Meal Project Report

Song of the House Xiong

Dietetic Intern
Keene State College
April 2014
Contents
Final Report
Appendix A: Recipes
Appendix B: Nutrient Analysis
Appendix C: Producton Reports
Appendix D: Marketng
Appendix E: Evaluaton
Meal Project: Iron Chef Westeros
Song from House Xiong | Dietetic Intern | Keene State College | April 2014

In the short 15 days of my food service rotation at Keene State College Dining Services, I had to learn the
operations of the dining services and then create and implement a meal project based around a theme
of my choosing. My brain child? Culinary tour with Iron Chef Westeros.
My project was unique in that it was based on the hit HBO TV show Game of Thrones and most interns
already had a theme selected for them. I had the free reign to choose whatever fits my wild
imagination, which could have been quite dangerous. My only requirements: incorporating five of the
seven food stations. If they were letting me loose, by all means, why not turn the dining hall into
another realm? Even dragons cannot be tamed by their mother.
This brain child of mine was not an easy feat, but luckily I had a righteous Hand of the King a.k.a. chef
and a team of loyal squires and court members. After all, a king cannot rule successfully without the
trust of his (in my case, her) people. I suppose I could threaten my team with their heads on a platter,
but I dont think that will go over so well. Just ask King Joffrey.

Fortunately, the end result did not have any deaths and only minimal blood.
Menu Development
Theme: Game of Thrones
Menu: Each of the five food stations incorporated was based on a different region of Game of Thrones.
Upon entrance into the realm, guests were welcomed into Kings Landing with the (paper and plastic)
Iron Throne, which I did cut myself during the forging of it. It is, after all, a throne made of swords. Kings
Landing provided the most decadent desserts. Beyond the Narrow Sea in Essos lies Daenerys Dragonlair
where flatbreads are made in dragon fire. Though Daenerys Dragonlair started as a small business with
little experience, it is a quickly expanding with its fiery reputation. Returning back to Westeros, the
Waterside Bistro of the Iron Islands owned by Chef Greyjoy featured a fresh catch of seafood. After all,
they do not sow. Continuing north, we arrive at Winterfell where the Direwolf Tavern, owned by
renowned Chef Stark served a hearty meal fit for a king. Winter is coming in the north so a warm hearty
meal is much needed. Going beyond Winterfell, we reach Pub Crow where vegetation is scarce. The
meal offered by Pub Crow may be simple but does not disappoint in taste. All menus were obtained
through the Sodexo database except for the Sticky Toffee Pudding, which has been expanded and tested
prior to this use.
Kings Landing (V-Top), where the king lives, incorporated a selection of desserts to represent
the riches associated with royalty.
o Fresh Fruit Salad
o Lemon Cake (a favorite of Arya and Sansa Stark)
o Sticky Toffee Pudding
o Fried Dough (was added to the menu the week of the event by Chef Aaron)
Daenerys Dragonlair (Pizza Station) included fire roasted flatbreads and a kick of capsaicin to
represent the heat of the dragons.
o Pork Carnitas Flatbread
o Spicy Roasted Vegetables Flatbread
o Chipotle Beef Flatbread
Direwolf Tavern of Winterfell (Elm City) incorporated a warm and hearty meal with an array of
root vegetables to counter the cold environment of the North.
o Roasted Chicken Legs
o Roasted Root Vegetables
o Mustard Greens
Waterside Bistro of the Iron Islands (Saut) incorporated the fresh catch of the sea.
o Seafood Fra Diavolo
Pub Crow (Grill) incorporated a potato bar since it vegetation is scarce in the bitter cold terrain
North of the Wall.
o Baked Potato
o Chili
o Broccoli
o Bacon Bits
o Cheese Sauce
Budget: The budget is based per month.
Recipes/Computerized Nutrient Analysis: See Appendix A and B
Production
Being that Keene State College is contracted with Sodexo, production sheets are created automatically
when recipes are selected from the Sodexo database. With the help of Chef Aaron, 2,400 customers
were projected. The meals were forecasted as follows:
Fresh Fruit Salad 1,200
Lemon Cake 1,200
Sticky Toffee Pudding 240
Fried Dough 1,200
Pork Carnitas Flatbread 192
Spicy Roasted Vegetables Flatbread 192
Chipotle Beef Flatbread 192
Baked Potato Bar 600
Roasted Chicken Leg 600
Roasted Root Vegetables 600
Mustard Greens 600
Seafood Fra Diavolo 288
Potato Bar 600

The prep for the meal began the week of the meal. With the help of Chef Aaron, everything went
smoothly. Please see Appendix C for production reports.
Marketing
After discussing effective methods of marketing with Rebecca, I concluded that marketing far ahead of
time would not be beneficial. The following message was posted via Facebook, Twitter, MyKSC
announcement and text message:

Winter is coming to the Zorning Dining Commons.
Come feast till your belly is full as the Iron Chefs of Westeros battle it out for the Iron Throne.
Featuring a feast fit for a king from Winterfell, fiery eats only from the lineage of dragons, a
fresh catch from the Iron Islands, food for the braves souls who wander North of the Wall and
decadent treats from Kings Landing.
Game of Thrones dinner at Zorn Dining Commons tomorrow night only.

Using the napkin holder as marketing during the week of the event would have been a good method.
Though it was great to see the expressions the students had when they entered Westeros, using the
napkin holders may have had more students attend.

