RU Dining goes from live in-person to online
From doing live in-person classes, to tackling the struggles of teaching online, Chef Tommy McHugh, Dr. Rick Oh and Brian Heasman shaped a way to make our “RU Dining” HTF506 Food and Beverage Operations course a hands-on “accessible” learning experience from home.
Many students who took the same course in the past stressed that the reason to take HTF506 was to gain hands-on experience at the front and back of the house along with applying the concepts of restaurant management into real-world situations. Based on the discussion and advice, all the course contents including the methods of assessments were revised to be more relevant to the online learning environment and to promote experiential learning.
It was not a simple task to transform a live course into an online course while maintaining hands-on components. This could not have happened without continuous discussions and help from our executive Chef, Tommy McHugh who has over 20 years of experience in some of the world’s best kitchens.
Students were expected to perform a variety of culinary techniques, follow food safety and sanitation protocols, and use culinary terminologies learned in class. Considering the virtual learning environment of students, the detailed list of equipment and ingredients was carefully prepared in advance. Students were asked to develop a five-to-ten-minute cooking demonstration video of a dish of their choice. In addition, there was support from people in the hotel and restaurant industry. Guest speakers were virtually invited to share their managerial experience related to a specific topic of the course with students.
RU Dining is virtual once again this Fall semester for our students, but Chef Tommy and Dr. Oh are now able to do the class from our state of the art demonstration kitchen on the 7th floor of the Ted Rogers School of Management.
We can’t wait to welcome everyone back to RU Dining in the Winter term, when the University is expected to re-open to in-person classes!
In the meantime, follow @RUDining (external link, opens in new window) to see what our students are cooking this semester and check their page (opens in new window) for details on our re-opening!
If you are on campus this Fall semester, come to TRSM for lunch* and check what Chef Tommy's cooking in Ted's Kitchen (external link, opens in new window) or if you want some cooking lessons from Chef himself, check our Professional Culinary Series!
*If you are coming to campus, you must follow the requirements (opens in new window) to enter University buildings.
