Students and staff at Otago Polytechnic's Mellor's Training Restaurant in Dunedin may feel under more pressure than usual to excel tonight.
Booked in are 36 diners who are hospitality educators and professionals from across the country.
They will be served by six second-year hospitality students, while in the kitchen, polytechnic lecturers will be preparing the food.
Fine South Island fare, including Aoraki Smokehouse salmon, Whitestone cheese and Moorpark apricots, are among the foods on the menu.
The diners are delegates to the National Food and Beverage Conference, which is being held in Dunedin for the first time in its more than 10-year history.
The conference organiser, hospitality lecturer Cathy Price, said students were not cooking for the occasion because it fell on graduation day.
The conference, which begins this morning and runs until Sunday, will include a variety of seminars exploring the latest diverse trends in restaurant dining. Seminars will focus on the evolving ways of presenting and using chocolate, wine, cocktails and coffee.
The main guest speaker will be Restaurant Association Education Trust chairman Tony Adcock, who will give an industry perspective on training and restaurant trends.
He is an Auckland restaurateur known for involvement with Le Brie, Harbourside Seafood Bar and Grill and with the Air New Zealand consultant chef programme.
Another guest speaker will be Hospitality Standards Institute chief executive Steve Hanrahan.
To round off the conference, on Sunday morning, delegates will be asked to rate what is hot and what is not from a suitcase full of items Ms Price has been collecting.
The items include wine carafes, coffee plungers, brown Temuka coffee cups and gingham serviettes.
She was not sure whether any of the about 20 items she had gathered were back in vogue, but was prepared to be surprised.