and safety) associated with the handling o food.

Appropriate methods os food processing, preparation and storage.

The relationship between food consumption, the nutritional value of foods and health of individuals and communities.

Food choices by analysing the factors that influence eating habits.

Information from the variety of sources.

Communicating ideas and information using a range of media appropriate terminology.

Employing appropriate techniques and equipment for a variety of food specific purposes.

Examining the relationship between food, technology and society.

Evaluating the impact of activities related to food on the individual, society and the environment.

Planning, preparing, presenting and evaluating food solutions for specific purposes.

The importance of presentation and service for special occasions including garnishing and decorating techniques.

Discussion and progression:

We as a team had regular meeting about our event and observing demonstration given by the teacher Jane estham and Michael Mathews which helped us quite a lot things in conducting this event. The work flow plan was drawn and executed by our team. The details of the workflow plan activity provided us a clear cut experience in food service. As a team we

Viewed videos of garnishing

Planned garnishes suitable for the menu demonstrated by our teacher.

Workflow plan

Presenting food and making them more palatable.

Evaluating the setting and visual appeal of the meal.

Discussed religious for cultural considerations.

Discussed resources required including ingredients required equipment, skills, money and time.

Final presentation:

Having several meetings and practices the final presentations are made n which the team is segregated into two, food service and food production in which my part falls in food production, we considered each one is manager and those circumstances made us feel like a manager in food service industry. Mise en place (pre preparation) was carried out well as a team; welcome drinks are served to the guests on time in which the welcome drink we served them is a Middle East famous drink called Rooh afza. They are served with rocks to the guests. The service style we preferred is table service and also it is pre plated service in where portioning is considered as a matter of fact. Soup is being served piping hot to the guests with garnishes on. Service is also gone through well and the guests are being cared by our service personnel. The food attains guests table on time and we are very much cautious in time management. Co ordination with our team members was so unique as we served our guests with pleasure.

Stage 2 – self awareness:

Having describe earlier the team, planning and progression of the evet and looking back I feel the team did a commendable job of collecting the information, sharing and working along to get this far in the event and there are no regrets about the team and the effort that they had put in ,except the only regret being the project could have been done better if we had done two things with some guidance and help.

We could have interacted more with our guests and would have got their valuable comments about the event, to do this we had no clear idea of the procedure to do the same

As international students we had hard time collecting the information necessary, next time we will device a better way to reach to the guests.

Stage 3 – evaluation:

The food event that we carried helped us to work as a team and plan our work accordingly so that no one felt overburdened, the team had a cohesive standing at all times ,therefore if this has to be done again we would do it with the same team, Also the work itself of collecting the information and gathering data was an eye opener ,which helped me to understand that only planning and replanning and contingency planning will help me to get the fruitful comment from our guests . I would have failed if I had not planned for the contingencies that may arise during our menu planning. Still the only detail that we failed to do was to speak to the guests whom we invited, I felt communication with our guest was less and it could have been done to made it better that had given us the work , having failed to do this resulted in the event giving us an alternative idea at the end of the presentation i.e we could have been placed a comment note on their tables to leave their comments to make us go wise more.

As discussed earlier the presentation and data collection were the two things that went the best but failing to have communicated with the guests was the worst thing that happened in the event.

Stage 4 – Analysis:

The analysis of the report and creating them into a format understandable was the important part of the task which I did well and I could do that keeping my tech skills and also helped me to furnish the part of my report at ease. Oral responses discussion and mind map activities demonstrates us understanding of the significance of the food in celebrations.

Stage 5 – reflection:

Having to work under a team,had let me off some key responsibilities such as planning which we left to the tutor. I believe the entire event operationally moved on very smoothly without any hitches but there are areas that I would change if the event is to be done once again are

Would Work on more detail in regards to the design of the menu.

Would take more time to plan on how to go about getting the best recipes and more qualitative.

Would keep in continuous touch with the guests to understand their specific need and work towards achieving the same.

Would use menu analysis tools to make our menu much impressive.

Would have more meetings.

Stage 6 – Action plan:

When I am in the future given a part of the event or to lead a food service industry the following would be the action plan that I would use having done this event once and learning from the issues that I failed to do this time

Would Understand needs and wants of the guests in detail ,by speaking to the guests and the team in-depth

Would plan a time line and will stick to the time line

Will assign the event work to the team understanding the strength and weakness of the team members involved.

Will Use menu analysis tools.

Will speak to the teacher/experienced at every stage of the project, will try to have at least on meeting in person.

Would try to find the best way of service and getting their feedback to get the results back.

I believe by doing the above said actions would lead to the most successful food event.