It started out as a normal breakfast; oatmeal, morning snap-chats, a disgusting amount of coffee, then Taylor said "Lets go on adventure today!"

Before we knew it our swim suits were backed and our bikes loaded in the back of my truck. Our decided destination was a small place called Block Island, in Rhode Island. The town is known for being a small scenic get away, that has hidden beaches and hilly terrain. We hopped on the Block Island  Ferry and before we knew it Taylor and I were standing with our biking in one of the most adorable places.

After a quick bite to eat we began roaming the Island till we found ourselves at the Mohegan Bluffs.

The view was the definition of breath taking. We stood at the top of the stairs for only a few moments before our excitement took over and we bounded down the steep stairway. When we arrived at the bottom, after a small amount of rock climbing, the soothing sounds of pebbles being pushed and pulled by the ocean gave a sudden calming effect. Taylor and I just kept repeating our amazement that a place so beautiful still existed in the States. The ocean was a clear blue, the land rustic and untouched, it could have been a beach in New Zealand. After several hours of walking the beach and playing in the ocean the setting sun and our hunger forced us back to the main land.

I know this will be one of the many days Taylor and I look back on grateful for our spontaneous adventure!

 Making the most of our last two weeks!

Rachael Rounsley

University of North Dakota

Week #6

Just as my teacher beat into my brain menus really do drive everything! I see that more and more the longer I have been here at UND. The summer has been going so fast that we are putting our menu development into high gear so it is ready in August. So this week we had several meetings with the staff to get their input on the menu schedule. I also started putting the menus into Food Pro.

The State Board of Education was in town and there were a lot of events I helped catering with. I quite enjoyed working with their Sous Chef, James, who taught me how to make some amazing gourmet appetizers that I can’t spell or pronounce the names off the top of my head. But they all turned out fantastic and the guests said it tasted good, too!

Just to highlight one of the fun activities Grand Forks has to offer. This weekend was the fair and while it wasn’t the fairs I am used to in the West it was still a lot of fun! There were carnivals, bear shows, booths, 4-H exhibits, concerts, races, and one new thing for me was a mounted shooting contest. It was pretty impressive to see them hitting the targets while running around on their horse. It was a fun way to end the week, though!

MIT: Week 4 Recap

Good afternoon, fellow interns!

Last week was a whirlwind, but we learned so much, and it didn't even seem like work! On Monday, we began a project with Chartwells that we would be working on all week, which is in charge of five different retail locations contracted under MIT dining. They have many different options for food, my favorite being the Stata Center, where they have a sandwich station, many hot food options ranging anywhere from Mediterranean fish and veggies, stuffed red peppers, or baked macaroni and cheese. I have always been thoroughly impressed with the quality of the food there!

Ray and Maria Stata Center-most interesting architecture I have ever seen!

The project consisted of documenting inventory of small-wear and equipment such as silverware, serving bowls, pan warmers, coffee dispensers, sheet pans, etc. We went to each Chartwells location and recorded the quantity and name of each item. It was interesting to learn the official title of each piece of equipment, rather than the generic name most of us have always known! After collecting all of the information, we used "Hubert" sales catalogs to record pricing ranges for each piece of equipment. This experience was very eye opening for us, because it shows how costly a business start up would be for even the most basic equipment, and a big reason as to why many restaurants go under. Management skills are key in this process to ensure smart buying and budgeting. 

While going through the inventory, we came across some old bikes that were used for a raffle. Don, the director of Chartwells higher education, who we were working with on this project, said that we could use the bikes this summer! They are definitely different, but hey, it's free transportation!

Susan and I with our new wheels

We also stopped by the MIT farmers market to choose the fruits and vegetables we would be highlighting in our piece for promoting fresh produce! This week will consist of selecting and storing produce: basic tips for shopping at the farmers market. Next week, we will begin highlighting the foods, by providing recipe cards and health information about the specific fruit or veggie! I am so excited for this project, and I am thankful for my HNF 353 class at WVU, because we did something very similar to this for a grade! 