The decorations were what really pulled the event together and made it unique. Originally, the Iron
Throne, made from a plastic Airondack chair, cardboard swords, duct tape and spray paint, was
supposed to sit at the top of the V-top. Instead, it was placed on the floor in front of the V-top so
students could sit and take pictures in it. Being that students could have and were taking pictures with
the Iron Throne, another marketing tool that should have been utilized was creating a hashtag people
can use on social media. This would give us a way of tracking how many students were taking pictures of
the Iron Throne.

As anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows, the House sigils are important parts of the show.
Visually seeing the sigils and the Iron Throne allows anyone that follows the show to understand the
theme immediately. Since each station corresponded to a House or region of Westeros having the sigils
visually confirmed the region. The sigils were created using Adobe Photoshop and printed on paper. A
free Game of Thrones font was downloaded to make the sigils consistent with the TV series.

Each station had large decorations consistent with the House of that station, which was mostly created
by me. The details of each station was cultivated by the KSC staff and made the decorations cohesive.
Since they were more aware of the decorations they already had on hand, they were able to fill in the
gaps with concrete blocks, tea lights to mimic torches, plastic ice blocks to mimic the Wall and blue
marbles to mimic water and ice.

As usual, my imagination took the best of me and decoration priorities had to be made. Since most of
the decorations were very specific to the TV series, it had to be handmade. I was much too ambitious
with my creations and had to put in a lot of time outside the internship hours. For the Targaryen sigil, I
hand cut the highly detailed three-headed dragon for the silhouette board. Though it took a long time, it
added more depth to the theme since Daenerys Targaryen is one of the most popular characters on the
show. Additionally, more coordination could have been done with the other workers to complete some
of the decorations. With other large events going on during my rotation, my coordination was a bit off.
Evaluation
The evaluation process was kept short to accommodate the participants eating. Participants were also
more likely to take part in the survey if it was short. The survey was used to evaluate the overall
experience instead of individual menu items since the menu was so extensive. The evaluation was a
Likert scale from 1-5 assessing how the student enjoyed the theme, the food options, food taste and
decorations with one being not enjoying at all and five being highly enjoyed. There was also an area
for open comments.
Overall, the feedback was very positive. One-hundred and four students were surveyed. The theme
scored an average 4.32, though many of the students did not watch to show or read the books. The food
options scored the lowest at a 4.00, which is still very commendable. There was one comment that the
student did not eat meat, though there was a seafood option, vegetarian flatbread and a potato bar that
had the option to hold the bacon. Additionally, there is always the vegan station and a vegetarian soup
option available. The food taste scored an average of 4.25, which indicate the great work that the chefs
and cooks do to control quality. The dcor for the theme scored the highest at an average of 4.46. This is
indicative of how important dcor and the atmosphere are in the meal projects. Without the dcor, the
dinner is just another dinner. This helps validate my decision in the amount of time I spent working on
different dcor pieces.
Some theme suggestions for the future include Skyrim, space travel, King of the Hill and a candy theme.
Two students indicated that theme dinners should be done more often. A number of students made
comments of enjoying particular foods and enjoying the theme.
Conclusion
In my creation of Westeros, I applaud the food services experiences I have received while working with
the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Dining Services and event planning experiences I had as an
undergrad. Even so, my dragons grew too big as I delved deeper into the project. At crunch time, I had
to prioritize which decorations to leave in the dungeons of my mind and which ones Westeros had to
have.
In the end, which may never come for the Game of Thrones series as the author is not done writing the
books and its been over two decades since he started writing them, I wanted to create an enjoyable
experience for the visitors of Westeros (students) as well as the court members and squires. As king, or
a person of any high ranking position for that matter, the work trickles down to the employees to deal
with.
The students had many positive things to say about the theme with one student even appraising the
Harry Potter event. Not really sure where he/she got Harry Potter from swords and dragons, but glad
he/she enjoyed it. As equally important was being told how enjoyable the event was to the staff.
Executing any event is stressful, yet they were able to have a positive experience though many had also
never seen the show or read the books.





Appendix a
Recipes




Appendix b
Nutrient Analysis




Appendix c
Production Reports





Appendix D
Marketing


kings
landing
kings
landing
Daenerys
Winterfell
Iron Islands
North of
the Wall



Appendix e
Evaluation

Tank you for joining the Kings feast. Te King
would like your feedback. Please rate how much you
enjoyed the following:
Not Very
At All Much
1. Teme 1 2 3 4 5
2. Food Options 1 2 3 4 5
3. Food Taste 1 2 3 4 5
4. Decor 1 2 3 4 5
Please write additional comments below.
Tank you for joining the Kings feast. Te King
would like your feedback. Please rate how much you
enjoyed the following:
Not Very
At All Much
1. Teme 1 2 3 4 5
2. Food Options 1 2 3 4 5
3. Food Taste 1 2 3 4 5
4. Decor 1 2 3 4 5
Please write additional comments below.
Tank you for joining the Kings feast. Te King
would like your feedback. Please rate how much you
enjoyed the following:
Not Very
At All Much
1. Teme 1 2 3 4 5
2. Food Options 1 2 3 4 5
3. Food Taste 1 2 3 4 5
4. Decor 1 2 3 4 5
Please write additional comments below.
Tank you for joining the Kings feast. Te King
would like your feedback. Please rate how much you
enjoyed the following:
Not Very
At All Much
1. Teme 1 2 3 4 5
2. Food Options 1 2 3 4 5
3. Food Taste 1 2 3 4 5
4. Decor 1 2 3 4 5
Please write additional comments below.