Hoping to let diners experience new international cuisines, St. Thomas University’s Dining Hall has been hosting a Culinary Adventures Series all year.
The recipes of the meals are submitted by students.
“It’s food they miss most from back home, wherever they come from and we make sure these foods are prepared accordingly,” said STU Cultural Diversity Coordinator Saa Andrew Gbongbor.
Executive Chef Michael Greer believes the response to this year’s series was overwhelmingly good.
“Year after year, the participation and the excitement with the event continues to grow,” he said.
More than 30 dishes were made this year, including foods from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and many other regions.
Greer believes that it would be hard to pick out which dishes were the most popular due to the high demand for all the different cuisines.
“I found that as far as our students were concerned, everybody loved trying other cultures’ food selection,” he said. “I found that it was a great learning experience for everybody.”
One highlight of the series was the opportunity for the cooks to learn how to prepare the meals.
“It was a lot of fun for us in the kitchen,” said Greer.
Gbongbor also said that the series exceeded its initial goal of catering to students, as people from outside the university also came to the dining hall for the meals.
“We’re having community members from downtown Fredericton, we have people coming from [the] New Brunswick Community College, we have people coming from both campuses. They are all coming,” he said.
Gbongbor said the space is welcoming and willing to receive any culture.
“The place is packed. There’s so much laughter, it’s hard to see faculty members [and students] all sit together at one table because everybody’s so busy,” he said.
The space reflected the culture of whatever cuisine was featured. Regional music is played, while art and items are spread around.
“When they hear ‘culinary adventures,’ everybody wants to come and they meet people that they don’t talk to every day,” said Gbongbor.
“The goal is to create cultural awareness and it seems like we are.”
Both Gbongbor and Greer said they intend for the event to happen next school year.
“We’re going to keep this going every year … we make sure we feature cuisine from [students’ culture], whether one student is from Malaysia or Malawi. As long as you are here, we make sure you’re represented,” said Gbongbor.
The last event will be a Multicultural celebration taking place on April 4 at 11 a.m. in the George Martin Dining Hall.
