Northwest Missouri State University students studying dietetics, nutrition and food service management will again host Friday Night Café this fall, serving guests with internationally inspired meals and décor.

Students will offer two café nights featuring the cuisine of France on Nov. 3 and Jamaica on Nov. 17. Meals are served from 5 to 6 p.m. on the third floor of the Administration Building.

“The Friday Night Café experience is one of the most hands-on experiences that the dietetics students receive,” Sarah Brand, a senior foods and nutrition major from Elkhorn, Nebraska, working with the France team, said. “The whole class is based on this night, and we take away many skills while doing it.”

Tickets are $12 and available online at www.nwmissouri.edu/rsvp/NWFridayNightCafe or in the cashiering office located on the first floor of the Administration Building on the Northwest campus. Seating is limited to 60 guests per evening.

The France-themed night will feature beef bourguignon and sticky marmalade chicken breast with a variety of salads and sides of ratatouille, gratin dauphinois, croissants and rice quinoa pilaf. Desserts will include chocolate truffles, blueberry-lavender eclairs, reine de Saba and an apple clafouti.

The menu for Jamaica will include jerk chicken, seasoned rice with red beans, a vegetable medley cooked in coconut milk, salads and tropical fruits, with desserts including chocolate rum truffles, plantain pocket pastries, Jamaican gizzada and Jamaican wedding cake.

Friday Night Café satisfies the lab requirement for students enrolled in Northwest’s quantity foods course, taught by Karen From, senior instructor of nutrition and dietetics.

A majority of Northwest graduates of the program, after completing a dietetics internship or residency totaling 1,200 hours, take the national Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) exam – and 30 percent of the exam content relates to knowledge students gain during food science and food service management courses.

“What ties it all together is the application process of this knowledge in their quantity foods class, lab and the Friday Night Cafés,” From said. “Our students, once graduating from Northwest, will communicate that during their dietetic internships they were heads and shoulders more prepared during their food service and management dietetic rotations thanks to quantity foods and our program.”

Participating students select Friday Night Café themes based on their research of countries, cultures and cuisines that interest them.

All aspects of the evening – including the theme, menu selection, pricing and décor – is prepared by management teams of students. The experience allows them to practice skills in safe and healthy food preparation as well as management, teamwork, organization, budgeting, crisis management and gathering feedback.

“This project allows us to not only learn from a book, but to exercise our skills in enforcing food safety guidelines, time management, creating production schedules, and even costing and budgeting for an event of this magnitude,” Arianna Watson, a post-baccalaureate student from Danville, Illinois, who is studying foods and nutrition and working with the Jamaica team, said.