University of Kansas Week 3

Sunday, June 22, 2014

University of Kansas Week 3

The Roasterie, Kansas City

I can’t believe we are almost half way throw the internship… time has been flying by. Monday morning started off with a wonderful meeting with Claudia Larkin and her fantastic staff in the marketing department. Claudia helped Alison and I get a real understanding on how the marketing at KU Dining works. I am so impressed how quickly they were able to take our ideas for the Mrs. E’s dining hall special themed event and turn it into a stunning piece of art work. It’s amazing how gifted they are in marketing and designing for the rest of KU Dining. During the visit we were able to sit down with Chad Beatty the KU dining web designer. Chad elaborated on the different aspects of the KU dining webpage. Check out their fabulous website:

http://union.ku.edu/dining/dining-home/

Roasted and un-roasted coffee beans

Alison and myself

Tuesday, Alison and I were able to spend some quality time with Kamay Plunkett, the Pulse coordinator and supervisor. The Pulse is KU dining’s very own cafe that features Kansas City’s famous air-roasted coffees from the Roasterie, Inc. in Kansas City, and Freshen fresh fruit smoothies. We had the wonderful opportunity to go tour The Roasterie in Kansas City. Their expert staff gave an in-depth tour about how they only utilize

the best beans available then blend and roast them to perfection. The result is rich, flavorful, fresh coffee… the best money can buy. Air roasting helps preserve the flavor while bringing the best out of the bean, meaning they don’t sacrifice original character for roast character.

Kamay cupping coffee

Barista skills!!

After the tour, Simeon Bricker, the 2014 US Latte Art Champion, gave us a personal cupping lesson and conducted a one-on-one latte training in their new training center. We all had a blast while learning the ins and outs of coffee selection and the art of being a barista.

Wednesday we were able to practice our barista skills and learn how to make fabulous Freshen smoothies. Kamay took us on tours of several of the Pulse locations on campus.

Simeon leading a cupping session

Thursday we had the opportunity to learn more about the behind the scenes of KU Dining. We started our morning with Mindy Pendreigh the systems administrator. Mindy works in great detail with their database system. This system is a web of information that builds and effects ever aspect of their operation. Mindy elaborated on the mechanisms of the database and how detailed her duties are. She has a amazing understanding of how to utilize this massive system.

Then we meet with Craig Josling from procurement, where we learned about the pros and cons of utilizing a prime vender for a facility of this magnitude. KU Dining combines residential and retail operations, which gives them a much larger buying power.

Chef Janna Traver-McCann

We finished up our day by attending a leadership meeting. This wasn’t a typical meeting because shortly after we started they had a surprise visit. KU Dining Services Executive Chef Janna Traver-McCann has been selected as KU Support Staff Employee of the Month! Chef Janna seemed pleasantly surprised and grateful for this honor. Since we were sworn to secrecy I can’t share the details of the meeting. J

Friday Alison and I spent the day with Cheryl Wiley, KU’s registered dietitian. Cheryl shared with us scrapbooks of passed events. It’s was quick enjoyable to see all the different types of activities and outreach they have done for the student body. We were also able to discuss and plan for the educational table that we will have at our special themed event later in July.

Several days this week we had the opportunities to work with the staff at Mrs. E’s to work on recipes testing. Everyone has been very welcoming and willing to help with the special event, I’m so excited to see how well everything comes together.