Day 11
Week 3 started off with a change to our
normal routine. We were scheduled to work with the managers in the Ezra Stiles
(ESM) Dining Hall on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, Andrew and I didn’t start
our shift until noon so it was like having an extended weekend. We spent lunch “walking
the line” with the manager,
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| Part of "The Line" |
Kristin. This meant we observed the service area to
make sure that we didn’t run too low on food, drink, or dishes, and to make
sure that the service area was being kept clean. Most of our day was spent
observing service under the direction of the managers Kristen and, later, Marie.
From my first day in the unit it was
apparent how important planning and communication are to a successful service.
Communicating with employees about their specific tasks is important; however, communicating
with groups that will be dining at your facility is also important. Kristen was
very focused on finding representatives of groups as they entered the dining
hall to make sure they were sitting in designated areas to make sure groups
were coming to the dining hall at certain times during the meal period. This
communication will allow for smoother service for the rest of the week. Now
management can be sure not all groups will be eating at one time so there will
enough seats and food. Effective communication, and the resulting organization
of the dining facility, made the experience much better for the diners and for
the staff.
Day 12
On Tuesday I decided to take the early
shift and started at ESM at 7am. Jeff was the manager that morning. This
allowed me to experience what it was like to open the dining hall in the
morning.
After breakfast Jeff sent me to the basement
kitchen where I met Norman, a GSA (General Service Assistant). We were tasked
with taking inventory. It was quite the task as there were at least 30 pages
worth of inventory between the two floors of the dining hall. To put it in
perspective, Andrew started his
shift at noon and it took the three of us (plus Jeff at one point) until 4:45
to finish counting everything!
One of my favourite parts of the experience
at ESM was the daily cooks’ meeting which happens after lunch. The first,
second, and third cooks sit down with the manager after lunch and discuss
service from the prior day, the present day, and the upcoming day. This allows
them to discuss which foods have been prepared, which ingredients are low in
inventory, any shortcomings in the forecasting of the previous meals, and the setup
of the servery for dinner. Though the cooks are busy throughout the day I think
this meeting is important for making sure everyone is going to finish their
preparations for the following meal as well as allowing for discussion of any
frustrations, if they have any. I was only at ESM for two days but I feel like
I learned a lot about what goes into managing during service. I think I will be
going to another unit in the near future and hopefully I will be able to gain
some more insight there.
Day 13
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| How nice is Veronica(, eh)!? |
On Wednesday we were back in the office. Veronica
returned from her trip to Pennsylvania and we got to hear all about that. She
even brought each of us back a giant chocolate bar from Hershey. It was very
nice of her. We spent the most of the day finishing off our first Eatec
assignment.
Day 14
Thursday morning was supposed to begin with
a meeting with Chef Ron DeSantis. However, while we were waiting to speak with
Ron, Gerry pulled us into her office and we were able to speak with a
marketer/distributor trying to sell fruit flavoured protein drinks at Yale’s
retail outlets. There was a fair amount of protein the clear, fruit-flavoured
liquid but it tasted kind of sweet for a post-exercise drink.
After speaking with the representative, we
met with Ron. From our meeting, it was clear just how much he has in the
foodservice industry in general. He told us about a number of different
projects he had collaborated on. One involved teaching cooking to individuals
in a way that allowed them to fight disease. Another project he told us to look
up was Performance Dining at Stanford University (related link here http://hub.aa.com/en/cl/high-performance-dining).
It is all about choosing foods that help with performance both inside and
outside of the classroom. At the end of the meeting we discussed potential
field trips. Hopefully one or two of those will pan out!
Following our meeting with Ron, we learned
of our newest project for Veronica. The Culinary Support Center (CSC) will be
ready for the new academic year. Yale has 13 dining halls, as I have mentioned
before, and it is important that all of these facilities are producing food
according to the standardized menu. The CSC will help with this. Cold foods,
such as clean and cut vegetables, prepared salads, dressings, and sandwich
ingredients will be the responsibility of the CSC. These items will be sent out
to the dining halls twice per day and in this way the ingredients will be
standardized. To help with the process, Andrew and I are being asked to type
the ingredients and amounts into an Excel spreadsheet. These recipes will then
be adjusted for their new, larger batch sizes that will be prepared in the CSC.
We have been asked to type up the ingredients for about 300 salad recipes to
start with!
Day 15
Today marked the first day of Uncommon
Market. Uncommon Market is a farmer’s market which Yale
hosts every Friday
during the summer, just outside of The Commons dining hall. Andrew and I walked
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| Me, at Uncommon Market |
around during set up and saw the large variety of fresh produce, breads, and
baked goods that were to be sold. We worked during the market and I was asked
to help manage the cashiers.
