Theme Dinner (Senior Capstone Project)
|
Here you will find a downloadable file for the financial information and production spreadsheets for this event.
At the bottom of the page are two slide shows:
![]()
|
For my senior year at James Madison University, I was responsible for working with a team of 5 other colleagues to plan, finance, and execute a dinner banquet with entertainment for slightly over 100 guests. For this project I was a Back of House Manager where my duties included menu planning, financials, scheduling, purchasing, food preparation and cooking, plating, and marketing.
Menu planning required great organization as we needed to plan a four course meal plus a reception including 3 hors d'oeuvres and 2 drinks. Throughout planning of the menu, a master ingredient file needed to be compiled for order quantity purposes. Flavors needed to mix and match for the guests pallet so understanding the thought process behind each item was very intense. Vast amounts of research were conducted before finalizing the menu, yet the work and time dedicated to this step ensured a pleasing dining sensation for each guest attending.
Financials consisted of an excel workbook filled with individual spreadsheets filled with rows and columns liked to other spreadsheets for processing and increased reference abilities. Cost was broken down by recipe, then ingredient, and finally portion. This made it possible to predict accurate budgeting forecasts based on number of guests and portion size. Before ordering any items I made sure to conduct an Actual vs. Standard pricing deviation analysis to determine the difference in price based on the ability to order exact numbers versus the number able to purchase (ex. 0.6 LB vs. Sold in 1 LB Pack).
For our dinner we were given a staff of nearly 50 hospitality management students, 12 being assigned to Back of House. Since we had such a small time frame to prep, cook, and plate the food, efficient scheduling was key. Me and my other BOH manager collaborated with all of the staff, gathering all contact information and setting up a schedule for prep the day before and then additional prep and cooking the day of the event. Task cards and a timeline were made so that everyones duties were laid out and we could monitor production levels based on the times, this ensured that we as managers had additional time to oversee the entire process rather than waste time explaining each tiny detail.
Overall the dinner was a great success. Through teamwork, collaboration, dedication, leadership, and time management, the guests received a flawless experience and I gained many skills and forms of experience. After the completion of our dinner we sent out online feedback surveys to both the guests and our staff. This allowed us to analyze what went great and what could be improved upon when dealing with any situation where I am managing a team in order to deliver some sort of experience.
Menu planning required great organization as we needed to plan a four course meal plus a reception including 3 hors d'oeuvres and 2 drinks. Throughout planning of the menu, a master ingredient file needed to be compiled for order quantity purposes. Flavors needed to mix and match for the guests pallet so understanding the thought process behind each item was very intense. Vast amounts of research were conducted before finalizing the menu, yet the work and time dedicated to this step ensured a pleasing dining sensation for each guest attending.
Financials consisted of an excel workbook filled with individual spreadsheets filled with rows and columns liked to other spreadsheets for processing and increased reference abilities. Cost was broken down by recipe, then ingredient, and finally portion. This made it possible to predict accurate budgeting forecasts based on number of guests and portion size. Before ordering any items I made sure to conduct an Actual vs. Standard pricing deviation analysis to determine the difference in price based on the ability to order exact numbers versus the number able to purchase (ex. 0.6 LB vs. Sold in 1 LB Pack).
For our dinner we were given a staff of nearly 50 hospitality management students, 12 being assigned to Back of House. Since we had such a small time frame to prep, cook, and plate the food, efficient scheduling was key. Me and my other BOH manager collaborated with all of the staff, gathering all contact information and setting up a schedule for prep the day before and then additional prep and cooking the day of the event. Task cards and a timeline were made so that everyones duties were laid out and we could monitor production levels based on the times, this ensured that we as managers had additional time to oversee the entire process rather than waste time explaining each tiny detail.
Overall the dinner was a great success. Through teamwork, collaboration, dedication, leadership, and time management, the guests received a flawless experience and I gained many skills and forms of experience. After the completion of our dinner we sent out online feedback surveys to both the guests and our staff. This allowed us to analyze what went great and what could be improved upon when dealing with any situation where I am managing a team in order to deliver some sort of experience.