MUW Final dinner

May 7, 2026

2026 MUW PREp 3 Finals Dinner

Our Celebration dinner was a special one. In previous years, it was an event that was planned for months and was a part of the final grade. Last year before winter break occurred, we were notified that the Culinary Department were planning on doing away with Celebration dinners and replacing the dinner with the luncheon instead. We were upset and we were rightfully so. It had been a long-standing tradition at the Mississippi University for Women that dated back 30 years. It was a tradition that we were looking forward to since we started taking our prep classes. After many discussions with our director, we were able to have our dinner with the exception that we would have to figure out how to do everything. Since we would have the Dining Room Service class for our luncheon, they did not have to participate with our dinner. It would have to be a volunteer-based thing.

Planning

Our theme was inspired by the Golden Hour at sunset. It was to represent our time coming to an end at the W since a good majority of us are graduating sometime this year, whether it was in May, July or December.

Our menu was at first, had a good amount of citrus inspired dishes, but we had noticed that there may have been too much. With sticking to the sunset theme, we had an idea of adding more spice to give it a more variety. The menu we ended up last minute turned more into a Southern inspired kind of menu. Our final dinner menu is below.

Amuse Bouche: Whipped Hot Honey Ricotta Crostini Alternative: Whipped Cashew Ricotta with Agave

Appetizer: Crab Cakes with Lemon Thyme Remoulade Alternative: Artichoke Cake with a Vegan Lemon Thyme Remoulade

Soup: Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Cream Alternative: Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Coconut Milk

Salad: Spring Mix with Dried Cranberries, toasted Pecans, Champagne Vinaigrette Alternate: Vegan Champagne Vinaigrette

Entrée: Choice of Cajun seasoned Salmon or Chicken Breast Alternative: Cajun-Spiced Grilled Tofu with “Honey” Butter Glaze Lemon Garlic Broccolini Parmesan Risotto Alternative: Creamy Vegan Risotto

Dessert: Peach Cobbler with Old Fashion Vanilla Ice Cream Alternative: Peach Cobbler with Cashew Ice Cream

Bread: Sourdough Rolls

Mocktail: Peach Bellini with a splash of Cranberry juice Pineapple Spritz

The Morning of the Dinner

Our final dinner was a long day. We started the at 8 am. We had to set up the dining room. Normally, we would have pre-set all the tables the day before, but the dining room was used to the retirement party for our president. We had to move tables, chairs and a bar area, then set up those tables with decorations. I help with moving tables and ironing the table clothes. They were not perfect by any means, but they were hell of a lot better than what they looked like before.

While I was under the impression a few weeks prior to the event, each student would be preparing a single dish to be able to be more a part of the menu. Since I had the idea of adding the soup to the menu and tested the recipe, I thought that I was the one who was going to make it for the dinner. The soup making was shifted to another student and I was upset. Instead of making the soup, I was tasked with making the vinaigrette, the remoulade and making a mocktail. Normally, I would be fine making these products. I had done that for the other luncheons. For the dinner, I wanted to be more involved with the cooking process since I was making this dinner for my family as well as for all my other classmate’s family. I had spoken to our appointed executive chef about my sentiments. On the day of the dinner, I was tasked with making the ice creams.

Making the ice cream was a little tricky. Never made a cashew ice cream before. Something that I would try differently for next time would blend smaller amounts of coconut cream in the blender with the cashew for a smoother texture. I felt like it was kind of watery to get that smoothness. For the old fashion ice cream was something I had made before in another class. It was a custard base ice cream, and the most concerning part of the process was trying to not to scramble the eggs. I had made that mistake before and had to start over. For the day, I didn’t have that luxury of time since I had to wait for the heavy cream as well as it had to set up in time. I was already 3 hours behind in making that ice cream.

The Evening of the Dinner

Another role I was chosen to do was running Expo and Wheel. If you are not sure was an Expo person is, it’s the person that is communicating with the kitchen staff for dishes needed to fulfil tickets while the Wheel person is talking with the servers and making sure that each ticket or table are correct before serving it to the guests. I was excited for the role. It was a little nerve-wracking because I didn’t want to serve something harmful to someone with an allergy. For our dinner, we had shellfish, dairy and red meat allergies as well as a vegan amongst our guests. I did have a hiccup with a dairy allergy who happened to my future mother-in-law. It was quickly corrected and right after the pinning ceremony, I went to apologize for the mistake.

There were a couple of situations that arose during the dinner. There was one where an unannounced guest arrived. One classmates’ family member brought someone where they were not account for. I had asked a server to ask for the name of the guest, if they had any allergies and their preference between salmon and chicken. I thought I handle that part well. Another part that I could have handle a little better was when 2 servers were getting into a heated debate and their voices were increasing in volume. This debate was also happening during the entrée course where it was the most stressful. I wanted to make sure that the dishes went to the right person as well as make sure that I had allergies plates correct. I sternly and sharply told to them to stop talking. I don’t remember if I said please or not. The whole kitchen went quiet. I felt bad afterwards, thinking I could have handled the situation differently. The server who had instigated the debate had apologized afterwards and I told them that they were okay and that everything was fine. If anyone has any advice on how to handle that situation better, I would love to hear from you.

Overall, it was a great time and a great experience that I want to keep having. There was a lot of comments for me that I handle things well and I was made for this position. It has made my life so much better once I have decided to pursue this career to become a chef. As hard as it is, I would not change anything about it.