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.