CPC students show their hospitality skills

It was The Restaurant, but without any hidden cameras and microphones, writes Brian Byrne. Some 34 students from the CPC Transition Year 2023 got a chance to show off their hospitality skills last evening to an invited 65 customers of family, teachers and friends.

The evening was the culmination of the Hospitality Module in which all TY students participate. For their chance to shine in their own restaurant, set up in the historic CPC Assembly Hall, the student groups operating front-of-house and the various kitchen areas were selected by job application and interview. The fare comprised choices from a full 4-course menu designed by the students themselves.

“Keep smiling, and enjoy yourselves!” The final instruction from Georga Dowling, co-owner of Newbridge-based Food School, was the signal for the doors of Na Bláthanna Béi — The Flowers of Life — to open and the patrons waiting outside be led to their tables by their respective lead servers. The ambience was floral, fairy lights and intimate. An initial technical hitch with background music didn’t actually matter, as the buzz of many conversations quickly filled the hall with a happy and anticipatory atmosphere.

With orders taken, the evening’s restaurant managers Sam Moussoulides and Aoibhe Toft briefly welcomed all, and thanked everyone who had helped make the event happen, including Fallons who had lent their chairs for the evening — which probably had seemed oddly familiar to some of the patrons.

Back in the CPC kitchen, Conor Wafer — also co-owner of Food School — was on head chef duty, overseeing the work of student groups at their various stations as orders rolled in. They had been preparing all day, and may have been tired, but as soon as the action started they were into their own bubbles of buzz and adrenalin. As this writer remembers from his own time in hospitality many decades ago, once the rush starts the anticipation pressure paradoxically lifts and everything goes with a swing. Not necessarily perfectly, but to an ultimate satisfaction of completing the job.

Last evening’s restaurant was also a return to the event, premiered in February 2020, for the first time since the pandemic. And, just like in the TV series of The Restaurant, there was a pair of ‘celebrity guests’ there in the form of the head chef from Fallons and his wife. We expect they were suitably impressed.

A selection of photos from the evening are below. All the Diary's photos can be found here.

Food School operates the Hospitality Module in CPC.

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