Serve ‘n’ learn

With this in mind,the students,with a small investment from the entire team,successfully pulled off an a la carte restaurant called Navratri,from October 16 to October 23. Shares Zakir Shaikh,who was in-charge of the food and beverage for the restaurant,“We wanted to do something new and what better way to learn than putting to practice every aspect of our curriculum?”

One could easily see the effort gone into creating the lively setting and warm ambience of the eating joint that seated 32 people at one time. Says faculty member Kalindi Bhat,“I think the best part of the initiative was the outlook that these students showed. They were ready to take on all the responsibilities,right from sweeping,cooking,handling difficult customers and proactively providing solutions according to the customers’ needs. They shed all their fears and managed a commercially viable project,and this deserves applause. In fact,after they completed this project,they actually got offers from auto expo and other exhibitions to come and participate,which is really great.”

On all the days,the restaurant was functional from 7 – 11 pm and the young team worked diligently into the wee hours to ensure that the quality was maintained. Through the week,the restaurant saw more than 175 guests. Shares Aditya Tawade,who headed the marketing section for the team,“The whole exercise gave us so much to learn. It made us realise the nitty-gritties of making a project like this a success. We learnt how important customers are,for there were days when we had just a little crowd and days when there were people waiting to be seated! The uncertainty taught us a lot.” It’s not surprising then that the team received its entire investment back. “The balance sheets for these students did not show a lot of monetary gain,but there was a huge profit in terms of learning,” says Bhat,obviously proud of her students. And as one walks along looking at the restaurant that still sits pretty,one can’t help but notice the expression of achievement written across the faces of each member of the team.