Week 6
Day25 (Monday)
Our week started off with a meeting with Adam Millman,
Director of Auxillary Operations. Adam oversees multiple retail outlets on the
Yale Campus, as well as Yale Catering and the Hall of Graduate Studies (HGS). HGS is one of the only facilities we haven't seen yet but, during the school year, it is where
graduate students can purchase an all-you-care-to-eat meal, similar to the
residential dining halls.
Adam’s current focus is in the School of Management (SOM). SOM’s café opened the Monday previous to our meeting and there is also a restaurant in the building that is currently receiving its final operational touches. The cooks at SOM will be testing recipes in the next couple weeks.
Adam’s current focus is in the School of Management (SOM). SOM’s café opened the Monday previous to our meeting and there is also a restaurant in the building that is currently receiving its final operational touches. The cooks at SOM will be testing recipes in the next couple weeks.
Today was our first opportunity to really sit down and work
on the nutrition information project. Essentially, Veronica gave us a list of
all items in Yale's Eatec database which do not have associated nutritional
information. Our job is to find the information either on the distributor’s
website, the manufacturer’s website, or on the product's label in one of the
residential units. Hopefully this list won’t take too long to get through.
Day 26
This morning we met with Lisa Kimmel, a Registered Dietitian
who currently works with employee health in Yale’s Health Center (lovingly
nicknamed “The Beetlejuice Building” by Veronica). Lisa came to Yale as a
Sports Nutritionist, which is really cool. Our meeting
was a great opportunity
to talk about student nutrition on the college campus.
 |
| The "Beetlejuice" Building |
Lisa showed us a number of projects she’s worked on in the
past as well as some of the projects currently undertaken by Yale faculty. She
showed us all of this on her really cool, ergonomic, adjustable work station.
It’s essentially only a computer stand which can adjust in height so the user
can stand or sit throughout the day but, as a former kinesiology major, I
thought it was particularly interesting.
 |
| Lisa Kimmel and her awesome standing work station! |
Day 27
Wednesday was spent in the office. Andrew and I were given
more recipes and asked to manually enter all ingredients by name and weight
into the spreadsheet, similar to a project we were assigned earlier in the internship.
Day 28
This morning we checked out Silliman residential college.
This college is home to one of my favourite dining halls. Above the tables are
three massive, sparkling chandeliers which are beautiful. The purpose of the
trip was to test out Veronica's proposed setup of their salad bar. Veronica had been working on
some different layouts over the past week or so and today, along with Betty, she
tried out some of her options. Who knew how much effort it takes to set up a
salad bar!?
After our short introduction to Silliman, Andrew and I
walked over to Commons for a meeting with James Filtz, Director of Catering
Operations. James manages Yale Catering, a very busy catering department which
is in charge of both on and off campus events. Busy isn’t an exaggeration, as catering operates 50 weeks of the year.
 |
| Commons Dining Hall, from outside James' office |
Day 29
Friday of Week 6 started off in a very exciting manner.
Veronica took Andrew and me to one of the dining halls to watch a 2nd
cook’s test. Here is how the test works. The candidate meets with a panel,
which
included Chef Ron, on the day prior to the test. The candidate is given copies
of the two menus which they will be asked to prepare, given time to get organized and make a game
plan, and then given two hours to complete prep work. They return to the
kitchen at 7am the next morning and begin to prepare the menus. During the
cook’s test, a proctor stands in the kitchen and makes notes on the candidate’s
process. They watch for organization, cleanliness, sanitation, creativity, and
cooking technique. The meals, which need to be prepared and plated by a
designated time, are then served to the panel of judges who are blind to the
entire cooking process. The panel then marks the candidate using a standard
marking sheet. The candidate must score at least 80% to pass the test.
 |
| 2nd Cook's Test - Cream of Cauliflower Soup |
The individual being tested had a strong culinary background
and competes in culinary competitions with other cooks on the Yale staff. His
skill is undeniable. He was very composed throughout the test and his food (at least the soup we were able to try) was delicious. I'm very glad we had the opportunity to sit in on part of the test.
 |
| Uncommon Market meeting #3 |
Day 30 (Monday)
Today, we took a field trip to Widdy’s restaurant. This is
the main Yale Dining retail outlet at Yale’s golf course. Our day really started when one of the managers, Brian, took Andrew and I on a tour of the golf course in a
golf cart. The golf course is beautiful. Brian told us it is not the kind of
course where you learn to golf; it isn’t a very forgiving course. We
 |
| The 9th Tee |
 |
| Will's Bruschetta |
I enjoyed speaking with both Will and Zephenia during the
day. Will has attended culinary school and worked in the restaurant industry
for many years. His philosophy is that it is important for individuals to work
their way up from the bottom of the work hierarchy. In this way, you are better
able to perfect your craft and carry unique skills with you. He stressed the
importance of always working hard and being a positive team player. I have to agree with much of what Will told us.
