University of Kansas - Week 6

This week I started off working at North College Café in the production area. Tommy so kindly guided me around the kitchen providing great education on equipment use and safety. J

Tuesday, David Weakley and I meet to test recipes and finalize some detail for our Earth Day project. We worked on developing a coffee scented smokey mole, which utilized local items such as Good Natured Family Farm’s honey, the Roasterie’s coffee.

Twice this week we were able to experience the very effective fire alarm system in Hashinger Hall. I will say the staff had everyone out and back in very quickly. 

Wednesday morning Alison and I meet with John Pouy to observe the Union storeroom. John works behind the scenes diligently to inspect and mange the incoming goods for the Market, Impromptu, and the catering department. John’s ability to efficiently monitor all incoming good guarantees that each unit get what the need, when the need it, and of their expected quality. During our visit with John we were able to witness two truck deliveries and what procedures they must follow. During this time John explain and even was able to demonstrate how to handle products that do not meet KU dining’s standards. 

After lunch Alison and I meet with Bob Fieger from the human resources department to discuss hiring process, attendance, and discipline.

Alison and I had the opportunity to present our OPA! event to the management staff at Mrs. E's. This was a great meeting to sit down with Mrs. E's team and discuss the event. Everyone seemed very welcoming to our ideas and had great input. I'm very excited for our event. 

We finished up our day working line service at Mrs. E’s during dinner. Mrs. E’s has mainly has two serving style; self serve and served. During my shift I worked at Lenior’s Classics serving chicken parmesan, pasta, and steamed mixed veggies. I couldn’t help myself but to give extra encouragement for each student I served to have some veggies. I would guess about 25% accepted my persuasion to eat their veggies.  Then I gave my hand at monitoring the self service at the Grill, which was serving parmesan grilled cheese, turkey and cheese sandwiches, and fries.

Thursday morning I meet with Cheryl Wiley to take the ServSafe exam. I believe the test went very well and I’ll get my results in about a week.

For the rest of the day I worked with Shirley in the chill foods at Mrs. E’s. Shirley gave me the run down on the importance of food safety and sanitation. We also took a closer look and comparison of manually chopping produce vis utilizing prep chopped items. During the dinner rush I was able to mange Great Greens the salad bar. I was very pleased to see so many students eating fresh salads. Even though it was very busy, it’s worth it to know so many where making healthy choices. Someone even slipped a sweet note onto my work area. 

One of my favorite parts of being in the kitchen is getting to taste some of the amazing recipe the chiefs create. Travis created a delicious red fish Mediterranean style dish, I believe everyone who tried it enjoy. 

Friday I worked at Mrs. E’s dining hall. I started working as a cashier though the lunch rush, which was over 700 students. Talk about a lot of card swiping.  Even though all the students were very polite and kind, seeing a line that long still was a little intimidating. The following pictures are of the slow moments. :) 

I finished up my shift working in the ware washing room. I had no idea that a typical day they would have 5 employees handling the dish room. However, that night they only had one person working so the facility used paper products which made the dishes much more manageable.

This week flew right pass, as I'm sure the next two will as while.