UGA Week 6

I can’t seem to wrap my head around how fast this experience is going! We just completed week 6, and our banquet is 2 weeks away, time sure does have a way of sneaking up on you!

Monday:

Today was the opening Freshman College banquet, so we spent the day with the Summit team preparing for the event. Demi and I are in charge of planning the Freshman College closing banquet, so today really gave us an idea of what to expect. Day of preparations included rearranging and moving tables, setting all the tables, setting up the two buffet lines, and closing the regular service stations. The event ran very smoothly and made me super excited to see the results of all our planning!

 

These pictures show the standard set up for the opening banquet!  

Tuesday:

Majority of this week consisted of projected work. Developing the recipes was time consuming, and very tricky. Today we spent our time with Bryan and Sam writing the recipes so they could be entered into Food Pro. And, let me tell ya, the idea of this task seems a lot easier than it really was. Food Pro is picky, just like any other food service database. Writing the recipes consisted off find out the weights of each ingredient, determine the serving size, quality the recipe will produce, finding the inventory numbers, and creating clear and specific instructions. So, 5 hours later we thought we completed and perfected the recipes, but boy were we wrong!

Lots of coffee was needed for this task ;)

Wednesday:

Today we meet with Scott Lanier, the dietician’s assistant. He is responsible for entering all the nutrition information, allergy information, and brands of each inventory item. Now, this task seems has time consuming as it really is. There are continuously new products coming in and different brands being ordered. Whenever a new product or brand comes in the ingredients and nutrition information has to be updated in Food Pro. This is important for individuals with allergies and calculating nutritional information.

For example: UGA has been receiving x brand of green beans, well prices are now cheaper for y brand. However, y brand has a nut allergy risk because of the factory the green beans are produced in. This information is only caught because Scott is CONSTANTLY overlooking the products being used.

Today we also spent more time with Stuart, head Food Pro guy ;) I wish I could explain to you the complexity of his job, but the capability of Food Pro is pretty hard to wrap your head around.

Thursday:

Today was dedicated to project work. Demi and I split up tasks and knocked some of the planning out. Demi designed the table numbers and food labels. I put together a list of decorations we need to order, then found websites and prices.

We also visited the other dinning halls today to look through decorations. We found some great stuff including vases, baskets, and tool that we are going to put to use!

Friday:

This morning we briefly met with Shelly Orozco- Marrs, Bolton’s Chef. Other than our banquet we have a few other projects that we are in charge of. Because Bolton has a new stations that is called Special Selections and is free of all top 8 allergens, a training module is needed. Demi and I are in the process of developing this, and we just had a quick meeting to touch base with Shelly.

After we were done with Shelly, we got an unexpected phone call to head to Summit. There we were informed we had to re-write all of our recipes (see I told you, we only thought we were done!). So, today we ended up spending a couple more hours trying to perfect the recipes. What a learning experience this was, I think I might be a pro now!

Weekend Fun:

Friday night we ventured out to Terrapin Brewery. If you are 21 definitely a cool place to check out! You pay 10 dollars for a souvenir glass, get a free tour of the brewery, and get 8 4oz pours. The area designated to hang out is all outside with a food truck, picnic tables, and live music. It was a really nice way to check out a local business for a few hours!

Tips For Future Interns

-Make sure you triple check your recipes for all the necessary information! 

-Check out Terrapin on a Friday or Saturday!

-Explore the other dinning halls supplies there's tons of stuff for all themes!