The best part of the week was our "field trip" to Russo's. This is the store that provides all the produce for the MIT farmers market. The business was started 75 years ago by Antonio Russo, which is the current owner's father. The family is immersed in helping farmers all over the world. It was literally the biggest produce market I have ever seen. We got the grand tour from Victor Moreira, the office manager. They have 40 food trucks that go around Massachusetts every day, delivering to restaurants, schools, hospitals, etc. They have items other than produce, however, the marketing strategy they use keeps fresh foods at eye level, and packaged merchandise from other vendors on the bottom of the shelves. There is also a bakery in which most breads and desserts are made on site daily! 

Notice the placement of the merchandise!

The warehouse size cooler that stores all fresh produce!

We got to meet the owner, Michael Anthony Russo (Tony), and he gave us a bouquet of Peonies! Left to right: Kelsea Gusk (the RD for MIT Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center), Susan Ledgister, Tony Russo, myself, Michael Myers, and Victor Moreira (office manager at Russo's)

For more info, check out the website: http://russos.com/

Thanks for reading! More posts to come!

Purdue Week Four

Warm hello's from Indiana!

Week four proved to be a very busy and exciting one yet again for Lizzy, Maggie, Kelly and Amanda. They experienced a pleathora of food service venues and had the opportunity to work with supervisors from a broad array of backgrounds.

 Starting in the office on Monday, Maggie and Kelly completed the Nutrition Education board on Antioxidants. This will be on display this fall to inform students about the benefits antioxidants offer in decreasing free radicals and guide them in making healthier dietary choices.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday were early mornings for the interns, starting at 5:30 am at Food Stores. The first day, Lizzy and Kelly rode along with the delivery truck drivers and saw how food drop offs went. Meanwhile, Maggie and Amanda worked in the meat processing department. The next day, the girls switched so that each got to see the meat processing and also experience the delivery side of Food Stores. They also had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting with the buyers and ask questions about the process of distribution.

 

On Thursday, the girls had a great day running the Farmer's Market. Lizzy and Kelly prepared the meat and sandwiches while Maggie managed the slushies and Amanda ran the register. The slushie flavors this week were cucumber mango lime and watermelon lemonade. It has been fun changing them each week!

 

Friday and Saturday, Lizzy and Amanda worked in catering. On Friday, they prepared food for a banquet meal by plating entrees, making shrimp appetizers, and filling puffs with an egg variety and a different type with cooked apple and chocolate chips.

 

Saturday night, they catered a wedding at Purdue Memorial Union.

 

 

 

 

 The reception had a beautiful ice sculpture made by chef Bruce, and was a great success. Lizzy worked in the kitchen in food preparation and getting everything on trays. Amanda helped the student event coordinator, served the head table and assisted with cake cutting.

 

The completion of this week marks halfway for Purdue's interns. They have learned so much this far and are really enjoying Layfette!

 

Hoping everyone has a great week :)

Lizzy, Maggie, Kelly and Amanda

 

 

University of Oklahoma - Week 4

The Weekend
On Friday, after work, we went into Bricktown for dinner  at Zio's.  They had cheap pasta and it was actually good! Afterwards, we went to a cupcake shop, Pinkitzel, for a little dessert.  It was delicious, however I heard Cuppies & Joe is the place to go for cupcakes but they were closed.  After dinner we went to Fuzzy's to try their gallon margarita (we all shared).  It was really good, like drinking a slushie, however still a challenge finishing it between the 3 of us.  On Saturday, Grace and I went to Remington Park to watch my sister ride.  That night we went to the casino for dinner benefitting the Sport of Kings Challenge that my sister competed in on Sunday.  I stayed with my sister that night because I got up 3am Sunday morning to help her and the other people in charge of the Sport of Kings Challenge to set the jumps up for the event and to get my sisters horse, Ari ready for the day.  I helped with the event and my sister throughout the day and got pretty burnt on my arms and face.  Luckily, I did not get a sunglass tan line...somehow! It was a lot of fun helping my sister out.  I got to pig out on the food trucks at Remington Park.  My favorite thing that I had was the s'mores calzone :) I also got to pet a baby kangaroo, Grace actually was able to hold it!!! (there is a picture of the baby kangaroo & my sister on her blog)

