GMIT students' gourmet supper for Galway Lifeboat a huge success

Second year students of the Bachelor of Business in Bar & Restaurant Management in GMIT hosted a special culinary and dining experience for members of the public last evening (Monday 11 April) with all proceeds going to the Galway RNLI Lifeboat. Guests at the event said it was one of the best gourmet meals they’ve ever had, and hope it will become an annual public event.

As part of their degree studies, the Bar & Restaurant Management students were tasked with delivering a unique event in a real-world scenario and were assessed on how well they planned and executed the event.  They sought the assistance of second year students on the BA in Culinary Arts and first year Event Management & PR students, to deliver what guests repeatedly referred to as “one of the best gourmet meals they’d ever eaten”.

The main aim of the evening of food and wine in GMIT’s College of Tourism & Arts (CTA) was to raise much needed funds for the charity that saves lives at sea. The students were supported in the restaurant/bar and kitchen by their lecturers Diarmuid Ó Conghaile, Brian Morrissey, and Ulrich Hoeche.

The students served up a five course menu with accompanying wines, comprising goat’s cheese/beetroot starter; duck croquette, duck terrine and smoked duck; Castlemine pork belly braised in craft cider/ black pudding and springroll tenderloin pork in wild mushroom with wild garlic risotto; and gorse flower and coconut pannacotta with mango and passion fruit gel and toasted dessicated coconut spruce sugar/wild herbs.

Fifty guests sat down to the meal including three RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew and special guest Alex Ellis Roswell from the UK who has been walking the coast of Britain and Ireland for the past year, raising funds for the RNLI. Alex arrived in Galway on Thursday and delivered €1,600 to the lifeboat station, all proceeds from donations on his route from North Clare to Galway city.

Lecturer Diarmuid Ó Conghaile says the students were given full control of the event and worked closely with the RNLI in Galway to organise, promote and host the event.

Student class representative Edgaras Tevelavicius says the class are delighted with their achievement.

Anthony Hiney, Fundraising Manager for the RNLI West Region, who attended the event, says "the meal was comparable to that served at top restaurants in Galway.”