Professional critiquing vs. personal observation
We have a situation where we divide a class into two subgroups. We put one half in the kitchen and the other half into the dining room,and then rotate the two subgroups after a period of time. We then have the students perform as if they were in a restaurant situation, using students as guests.
The issue we find difficult to deal with is the food critiquing. The students eventually turn it into "over"- critiquing and the situation turns into "mine was better than yours."
It seems like the learning experience disappears at this point.
Any thoughts?
Hi Kim,
Good strategy. It is hard to keep personal perceptions out of any subjective evaluation whether it be sauces or skating. Your guide will really help to keep this at a minimum but let the students express their judgments as well.
Gary
It is human nature to interject personal observation into any critiques. These kinds of critiques can often be very subjective unless we specify what we are looking for and assign a specific point value for it. Take for instance if the students were to critique a sauce, we would need to inform the student what to look for; ie consistency and taste. If it has the correct consistency, you can instruct the students to give that sauce 1 point, and if it doesn't, then instruct the student to give it 0 point. At the end of the excersise, add up all the points and discuss with the students why that particular sauce received those set of points. This way, the students have more of a black and white approach to critiquing and less personal feelings will get in the way.
Chef Brown,
It seems to me that the only definative way around this problem would be for the students to be preparing for paying customers from the 'real world'. This could be followed up by customer comment cards that should go directly to the instuctors, and ultimately become part of the assesment process for the students' grades.
I am sure that this would provide an outstanding degree of motivation in the classroom and help break out of the rut you describe as 'over-critiquing'. Good Luck!
They are students at the beginning of their culinary carreer. With the daily cooking practice, tasting and plating they are going to develop a skill for fair critique based on objectiv factors like flavour, consistency, colour, shape etc...
Did you inform them what to look for when they evaluating a dish?