Monday
Today, we actually got to ride to HSC with Ryan.  We were crammed in this little truck, but we eventually got there okay.  We worked in Healthy Hearth.  Today was the best experience I had so far in this internship.  I was able to work with Chef Chris and help prepare the specials for the day and also helped with inventory.  I want to go back and work for them everyday!! I was able to get a true insight in food service management.  I am particularly interested in working with cancer patients in my career so hearing how Healthy Hearth specializes their menu options particularly for the patients interests me and would love to come to Healthy Hearth more often to work. It was neat seeing how Healthy Hearth ensures the quality of their menu items and the experience that their customers have while at the operation to make sure the food is safe to consume sent their customers are at high risk due to their low immune functioning. Additionally, Lara asked if we would do the nutrition analysis of her menu!! This would be awesome to do.  I really hope we will be able to ride up with Ryan more often to work at the Healthy Hearth.  Today, was the first day during my internship where I felt value and it was related to something that I am particularly interested in doing as a career and would love the opportunity to gain more experience in.

Tuesday
Today, me and Grace finally got the opportunity to attend the New Employee Orientation with Lauren Royston.  We learned all about the Housing and Foods Services values and objectives.  We learned what the University expects from us as employees and the benefits we receive being an employee.  Lauren was a total sweetheart and made me and Grace feel very comfortable expressing our interests and concerns.  She cracked me up with her knick knacks that we could play with to keep us awake and attentive during the presentation.  Lauren was very nice and showed me and Grace around a little bit and gave us more of an insight on what we could do and where we could go around campus.  She wanted to make our time here at OU fun.  She even invited us to have lunch with her at Redbud Cafe at the museum and took us on a little tour of the gift store.  Overall, we got the opportunity to learn a little more about the Housing and Food Service Department and their history and who made up the Housing and Food Services Department. 

Wednesday
  Today we met with Marcia Musser over at Couch who is the Operations Manager.  She took us through Couch and told us about all the operations within couch.  We also had the opportunity to help set up for the Camp Crimson BBQ.

Thursday
This morning we were with Chef Gary at couch and went over all the menus that he uses for couch.  He went over how he deals with individuals who have allergies and how he prepares food for each meal period.  Additionally, today we presented our employee in-service presentation.  It went well.  I learned that people are not big fans of vegetables around here... It was a challenge to come up with new ideas for the individuals who are not fans of vegetables to consume vegetables so they receive the essential nutrients.  I had to be creative when thinking of healthy snack ideas and new recipes.  I also learned that I should incorporate more material on what individuals who have allergies or intolerances can consume to receive all the essential nutrients.

Friday
This morning we were with Francis over at Couch, however she wasn't aware that we were coming, there fore she was not prepared.  She just told us about her responsibilities at Couch.  Afterwards, Frank took Grace and I over to the Union to check out the new Union Market and the Bookmark.  We also hung out with Chris a little bit and were able to taste test Starbucks coffee!  After lunch, we met with Sam, the manager of Couch and went over inventory and finances.  We overlooked all the financial reports of all the on campus food operations which was interesting who makes profit.  We also got to eat cake!

University of Kansas week 4

Raw Blackberry Cheesecake Bars

Wow, did this week fly right by. This week started with recipe development and testing for Nature’s Finest, the vegan friendly station that Alison and I are helping create. Bandon Volz helped us test several recipes that were absolutely amazing. They were all so delicious it’s hard to pick my favorite; top two favorites would be the raw energy bars and the blackberry cheesecake.  

Tuesday, Alison and I spend the day with the catering department. Whitney Fox elaborated on the ins and outs of the scheduling procedures for a carting operation of this size. It’s amazing that they cater about 4,000 events per year. These events range from departmental meetings, ceremonies, sporting event, weddings, and of course the lovely Impromptu restaurant.

Then Robert Pierrelee, walked us through a new student orientation banquet. We helped his catering staff serve about 350 student and their families and buffet style lunch in under 15mins. Talk about seeing a well-organized system. The students and their families we so satisfied with the beautiful set up and spinach lasagna I even received hugs of joy from strangers. 

We finished up our day working with Chef Janna in the roof top garden harvesting basil. Chef Jana explained some of the lesson learned through their garden and how much it has developed over the last few years. I definitely learned some things I will apply to my own garden next year. After harvesting the basil, we worked with Chris to made 17.5 cups of pesto. Some of the pesto that was made will be used during the special event “Opa!” at the Mrs. E’s dining hall on July 23, 2014. When you attend make sure to try the Roman pizza.

Janna hard at work!

Fresh basil from the Roof Top Garden

Chris making magic!

The end result of 17.5 cups pesto

Mary with her freshly picked cabbage

Wednesday was a field trip day!!! A group of about 20 KU dining staff went on an adventure to a local Mennonite farm in Missouri.   This farm depended literal on horsepower. The entire farm and manufacturing process is driving by power they create without electricity. All of the members of this community were very nice and welcoming to us. As we went from farm location-to-location we were able to walk through the fields and pick our own produce and they even sent us home with our choice of any of their wide variety of canned products.  I went with their chunky hot salsa and have almost finished the jar. J The farm tour was a great experience to get a real understanding of farm to table. Also, on the tour I learned more about GAP certificated and the importance of purchasing local. Sysco really seems to be taking the necessary step to meet their clients desire for a more sustainable system. 

 

The true horse power

Rainbow swiss chard

Alison & Nate pretending to pick produce

Thursday, Lisa Kreie worked with Alison and I to understand the importance of proper recipe development. Lisa handles entering recipes into the Cborad database, among many other tasks. While working with her I realized how important it is to clarify the details of a recipe before submitting it to be entered.  This gave me a true understanding of how one person can read something and someone else can get a completely different meaning.   

We had a nice wrap up session with Alicia to review our observations of the different retail units. She has several projects on her hands that are changing the future of the retail side of KU dining.  Very exciting things to come!

 

For our Mrs. E’s special event Mike worked with us to develop diagrams for the layout at each station. These will defiantly help things go smoothly the day of our event. 

Later that day, Alison and I were off to the Allen Fieldhouse to help cater the KU draft party. I’m normally not the biggest basketball fan, but I did really enjoy myself at this event. The attendees were so excited when the 1^st and 3^rd NBA draft picks were KU freshmen. Go Jayhawks!!

Alison @ Allen Field House 

Before I knew it Friday was here. This morning Alison and I worked with Sergio and Travis to iron out some more details for our special event.  It’s coming along nicely. I hope to see you all there. 

Nona and Lisa went through some budgeting exercises with us. We have some mini budgeting project to practice our new skills. The numbers truly tell the bottom line.

We finished up our work week meeting with Jim to work on the new vegan friendly station, Nature’s Finest. It’s coming along great.

 

This weekend was the 1^st ever Free State Festival. Downtown Lawrence was filled with a variety of events including films, street performers, concerts, and art exhibits. If you missed this year’s celebrations mark you calendar for next year. 

Week 4 at UGA!

Welcome back for week 4 here at UGA!

Monday:

Today we focused on learning the retail side of food service. We went our day working in Red Clay Café. Red Clay Café is made up of multiple areas which different food options, there a coffee shop, sandwich shop, and a salad bar. Customers can order food from any of the three stations and check out at one station. The orders are sent electronically to the appropriate area, and then prepared. The customer is simple just instructed where to pick up their order, depending on their purchase.

I spent a lot of time working with Andrew in the Sweet Java Browns where they sell Jittery Joe’s Coffee, a local company’s coffee.  Andrew taught me how to use the computer software, check customers out, and of course make lots of differently types of coffee!  This area of service is definitely a different pace during the summer, we had a few small rushes that kept us on our toes, but I cannot even imagine how busy they are during the actual school year!

