A theme evening at Fareham College allows students to plan every aspect of a restaurant event based on a chosen theme. Students must consider the menu, staffing, budget, decorations, and their responsibilities in the kitchen and dining room. Previous theme evenings included Halloween, Winter Wonderland, Thai cuisine, and French cuisine. Careful costing and planning is required to create a cohesive themed experience for customers within the £10 per person budget. Proper evaluation after the event involves taking photos and notes.

1. Theme Evenings at Fareham
College
Written by Amy-Louise
Casserley.
Presented by Lucy Vasili

2. What is a theme evening
• A theme evening is the one night of the year when everything
that goes on in the restaurant is done by you.
• You choose your own theme which can be representative of a
country such as Thailand or France, an event that is
happening that year such as Chinese new year. You could also
make it relevant to the month your evening is in or a season
of the year, like using foods that only grow in the spring or
foods associated with winter.
• For the evening you will need to consider costing, timings,
legislation relevant to themed event, menus, decoration, risk
assessments and restaurant and kitchen responsibilities.

3. Themes
• This year the themes
we had/ have are;
• Halloween- by Stuart
Garrod
• Winter Wonderland- by
Alice Hill
• A Thai Temptation- by
Amy-Louise Casserley
• The French Connection-
by phill Durrell.
• A taste of paradise- by
Jade Gale
• Best of British- by Abi
Corby
• A night with the gods-
by Lucy Vasilli
• The seven seas- by
kayleigh Kerrison.

4. Things to consider when planning an
event!
• Special requirements-
menu, dietary needs,
style of service.
• Budget- customers
budget, price and cost
per head, gross profit.
• Staffing- skill level,
amount of staff,
departments.
• Venue- capacity,
facilities, disability
access.
• Equipment- if any
special equipment Is
required, the amount of
equipment that is
needed.

5. Costing
• Here at Fareham college we have a budget of £10 per
customer . This means we have to cost in the price of a four
course meal , including welcome drink, canapé and petit fors
per person within this price range.
• You also need to cost in the price of any linen you will need
(e.g. tablecloths, napkins), decorations for the restaurant and
printing costs for your menus and any changes to staff
uniform.
• The budget amount will depend on how may customers you
have on the night.

6. Creating a menu
• There are four courses to the menu. Starter, fish,
main and dessert. You also need to have canapé and
petit fours.
• We try and use local companies or ones that are
already used by the college.
• When creating your menu you must consider all
things that are relevant to your chosen theme. So
when choosing a country you will need to think
about traditional ingredients and dishes and if they
are easily available to be used. The same with
seasonal foods.

7. Kitchen and restaurant responsibilities
• Choosing a head chef for the evening is something
that is very important because you need to have
confidence in that person to produce the high level
of food you want to be served in the restaurant. You
will have to allocate staff to each section within the
kitchen and be happy with how they all work as a
team.
• In the restaurant you will be head waiter and will
have to allocate job rolls to all the team members
and yet again be confident about how well your team
will work throughout the evening.

8. Decorations
• All the decorations in the restaurant will need to
tie in with your chosen theme.
• On Halloween we had carved pumpkins, spiders
webs etc and Halloween confetti on the tables.
For the French connection we have French flags,
red, white and blue bunting hanging up. So all the
decorations matched the themes.
• If the department already has decorations
available to use that will match your theme use
these as it will save money that can be used for
something else you may need.

9. Record your Evening
• Remember take photos and notes on your
evening you will need these to evaluate your
event and remember how brilliant it was it
goes really quickly !!!!!

10. Any Questions
Thank you
Enjoy your Meal