University of Kansas- Week 6

June 14th

This week's theme was production! Tonya and I bounced around from different locations and stations doing mostly back of the house work. The days were long, but we still managed to slip in some project work and some fun.

On Tuesday I was at North College Cafe all day doing various prep work as well as some recipes. The kitchen there was more of a size I was used to, much smaller than Mrs. E's. I was able to utilize the robot coupe and see the gigantic mixer pound through a very large batch of pizza dough.

Some good ol' hand chopping

So much chicken!

Tommy, the head chef at NCC, showed me the technique of making risotto in the steam kettle- it was fairly easy but required a lot of attention to be careful not to burn the rice.

My first risotto!

We were up bright and early the day we went to check out the Union storeroom in order to catch the shipments coming in.

What a beautiful sunrise!

John Pouy showed us the world of receiving which consists of much more than just taking boxes off trucks and putting them where they need to be. Every shipment has multiple boxes that need to each be individually checked and dated as well as systematically stored in the correct areas. We delivered some items to the catering kitchen and then it was off to the wonderful world of HR.

Bob Fieger had the pleasure of explaining the bits and pieces of human resources to Tonya and I as it has to do with KU dining services. He gave us a complete packet with anything and everything we'd need to know neatly stapled and highlighted.

After lunch, Tonya and I set to putting together packets to hand out at a Mrs. E's supervisory meeting having to do with our special event. We wanted to inform all the managers at E's about what we had planned so far for Opa!, our Grecian themed dinner. Everyone was really great about making sure we hadn't skipped over anything and it looks like we'll have a great team to help us make it a really great evening!

Patti even put up our table tents!

We also had experience doing some line service at Mrs E's to end our day. We switched from serving at Daisy Hill Grill, a self serve station, and Lenoir's Classics, a full service station. At the grill, I got to fry something in giant vats for the first time:

On Thursday I got to take my turn at hot foods production. I was shown how to use the huge rotating smoker that is very finicky about how the meat is balanced. I did some prep for future recipes as well as went through with some recipes on my own.

Peppers and onions for the burrito bowl

Carefully prepared brisket

On our last day this week, Tonya and I took turns playing cashier and ware washer. The behind-the-scenes of the dish room was quite impressive actually- the dirty dishes belt ran into the cleaning station and then the dishes went through a very long dishwasher to the other side of the room where they were put away. There were all different stations for people to be at in order to make it run efficiently but also remain sanitary. It was surprisingly well-ventilated, especially for a hot, humid Kansas day. I have to admit that I accidentally sprayed myself and possibly a coworker or two with the cleaning hose more than once....

When it was my turn to be cashier, I came out of the office door and jumped right in as a mob of campers was converging on the cashiers station. They were all super polite so it made getting them all through so much easier. After the initial dinner rush there wasn't very much traffic for the rest of the day, but it went by fast since I had Dan, the regular cashier to talk with. She was a natural at greeting everyone and making sure everyone was in order.

Feeding the hordes

Midwest Adventures

We had fairly calm out-of-work time this week, but still managed to have a little bit of fun.
Tonya and I visited the pool again and were completely drained from the sun afterwards. We also visited some used bookstores and found the cutest kitty: