Bachelor in Tourism, Hotel Management and Operations students serve up elegance

The four-year Bachelor of Business Administration in Tourism, Hotel Management and Operations is designed to give students both a theoretical and practical education and prepare them for leading positions in the tourism and hospitality industry.

In their first year, students take courses related to operations, culinary arts, restaurant and service management, hotel management, personal development, and business communications. They learn the ways of the kitchen and front-of-house, taking on every role from prep cook to Maître d'hotel.

Their first major challenge comes after nine weeks of intensive training when they try their hands at preparing and serving a formal dinner to invited guests, among them the presidents of MODUL University and MODUL Tourism College where the kitchen courses take place, as well as staff and faculty and -possibly the most nerve-wracking - their own parents.

The international group greeted guests in their native languages including those of Moldova, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Russia, Switzerland, the USA, Turkey, Azerbaijan, China, and Austria. The culinary destination for the evening was a little closer to Vienna than some of the students’ home towns - the elaborate 5-course dinner with wine pairings celebrated the cuisine of France.

The meal began with a plate of hors d'oeuvre, ranging from delicate asparagus to rich goose liver pâté. An intricately-spiced quail consommé with poached quail’s egg preceded pan-fried scallops on a bed of baby spinach with a white wine cream sauce.

These lighter dishes paired well with a 2013 Gemischter Satz from local Weingut Wieninger, a regional white wine specific to Vienna and parts of Styria, where all grapes included must be grown on the same plot of land.

The pièce de résistance arrived under a silver cloche which was theatrically removed to reveal a fillet of beef in red wine sauce served with château potatoes that paired nicely with a 2012 Wiener Trilogie red wine also from Wiengut Wieninger.

The students not only learn how to serve a classy dinner, but also a variety of preparation techniques. To accompany a chocolate soufflé and strawberry sorbet, strawberries were live flambéed with Grand Marnier and green peppercorns to the delight of guests in the dining room, while other students took care of the dessert wine service pouring a 2007 Mostello fortified pear wine.

Dr. Florian Aubke, Program Area Director and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Tourism and Service Management, was pleased with the progress of his students, ‘’This event is the outcome of many weeks of hard work, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much effort has been put into it. Certainly this was a great learning opportunity for the students’’.

More pictures from the evening are available on Facebook, and the MODUL University News Network was also on hand to film the event and interview Dr. Aubke and his group. Stay tuned for the next episode!