Street Food Challenge Teaches Business Skills, Serves Great Food Too
MONCTON – There are some delicious fusion gems at NBCC’s cafeteria this week as culinary and hospitality students serve up their creative business concepts during the fourth annual Street Food Challenge.
There were eight teams with offerings ranging from pizza on naan bread to poutine with Asian sauces to bread bowl soups. Each team also has various beverage and dessert offerings like Indian rice pudding, cheesecake on a stick and agua frescas.
I tried as much as I could handle in one sitting and tasted some dishes that my friends ordered. There were quite a few hits and I can’t wait to come back to taste the rest.
For example, the churro doughnuts at Los Amigos Taqueria were as soft as cotton and the buffalo chicken samosa from SaMoosEh were crunchy and flavourful.
While guests are eating up their food, the students were busy running their businesses and cashing in. The proceeds are going to the charity Youth Impact Jeunesse.
Nicholas Landry, a student with Los Amigos Taqueria, said his group of seven sold more than $1,300 worth of food in the first two days.
“Marketing does help especially, for example, we advertise a lot for Taco Tuesday. At first, we weren’t sure how many people we were going to reach but a lot of people actually came and already knew exactly what the promotion was,” Landry said.
Los Amigos Taqueria, which sells tacos, churros, chip and dips, also has a taco-costumed mascot who went around campus offering samples and talking to guests. It also offers loyalty cards for customers that bought their food.
Erika Gergely, who is part of the Fusion Fiesta team, said her stall served a little more than 80 people in the first two days. Her team expects at least 50 people or more a day until the end of the week.
“The first day was more stressful because we hadn’t run it before. But it’s getting a little easier now that we know exactly what to do,” she said.
Both Landry and Gergely said although they’ve worked in the culinary world for a few years, mostly in restaurants, this experience is completely new to them.
Developing a concept “was a bit stressful in some moments” for Landry’s team because it was something new.
“We’ve never done anything this big before, but it was a challenge that we were ready to take. And I think our team works really well together,” he said.
Gergely’s team, which offers dishes like masala quesadilla, chorizo cheddar fries and deep-fried margarita cake with Anejo tequila icing glaze, took a practical approach.
“We were trying to find something that was easy prep wise so that we knew we’d be able to get large amounts,” she said.
For Landry, the experience taught him better time management. It also made him see the potential he has for creating and managing a business, something he wants to do one day.
“There is such a thing as reading about it and doing projects, but actually waking up in the morning and taking months to prepare and actually seeing what you did come to fruition, especially if you’re doing well and everything works out, it makes you even more proud of what you did,” he said. “It makes you realize that if you put the time and effort into it you can actually manage to create and manage your business.”
The Street Food Challenge will go on until Friday, February 28. Food is served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each day.