International Cuisine & Food and Beverage Management

Day 1 of the second course and all is well!  Our lecturer is George and he seems great.  We started out by relating our experiences on the last Open Travel and this was followed by some group activities (they like to get us to bond).  Our syllabus looks pretty interesting dealing with international food and beverage trends, the history of food around the world, exploration of cuisines around the world (with focus on France and Italy), the evolution of professional cooking, menu development, styles of table service, relationship between food and wine and types of cuisine cooked in European homes.  Sounds pretty good.  Of course we have assignments and these consist of analysing menus and ambiance from 5 different restaurants noting the customs, food composition, presentation and service in each place.  We also have a group project/presentation where we have to select a restaurant food concept/company from Europe that we feel could establish a market in the US, and write a 22 page paper on it and present it to the class.  Now doesn't that sound just so simple???  Any suggestions to use for a restaurant concept would be very welcome.

After class I went for a long walk around this cute town, and bought some batteries for my dead mouse.  I came across a lotto shop so I went in and asked in French how to play it.  The instructions came in French and with a bit of sign language I sussed it out and played 1 game.  I'll let you know on Saturday if I've become a Swiss Millionnaire.

Some of the kids have gone out to buy charcoal, meat and salads for a BBQ, but I'm just making my salami and raclette cheese (boy does it stink!!) rolls before the bread goes stale, but I'll join them out on the patio for a beer or a wine (I have stocked up, you know!).

Whooppee, the batteries have revived my mouse so I no longer have to use the silly little touch pad on my computer.  I've never found anything more awkward to use.

As far as the next travel goes, everyone will be going into Italy, but I think I will stay here in Bouveret and do day trips on the boat to a few of the towns along Lake Geneva such as Lausanne, Vevey, Montreux, Chillon, and if I get very adventurous, Geneva.  It seems a shame to not visit these places while I am here and I have free accommodation and meals.  Everybody is going to places I have already been to and will also be visiting after this course, so I'm going to see how long I can stand my own company.  I can fill in some of the days by reading, doing my cuisine journals by eating out in restaurants, and watching some of my favourite TV shows online at night.  I can also skype Peter whenever possible as we have unlimited internet.  I'll be OK.  This is such a beautiful environment that I'm going to relish every minute of it.