Have your students focus on their culture or assign the students a culture. Students can then decide to make a dish based on the culture's food. You can ask your students to create a whole meal, just a dessert or appetizer or ask them to mix and match. Students can then discuss the cultural significance of the food or why food is eaten on a certain date or holiday.
Arrange for your class to cater a dinner or charity event. You can ask those throwing the event what they would like for their party and challenge your class to create a spread or dinner for it. If you'd like to up the ante, have half of your class cater for one event and half of your class cater another. Make sure those who attended the catered event give feedback on your classes' food so they know where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
Assign each of your students a fairy tale or ask the students to pick their favorite fairy tale. Students will then cook a meal inspired by the fairy tale. The meal can be one that is portrayed in the story (such as food for a tea party from the Mad Hatter scene in "Alice in Wonderland") or one that is simply inspired by the story. This should be reflected in both the choice of food and presentation of it.
Challenge your students while having them contribute to their local community. Speak with a local homeless shelter or children's center and arrange for your students to cook a meal during a holiday or to celebrate the end of the semester. You can assign each student a different dish or ask that student collaborate together on their dishes. Students should be aware that even though their food isn't going to a paying client, it is still important that they show a lot of effort and present the food in a pleasing manner. Ask students to set aside a portion of the dish for you to taste and critique and spend the rest of the class serving the food to those at the charity.