University of Georgia - Week 6

Whoa. I definitely had a moment as I was typing the title of this week's blog. Six weeks already?! I can't even believe it! This week was all about projects, meeting with Food Service employees, and even more projects.

Monday
It was the Freshman College Opening Banquet today! Nikki and I arrived to Summit around 10 and assisted with normal managerial duties before starting prep work for the banquet that evening. Around 2, we started moving tables, chairs and blocking off certain sections. This year's banquet was unique in that the dining hall would still remain open for guests and students. We had to make sure those wishing to dine would still be able to maneuver the space.

Setting up the dining space and buffet tables.

After an hour or so, we had set up all the tables and placed the chafing dishes on the buffet tables. It was just time to wait for the food!

Finished set up.

Once the student's arrived, everything happened in a blur. I helped keep the salad and bread table replenished during service, but in an hour they were in and out! It was great to see how our banquet will be in a few short weeks. We also got a chance to get a feel of the room for our decoration ideas.

Tuesday

Oh, FoodPro recipe writing. Nikki and I reported to Summit to meet with Brian and Chef Sam to knock out our recipes for FoodPro. We worked on standardizing everything and formatting them. It is important that all of our recipes are in the system for ordering, service records, and allergy information. After writing the recipes, Brian checked over everything and gave us additional information. It was a day long process.

Working on the Duck Confit recipe.

Wednesday

During the first week, we got the pleasure of meeting Scott, the Dietetic Technician for Katherine Ingerson. We would start the morning off learning more about his job and how he assists Katherine and Stuart, the FoodPro manager. Scott is primarily in charge of making sure product information is correctly entered and available in FoodPro. Yes, the thousands of products that come through Central Warehouse annually! He has created a very efficient and orderly process at tackling this job however. Scott takes pictures of the products and product information throughout the dining halls, uploads them to the server, where they are then labeled. He has a team of Nutrition students available to assist him in this as well. He has also designed nifty charts and tables to keep everything organized. 

Later in the afternoon, we met with Stuart again and learned a bit more about his job with FoodPro. We sat in the upstairs conference room in Central and observed the weekly production run. While up there, we got to check out some cool UGA Food Service artifacts.

FoodPro on a large monitor. 

Thursday

Today was our day off designated for project work. We started off the day visiting Snelling and O'House to rummage through their decoration storage. We found some really great things we will be using in a few weeks. Afterward, we headed downtown and worked on a few other things. I am responsible for designing table numbers, the program and buffet food labels. I got a great start on those items and read a little of our ServSafe book. Nikki and I took the initiative of getting ServSafe certified this summer so this upcoming week will be spent studying in my free time! 

Working on projects and studying downtown!

Friday

We met with Chef Shelly this morning to get a few details about our Special Selections project. The New Bolton dining commons will feature a Special Selections line dedicated to entrees free of the top eight allergens. We are responsible for designing a training module for employees and reminder signage. Our main goal is to prevent cross-contamination. 

After, we headed over to Summit to clean up the recipes from earlier in the week. It is important to get a few eyes to check over your work before submitting it. :-)

Later that evening, Nikki and I finally visited Terrapin, a local beer company. Just about everyone we'd met had advised us to check out the tour and sampling they offer on the weekend. I had never been to a brewery before, so was pretty excited to check it out. 

Outside sampling area. It was such a beautiful day!

The one picture I was allowed to take inside the warehouse.

Towards the end, it got pretty crowded out there.

Weekend

On Saturday we took a ride to Buford, Georgia which is about an hour way. Located there is the Mall of Georgia, which is the largest mall in Georgia. We did a little shopping and ate dinner at Tin Lizzy's Cantina, which is a local Tex-Mex Restaurant. Yummy!

Until next week ya'll!