Baker lawn transformed into a global epicenter for food last Wednesday during the International Center’s 10th annual Taste of the World event last. The event was sponsored by Semester at Sea, Cal Poly Student Affairs and Latin American Studies.
The event was a collaborative effort featuring approximately 2,800 servings of international cuisine, served at five tasting booths and representing cuisines from Portugal, Brazil, Morocco, Mexico, Indonesia and India. Each country featured, other than Mexico, is a stop on the Semester at Sea journey.
“Our goal is to promote study abroad programs. They have little booths that represent different countries,” Devin Scattini, the Administrative Support Coordinator, said.
Experience industry management students enrolled in Visitor Services in Experience Management (RPTA 320) and food science and nutrition students enrolled in Institutional Food Service (FSN 344) worked together to provide free tastings and educational booths featuring the countries. Samir Amin, associate professor of culinary science, worked with students to develop authentic recipes from each country.
Each food science and nutrition student served around 600 to 800 samples of food to students and faculty, while experience industry and management students greeted guests and taught them about each country.
The India booth was lined with the Indian national flag. A crowd of hungry students lingering between classes waited for pani puri and turmeric rice in a rapidly growing line.
In the back of the booth, food science and nutrition students Audrey Larrabee and Mira Pavana worked in a blur, prepping sample cups to keep pace with the hungry crowd.
“Dr. Amin actually wrote the recipe that we’re using for the panipuri,” Larrabee said.
At the Mexico booth, visitors sampled chicken mole, pickled cactus, corn chips and hibiscus aguas frescas.
During eight weeks of taste-testing and recipe-tweaking, students who worked on the Mexico recipes asked classmates of Mexican origin to taste each sample.
“They were like, ‘Oh, we need to change this, this isn’t authentic, or this isn’t right.’ So, we kind of did a lot of trial and error,” Ella Dall’era, food science and nutrition junior said.
On the experience industry management side, students created creative booths and activities for students, as well as marketing materials such as brochures and social media posts.
“It’s about understanding what goes into event planning,” said Mason Alexander, a psychology junior and Visitor Services in Experience Management student helping lead the Mexico booth.
Alexander and his fellow students set up a piñata for Mexico’s booth. Apikaila Jeong, a business administration junior, said the class has been a great opportunity to practice global event planning.
“This has been very helpful in widening my global perspective and making cultural connections. I think it’s important in any career,” Jeong said. “Being able to be part of this and also inform other students is a great opportunity.”
Audio story by Lauren Quijano