 |
| Andrew and I working hard in the kitchen at Widdy's |
Day 31
This afternoon we had a potluck lunch with all of the staff
in the central dining office. With so many foodies in one place, of course it
was a competition. And, since Rafi is the boss, he won (his jasmine
rice was actually fantastic, but don’t tell him I said that. I tried to stay impartial…).
 |
| Rafi's Pre-Potluck Food Evaluations |
plate to try a taste of every dish with only one trip to the buffet line. Aside from talking food, the potluck was a good opportunity to talk with some of the managers and directors from the dining office. I asked Mike about his experience with the hiring process from a manager's standpoint, looking for any advice regarding resumes and the entire application process. He agreed to take a look at my resume and give me some tips.
Later in the day we attended a meeting about the improved
salad bars. The meeting was led by Veronica and it was an excellent
presentation. All of the directors in attendance were very impressed. She broke
down the projected quantities of individual salad components, as well as of
composed salads, which each college goes through in one day. She used this data, as well as the dimensions of the serveries, to design the layout for each college and choose the appropriate size of serveware. I’m glad Veronica had
the opportunity to show off all of her hard work and receive the kudos she
deserves. I'm sure she'll be glad to finalize these designs.
Day 32
Thursday was a pretty relaxed day. We continued working on
our nutritionals project. To help find some data we went to ESM as Marie said she
had a resource for us which might help. We ended up talking with Marie about dietetics a bit. It’s always great to gain insight from Marie. She tells it as it is. She also has a lot of experience and, being an RD, she was able to give
us some information to consider. From her past, she does not appear to a fan of the clinical aspect of food; she loves what she gets to do at Yale.
Suppliers came to the office later in the morning to talk
about ordering the serveware for the salad bars. Veronica was able to show off
her presentation again, in brief, and the suppliers were also very impressed.
They say they usually have much less information to go on when they are asked
to provide an estimate so they were happy with what Veronica was able to
provide. I would never have imagined, going into this foodservice experience, how much
effort goes into one seemingly small aspect of a foodservice operation – the salad
bar. I think I say the same thing after every meeting about the salad bar...
Day 33
This morning Andrew and I met Veronica at 7:45 and we walked over to SOM where some of the cooks were testing recipes in the brand new
kitchen. Andrew and I were asked to make notes about
methods and cooking
techniques as well as to record accurate weights so they could be entered into the standardized recipes.
 | ||||||
| New and Improved - Roasted Sweet Potato and Corn Salad |
The day started off slowly as the chefs organized themselves
so Dave, one of the culinary managers, asked us to create a standard inventory
checklist for the display cases in SOM’s new café. The goal is to make it
easier to restock at the end of the night. Taking inventory is usually a pretty
tedious task but I didn’t mind. The two guys working in the café, Nick and
Kenny, were chatty, and pretty funny, so time went by really quickly. It was a
good opportunity for me to talk about sports, something that doesn’t happen
often in the office.
After we created the checklist we returned to the kitchen to
work with Stu, Cyril (aka Frenchy), and Kenny (aka KB) as they tested and
adjusted some salad recipes. The Roasted Sweet Potato and Corn Salad tastes even better than it looks!
 |
| "Table 5, Stayin' Alive" (I was told to say this...) |
 |
| SFAS Lunch Set-up in Timothy Dwight's Dining Hall |
Day 34
We finished
off the week at The Yale Farm, a physical extension of the Yale Sustainability
Food Project. It is a one acre plot of land with a number of crops that are
sold every Saturday at the Wooster Square farmer’s market in New Haven. The day to day
operations of the farm are taken care of by 6 Yale undergraduate interns. The
interns put Andrew and me to work as soon as we arrived at the farm. We started
by harvesting different types of turnips and potatoes. It was a great opportunity to talk
with Yale students and gain their perspective on Yale.
 |
| Harvesting Potatoes at the Yale Farm |
Weekend
Andrew and I headed back to New York to spend our second last Saturday at Yankee's Stadium. The field is beautiful and I love the immediate surrounding area. There are diamonds outside of Yankee Stadium with some decent sized crowds. On one of the outfield fences there was a motto which read "Sometimes You Win. Sometimes You Lose. Sometimes It Rains." I love it! Baseball is about having fun playing, not the outcome. It's very appropriate for Little League and something that should never be overlooked in sport.
 |
| Yankee Stadium |
Until next time...
