Culinary Institute of America (CIA) students Iskandar Tay and Lavina Kwang, who are currently on their one-year overseas work attachment in the US, share their experience organising a 60-pax charity dinner as part of their capstone project.

Vintage Hollywood film posters adorned the wall, dimmed hall lights added a touch of mystery; men and women dressed in black-and-white all glammed up and ready to serve. “Les Films Noir” was like stepping into a star-studded film gala from a bygone era.

One of the highlights of the Bachelor of Food Business Management degree programme, offered by CIA in collaboration with SIT, “Les Films Noir” is the annual charity dinner that graduating students plan, prepare and execute on their own. Work on the final-year capstone project, which allows them to apply what they have learned in a real-world setting, typically starts in end-February with teams of students coming up with proposals for the charity event. Only one, however, will eventually be chosen for execution.

The team with the ‘winning’ proposal will then form the core event organising team, comprising the Head Chef, Sous Chef, Marketing Manager, Finance Manager, etc. The rest of the batch will play supporting front-of-house (e.g. servers) and back-of-house (e.g. chefs) operation roles.

“Les Films Noir” – A Contrast of Senses

CIA Food Business Management (Culinary Arts) final-year student Iskandar Tay (right) was the General Manager of the “Les Films Noir” charity dinner event. (Photo: Issac Wee)

Iskandar Tay, who took on the role of General Manager for the exclusive 'one-night-only' restaurant dinner event on 27 April, shared that his team’s winning proposal was inspired by the theme of “Les Films Noir” (French for “black-and-white films”) – which is a throwback to the golden age of 1950s and 1960s Hollywood cinema era.

He said: “The room at the Temasek Culinary Academy that we were assigned to host the dinner happened to have a projector. This gave us the idea to emulate what the Foreign Cinema restaurant in San Francisco is doing – to have films playing in the background as diners tuck into their food.”

60 guests, comprising supporters of CIA, Temasek Polytechnic, Children’s Wishing Well and the general public, all dressed for the occasion and ready to be served with modern French cuisine. (Photo: Evelyn Teo)

Fellow student Lavina Kwang, who played the role of Service Manager, added that the choice of the black-and-white film aesthetic also served to create a contrast between the vibrantly coloured dishes, as well as the beautifully dressed patrons.

The 7-course lineup of modern French cuisine for guests was a culinary spectacle, beginning with the delicate charcoal pillow, paired with silky pomme purée and creamy taramasalata. Succulent scallops bathed in vichyssoise sauce tantalized the taste buds, while the hearty seafood stew, brimming with poached seabass and shrimp, offered a comforting embrace.

It was food galore as the guests were in for a sumptuous seven-course modern French cuisine treat at the charity event. (Photo: Children’s Wishing Well Instagram page) 

Lavina explained: “The dress code was ‘Dressed-to-Kill in the 1950s’. So, set against the backdrop of LED lights that simulated the guide lights of a cinema theatre, and the film posters and vinyl records that lined the walls, the event really took on the glamorous vibe of a film gala premiere.”

Black-and-white film posters donning the walls of the dining venue at Temasek Culinary Academy, with the service crew wearing outfits matching the theme. (Photo: Evelyn Teo)

Piecing it all Together

As part of the Bachelor of Food Business Management degree programme, which has a 'Baking and Pastry Arts' and 'Culinary Arts' track, students are taught a wide range of skills, including culinary and baking techniques, hospitality and service management, organisational behaviour, food marketing, financial accounting, and more.  

The event, therefore, presented students with a golden opportunity to apply all that they had learned over the two-year degree programme to running an actual restaurant event. These included raising funds, planning the menu, sourcing ingredients, event publicity, and even finding a suitable charity beneficiary.

“Other than receiving some advice and guidance from our lecturers, we had to do everything from scratch,” said Iskandar. For Lavina, one of her tasks involved training servers and deciding what service style and table settings to employ.

“I was thankful that I could draw upon technical skills like HR management taught in school to manage people and come up with the training schedule and objectives.” Iskandar, too, appreciated how he was able to put into practice skill sets like people management, which he learned from his psychology module, to ensure the smooth running of the event.

“As the General Manager, I needed to manage the ‘staff’ to get them to do things willingly and keep up their morale to deal with the last-minute changes. People have varied personalities and need to be interacted with differently. So, I tried using different techniques to see which style of communication works, and also practised code-switching to get people to do what I need them to do for the event to run smoothly.”

The kitchen crew getting ready the French desserts – spiced poach pear topped with chocolate mousse and pecan oat ice cream. (Photo: Evelyn Teo)

Ready to Take on the World

Despite a short lead time to the event, Iskandar, Lavina and the graduating cohort of Class of 2024 managed to pull off a successful event, raising an impressive $10,000 for their chosen charity – Children’s Wishing Well.

Said Lavina: “It was an intense one-and-a-half months, having to juggle our classes while preparing for this event. Nevertheless, it gave us a very good taste of what the real-world restaurant setting is like. Up to the day before the event, we were still shifting floorplans to accommodate changes to the guestlist, making final changes to the menu, and trying to resolve manpower issues.

I think the biggest takeaway for me is that things may not always run perfectly as planned. But, even when we run into technical issues, the important thing is to keep our guests happy.” Iskandar agreed: “The nature of this industry is that it is dynamic, and things change all the time. The event helped us be better prepared for restaurant conditions, to know how to react when ingredients are not available, or when diners make out-of-the-ordinary requests.

Lavina (left) helped out with the registration of guests for the charity event. (Photo: Issac Wee)

“There were many times when I found myself caught up in the technicalities and wondering if I had done enough. That’s when I had to remind myself that our main objective is ultimately guest satisfaction. In this respect, I think we did well because the diners really enjoyed themselves. Every member of the team really came through and worked hard for the event, and I’m happy that we accomplished what we set out to do.”