Being the first day, it was very busy. The
market was scheduled to open at noon and we sold out of all of the bread and
baked goods, as well as most of the produce, by 12:30. Though most of the food
was sold, there were some hiccups in our operation. The lines were long and
slow moving and some of the produce sold out more quickly than expected. All of
these
issues will be addressed by our next market in two weeks.
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| Andrew lovin' Market life |
We worked on our new project for the
majority of the afternoon. We ended up typing up all of the ingredients and I
am proud to report we are much further ahead of schedule than Veronica expected.
This was a high point on which to end the week. (However, I can’t tell you how
many times I typed the words “Spice Pepper Black Restaurant Grind Bulk” today).
Week
4
Day 16
Most of today was spent working on the next
phase of the new CSC project. Today we were tasked with converting ingredient masses
to grams for all ingredients except for herbs and spices used in minute amounts.
We also had lunch with Veronica in the
Davenport dining hall. This was our first time in Davenport so Andrew wanted to
commemorate it with a picture. Afterwards we went on a short tour of some of the residential colleges’ courtyards. We discussed some of the events Andrew and I
will be participating in over the remainder of our time at Yale. One of these
events will (hopefully) be a full campus tour. I would love to see more of the
interior of the residential colleges since most of what we have been exposed to
so far are the dining halls and kitchens.
Day 17
Tuesday of Week 4 was a particularly
exciting day. We met with Dan Flynn, Director of Hospitality & Maintenance.
Up to this point, all of our meetings with Directors within Yale Dining have
been sit down
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meetings in each director’s respective office. Dan changed it up
a bit. He handed us a hard hat and we walked over to the Yale Dining van
to
head out on a tour of some locations off of the main campus.
Our first stop was the CSC. The interior of the CSC is currently under construction but Dan walked us through and told us about each room. Yale Catering, the Yale Bakery, and preparation
areas for the residential dining halls will all be
housed in the CSC.
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| Restaurant at West Campus |
Next we drove a few miles outside of New Haven to West Haven
and visited West Campus. West Campus is a massive piece of property but is
currently minimally occupied. Yale is in the process of increasing the number
of students and staff on site and when that happens I’m sure Yale Dining will
be ready. Currently, there is a restaurant/café on West Campus which serves
sandwiches, pizza, and dessert among other features. Food preparation is also
visible to customers which was one of my favourite parts of this unit along
with the custom pop machine. Our final stop was at Widdy’s Restaurant at The
Course at Yale, Yale’s golf course, where we ate lunch. My turkey burger was
delicious! Hopefully we will be spending a day at the golf course later in
July.
Day 18
Veronica added to our pile of paper work
this morning by asking us to input the ingredients and weights for Yale’s
sandwiches. This information will be added to the salad weights. We spent most
of the day working on this project.
At the end of the day we had a meeting with
Bill Wilson, Director of Marketing & Branding. He is a very busy man. He’s
also a pretty funny guy. He explained a few of the projects he is currently
working on, including pamphlets with current initiatives at Yale. He shared a
current marketing project with us that he has had to put on the backburner. He
is hoping that Andrew and I will be able to put in some work on the project so
that he can finish it up and publish it for the new school year. I think this
will be a great opportunity to show off our creativity and writing skills!
Day 19
Thursday was the last day of week 4 as
Friday marks the Fourth of July (my first in the United States)! We finished typing
all of the ingredients for the salads and sandwiches and converting all of the
ingredient masses
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| Yea, that binder holds our entire week's work! |
to grams this morning. We met with Veronica for lunch where
we discussed our next potential project. There is a list of American colleges
with the best dining programs. Yale Dining is very proud of what it has
accomplished so far; however, it is always pushing forward, looking to improve.
We will likely be taking a look at this list next week for two purposes. This
first is to see what other colleges are doing successfully in order to
determine potential projects for Yale to undertake. Secondly, we will look to
see what Yale is known for and look for opportunities for improving marketing;
to allow individuals outside of the college to gain a better understand of
initiatives Yale Dining is currently undertaking. This new project will likely
be linked with one or two of the projects Bill discussed with us yesterday.
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| The Uncommon Gameplan |
After
lunch, we were able to sit on a meeting to discuss next week’s Uncommon Market (it will not be occurring this week because of the Fourth
of July). We began the meeting, under Bob Sullivan’s guidance, by listing the
positives and negatives of the opening day of Uncommon Market. We then
discussed strategies to alleviate any shortcomings. Finally we came up with a
strategy to make next week’s market very successful. I've included the game
plan on the right. I was impressed with this meeting both because of the
process we went through in order to constructively design a strategy for next
week but I was also impressed with Bob’s leadership. He was open to everyone’s
ideas and contributed some of his own. However, I think what I appreciated most
of all was his use of humour in guiding the group through the meeting. I am
really
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ESM decorated for July 4th!
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looking forward to next week’s Uncommon Market, especially after this
meeting. But first, fireworks!...
Happy Independence Day my American friends!
Until next time…
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