Tuesday:

Today we met with three different individuals to discus and ask questions regarding their jobs! We started the morning at Central Food Storage meeting with both Brooks Oliver and Stuart Hammond.

Brooks is the Materials Manager and is responsible for creating contracts and finding products for the best prices. UGA runs on a bidding system and Brooks is responsible for determining the quality, specs, and products needed. Once Brooks submits his wants people will bid and the best price wins. (It’s actually way more complicated than that, and his job sure keeps him busy!) Brooks also gave us a quick tour, and it’s absolutely amazing how many products and varieties they keep in storage.  

We then talked with Stuart. He is in charge of FoodPro, which is responsible for EVERYTHING behind the scenes. FoodPro is responsible for inventory, purchasing, orders, recipes, nutrient facts, allergy information, etc. (Like I said, FoodPro does it all!) The amount of information Stuart is responsible for is insane, and we just got out a general description of what his job entails.

When then had lunch with Jeanne Fry, Executive Director of Food Services, at summit and spent some more time getting to know her position. After lunch we sat down with her in her office and discussed some of the things she believes are essential to being a good manager. Her words of wisdom were not only awesome but inspiring.

Wednesday:

Today was our longest day of the week, we spent the day with Marcus. Marcus was the closing manager that day for Summit. We spent the day helping where we were needed, researching recipes, and also witnessed our first health inspection! Later on in the night Marcus showed up how he deals with student scheduling, discipline actions, and the closing task, such as checking out stations.

Thursday:

Today was our first encounter with orientation. We jumped into the middle of the orientation week and learned about day two (this coming week we are working day 1!). The orientation team on day two sets up a continental breakfast for the parents, and we were there to see what the set up looks like. After the breakfast was finished we were swooped off by Susan. Susan is in charge of the retail side of food service. She explained more the catering to us, showed us other eateries around campus, and answered all the questions we threw her way. Susan has a lot of task she’s responsible for, and luckily the energy needed to handle it all!

Friday:

We wrapped up the week with a few more meetings Friday. We met with the dietitian, Sr. Public Relations Coordinator, Assistant Director of Business Services for Food Services, and the Human Resources Manager for Food Services. All of these positions keep the operations running smoothly through many different tasks. Their responsibilities are countless, and learning all about the different positions was intriguing!

Weekend:

This weekend Demi and I decided to go hiking out at the Botanical State Garden! Our planned mile hike turned into about a three mile hike, because we obviously didn’t know the trails! But the hike was beautiful and relaxing. If you like being outdoors definitely check this area out!

Tips for Future Interns

-Carry an umbrella, I got stuck in the rain this week and could have definitely used it ;)

-If you decided to go hiking, make sure you at least take a picture of the map! 

University of Kansas - Week 4

June 30th

We started this week out with some heavy duty recipe testing at North College Cafe. Tonya and I spent most of Monday in the kitchen with Brandon Volz fiddling around with our recipes for our vegan station concept. We turned out some really great stuff as well as some things that still need a bit of tweaking to get just right. It was also the first time both Tonya and I worked with seitan, which is basically just gluten, the protein portion of wheat (a celiac's worst nightmare). It acts just as gluten does in breads and gravies as a binding element and when mixed with water, it forms very elastic strands. When cooked, it has a fairly meat-like consistency and is often used as a meat replacer for vegetarians and vegans.

Vegan Lemon Bar! Delicious, but needs adjustment

Tuesday was all about catering. Whitney Fox, the catering coordinator for all of KUDS, showed us the event management system they use to keep all of their dates, times and details straight. She is responsible for communicating with clients and trying to wrangle in all of their wildest dreams to something the catering team can realistically accomplish. Next stop was the sixth floor of the Union where we met Robert Pierrelee, the director of catering. We helped set up for a small event in the Union and then went to work helping out the serving of an orientation lunch in one of the banquet rooms.

