YSU Food system students plan meal and eat up experience

Other Cahoots events will be April 1 and April 22.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Thursday evening, a group of Youngstown State University food systems students sat in a classroom, forming stars and moons from metallic paper.
It was the calm before the storm.
This coming Thursday evening, the room will be crowded with diners, and these same students will be responsible for making sure they walk away happy.
"An Evening Under the Stars" will be the first "Cahoots" student restaurant event of the semester, and many of the students planning the one-day business escapade are doing so for the first time.
"The easiest is planning it," said hospitality management major Nicole Birrell of Kinsman. "The hardest is pulling it off."
Student-run restaurant
Cahoots, YSU's student-run restaurant, was born last term as part of the food systems course. Students plan and present meals on a limited budget. This time they'll serve 70 people for $560.
Last term, each of the one-day events was held at lunchtime. This term, they will be dinners.
On Thursday's menu is Caesar salad, apple-bacon stuffed chicken, redskin potatoes, steamed broccoli, wheat rolls with honey butter, ginger-peach cheesecake cups and beverages.
Seating is open from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Cost is $8 per person and tickets are limited. Call (330) 941-1493 or (330) 941-3344 or visit room 3101 in YSU's Cushwa Hall. (If you miss out, other Cahoots events this term are slated for April 1 and April 22.)
Besides the evening seating, the meal has a few new features this time, including round tables with linens and formal table settings.
Donations received
Also, the group received some donations: Olive Garden donated mints; Giant Eagle donated some food and supplies, and Lucianno's Restaurant donated linens. The group also is looking for donations of items to raffle.
"It'll be kind of fun," said Art Shutrump of Boardman, a hospitality management junior who works at Days Inn in Boardman. His role at Cahoots is marketing and finance, and on Thursday he plans to wear the Pete the Penguin mascot costume to entertain diners.
Birrell, a freshman, said she works as a hostess at the Olive Garden in Boardman, so she has experience with the service end of the project, but she is learning anew when it comes to finances.
"It'll help in the aspect of budgeting money," she said. "And it's a restaurant, so, for hospitality management, it'll help us understand -- if we take a job in the food and restaurant industry -- what it will be like."
She's learning
Junior dietetics major Lynda Maschek of Austintown said she is learning to produce food in mass quantities, a talent she has watched as she works twice a week in food services at AustinWoods Nursing Center.
"It's overwhelming," she said. "This is really helping me learn how to produce foods in mass quantities, not just for my two kids and husband."
viviano@vindy.com