Judging by the culinary delights presented at a swish affair here this week, the world is Prince Edward Collegiate students' oyster.

Fourteen Grade 11 and 12 students participated in the inaugural County Roots Food Focus pilot program and used the first County Roots Black Tie event here Tuesday to demonstrate their new talents. The event also served as a practical exam for the four-credit program.

The course is designed to explore all aspects of the Prince Edward County food industry. Students examined history, social and economic issues, politics, current trends and hands-on skills essential to the agriculture, marketing/tourism and hospitality industries of Prince Edward County. The students learned their way around a kitchen, too.

Program teacher Beth Vader said the first four-month semester for the course was a success.

"It is really relevant to Prince Edward County and the students got four credits for their co-op placements, navigating the workplace while on the farm, tourism marketing and hospitality," she said. "There is no text book for a course like this and the great thing was if there was something of interest to them we were able to explore it. They really covered all aspects of culinary tourism with the help of the most recent research done here."

In an effort to learn the process of taking food from the field to the plate, students were required to spend three weeks working at a local farm and another three weeks in a restaurant. They also were required to plan the County Roots Black Tie event from start to finish which included advertising, planning and of course the complete preparation of the food.

"They did an Ontario Federation of Agriculture event in November, so they've had some practice but the improvement I saw tonight was huge," she said. "They've really come a long way and done a tremendous job with it."

Brad Brown, an 18-year-old Picton resident, said he was surprised at what he learned in the course.

"I really didn't know much about farming, especially here in the County so that was a great thing to learn about," he said. "It really helped to learn the whole from the field to the plate concept because I didn't have any idea how much was involved before."

While some of the students come from the municipality's urban areas, farming was not something new to all of them.

Brandon Hoekstra, 17, lives on a beef farm in Sophiasburgh and did his placements at Byford Farms and Picton Harbour Inn.

"Well, the farming wasn't new to me so I knew what to expect, but I found the restaurant work a lot harder than I expected it would be," he said. "I had to be more presentable and there is a lot of work involved in preparing food."

Tuesday's menu included Caesar salad, stuffed mushroom caps, beef, lamb and goat dishes and wrapped up with a dessert of truffles and meringue.

In addition to their placements, students spent time in the classroom. Work there included weekly guest lectures by MPP Leona Dombrowsky, chef Jamie Kennedy and Taste the County executive director Kathy Kennedy. Students also participated in a number of field trips including a two-day camping trip to start the program.

Prince Edward/Lennox and Addington Community Futures Corporation provided some of the funding for the course and executive director Craig Desjardins said the community will only benefit from the course.

"We are really pleased to be able to support something like this because what it really does is raise awareness," he said. "A lot of the students are not really aware of the opportunities here, whether it be in agriculture or in hospitality. We had a lot of businesses participate by taking the students on their placements and, in the long-term, it helps raise awareness of what they are doing."