Some golden oregano in the front

Afterwards, we met up with Janna Traver, executive chef, and got to know a little bit more about her responsibilities. Much of what she does has to do with checking the details needed for all of the events for which catering is supplying food, but she is also involved in some of the budgeting concerns and keeping an appropriate yet creative and option-laden menu to choose from. We also went to the rooftop garden and harvested  the basil as well as some other herbs. We then turned around and, with the help of sous chef Chris, made 18.5 cups of pesto! It was absolutely delicious and will hopefully be used in our Grecian dinner at the end of next month.

Tomato plants for days!

Mom would be proud!

Our harvest!

Stevia and peppers

Chris and Tonya doing some prep

Yummm garlic

This is how they pack them for freezing

Always label and date!

Our day started at 6:30 am on Wednesday where a bunch of us from KUDS met in one of the parking lots and started on our journey to a Mennonite farm! Sysco is the prime food vendor for KU and they get a lot of their produce from local Mennonite farms and also bring people to go on tours of these farms. The Mennonite farm was similar to how an Amish one would be where they don't use electricity, dress plainly and use horse and buggies to get around. However, they still utilize some modern technology such as plastic coverings for their crop beds or greenhouses or plastic hosing to help with irrigation and they work with the means Sysco uses to pick up their produce and process it. I was able to take a lot of pictures of the farm, but the Mennonites themselves do not believe in having pictures taken of them, so I had to leave them out of the shots.

Lucky butterfly

Met a little friend

Just some berry modeling

HUGE blackberry

Tomato greenhouse

The gang

Our tricked-out bus

Rainbow swiss chard

Best heirloom tomatoes in the region!

Horse Treadmill

Here they used horse treadmills to pump water from the ground

Produce aisle

They had so many canned items

Where we went to lunch afterwards-
their boiled cabbage was delicious!

Later in the week, Lisa Kreie, queen of FMS recipes, showed us the intricacies of entering recipes into the system. There is often a disconnect between the typical chef cooking style- adding a pinch of this, a dash of that, using volumetric measurements over weight, etc- and how the recipes most easily go into the system. Lisa has gotten fairly good at translating recipes so they work properly when entered into the computer. She helped us with some of the language and formatting of the recipes we have been testing- we're making progress!

We also stopped by E's for a lesson on meal diagrams from Mike. Each station at Mrs. E's has template diagrams that outline where each food item goes in each well and is usually specified right down to the serving utensil. These help the kitchen crew avoid confusion and make everything run smoothly- which is exactly what we want for our special event dinner!

Thursday night, we re-visited Robert Pierrelee and assisted with the catering of the KU NBA draft pick party. Since I am just shy of 21 and therefore cannot hand people alcohol, I acted as lead receptacle reclamation specialist (aka I walked around with a tray and picked up "orphaned" bottles and plates as Robert called them). It was pretty exciting when both of the players from KU in the lineup were picked as number one (Andrew Wiggins) and number three (Joel Embiid). The Jayhawk mascot was also quite a hoot- too bad I have no pockets in my dress pants or there would have been a few pretty funny pictures of him goofing around.

Our last scheduled event of the week found us working on some budget exercises with Nona and Lisa E. There is a lot to take into account when preparing a budget for such a large department as dining services- with those 22 locations there also comes plenty of labor and food considerations.

Midwest Adventures

On the last Friday of each month (Final Friday), shops along Mass street stay open later than usual and showcase local art, much of which is for sale.

 This piece was built into the ceiling

Homemade watermelon sherbeRt!
(yes, with an R!)

Found in Java Break, a 24 hour cafe

Really great feel-good movie-
I would totally recommend it

Some delicious ramen from Ramen Bowl

This week the Freestate Festival was going on as well- it showcased work from the performing arts and film school downtown. There were a bunch of acts on the public stage as well as some special ones at the school itself.

One of the art exhibits. People stood in front of a green screen 

with masks on and then artists illustrated the rest of it

I think this was one of the high school marching bands

This was part of Quixotic, the dance show they put on. There were also people doing aerial silk acrobatics, aerial bar acrobatics and fire spinning dances. It was amazing to see how much muscle control they all had.

(I know I went a little crazy with the videos this week, but I just realized I could do it on my phone and may have gotten too excited about it)

Until next week!