PSELCC503 - Professional Cooking III: Italian Creative Cuisine and Decoration Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning

Semester Credits: 6

Contact Hours: 45

Prerequisites: Professional Cooking II: Cooking Techniques or equivalent. Unofficial transcript submission required.

Description: 6 semester credits. This course is intended to give advanced students the fundamentals of kitchen organization, menu composition, plating and decoration as well as consolidate their attitudes and skills thanks to full-immersion hands-on activities that will result in effective professional and personal growth, and introduce them to the concept of team work, timing and responsibility within the kitchen environment. The course is open to all students with a good experience in kitchen basics like knife skills, vegetables, meat and eggs cooking, application of classic cooking methods and knowledge of main Italian ingredients. Students will have the opportunity to practice cooking techniques and basic kitchen organization skills on a daily basis. Students will be followed by the Chef instructor, who will be their mentor in this restaurant cooking experience. The course will develop students skills in dishes and menu composition, as well as in building combinations of ingredients based on the legacy of Italian tradition. To do this students will analyze the role of the leading Italian chefs of the last decades and their cooking styles in order to understand their influence on the development of Italian cuisine. The course will be held in the school’s creative learning lab where students will put the learned techniques in practice for the preparation of an Italian cuisine menu. This course includes experiential learning hours with our Community Engagement Member Institutions (CEMI). CEMI are dynamic learning environments created to foster learning through a structured interaction with the community. In addition to regular lecture hours, students will be involved in learning by doing through real projects and integration with the local population and territory in order to remove cultural and learning barriers as well as to develop a strong likelihood for success in life. The experiential learning hours are fully supervised by instructors who track students step by step during their learning experience, monitor and advise according to student needs, and support student initiative. This unique learning model allows students to benefit from an all-encompassing educational experience based on theory and practice in real enterprises, learning of comprehensive operational processes, problem-solving, leadership, and management. Prerequisites: Professional Cooking II: Cooking Techniques or equivalent.