Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Week 5 in Wyoming


Day 29:

                Today was the first day of the catering rotation.  When we arrived we got to roll sushi.  It was definitely a lot of fun.  After rolling and cutting the sushi we helped get the cash operations go out in time to the retail dining.  Then we did a tour of the catering facility.  The people there seem to be a lot of fun and quite the interesting bunch of individuals.  We learned all about the front of the house operations that are involved when catering.  Some of the student employees were there and we were able to see them prep for the event that day.  We did some work on our catering project too, asking the employees their opinions on what they would like to see done.  We also looked at how they scheduled the employees for events.  They do this by having the students sign up for the events that they want to work on a week to week basis.  This seems to work really well with student schedules.  This, and the extremely positive and fun manager for front of the house, probably have a lot to do with the amazing employee retention.



Day 30: 

                We started our shift a little bit later today so that we could see an event in action.  We saw how they keep all the events in order and communicate with each other about the events.  The centralized program proved to be very useful, though looked like it took a long time for them to set it up!  Now that they have that, it seems like they can communicate pretty efficiently.  We then helped the student manager to prep for the event that night.  The students all worked really well together to get everything done in time, and did so with time to spare.  The event that night was a buffet style event.  This unfortunately meant that after we set up, there was not much to do until clean up.  This gave us a good opportunity to talk with the employees about how they liked catering.  They really love their manager and how he runs things.  This probably really helped with the very positive attitude that they seemed to have at work. 



Day 31:

                Up early to do sushi again!  I am becoming quite the sushi rolling pro.  The woman who usually does the sushi seemed to really like the help.  We then had the chance to experiment with making our own sushi rolls, though these were not the same as for our projects.  We then took a little time to help with cash ops again.  After that we spent some time with the back of house manager to learn about his management philosophy and worked on food orders.  We also ordered the food for our projects because we were going to be serving our recipes the next day.  Then we helped to get the food order out for the event they were cooking for.  There had been a little too much, so we had steak and the sushi we had made for lunch.  It was quite delicious!  We then had some opportunity to do some prep for our recipes the next day.  We tested four different marinated tofu for Sara’s recipe.



Day 32:

                So nervous this morning because we will be serving our recipes today!  We had set up a taste testing with the people in Residential Life and Dining Service to critique them.  So we were up early again to help roll the sushi.  Then after that we learned how to make the sushi rice and then we were able to roll the sushi for our projects.  My sushi recipe was called a New York Roll because it had apples, salmon, and avocado in it.  Sara did a marinated tofu recipe with vegetables.  I am now a sushi rolling master, just so you know.  The people in catering helped us a lot with presentation and showed us some tricks in using food to add color to the plate.  Then it was time to work on our sandwiches.  Mine was an Italian sandwich on focaccia.  It was very delicious, and I was really happy with the way it turned out.  Sara made a veggie and cheese sandwich on a hoagie bun with a cream cheese spread.  The tasting went really well.  We had a nice turn out and everyone seemed to really love them.  Hopefully our recipes will be added to the cash ops!



Day 33:

                This was our first day in our retail dining rotation.  We were really nervous because it was Friday once again, so who knows what could go wrong!  To start with we got a little lost trying to find the office to report to because we had forgotten to ask where it was.  I went to every floor in the Union looking for where to be.  Definitely a lesson learned in asking where they would like us to meet them if we had not been to the office yet for future rotations.  After we found the office we jumped right into things.  We learned the opening duties of the manager such as putting money in the cash registers and unlocking the retail stores.  We then got a tour of all the operations that they were involved in.  There were so many!  We also visited another retail location that our manager wasn’t in charge of, but it was also part of the campus.  The manager there was really nice and we talked with him for a little while about how he runs things.  He made us a pretty yummy iced coffee which was really nice on the hot day!  We then helped one of the student managers in looking to see what was going to need to be ordered in the on campus convenient store.  We met the person in charge of the Gardens downstairs and also the Tap on campus.  She had an interesting point of view on managing her employees and a great way to help keep them all on the same page.  Next was some time at the coffee shop set up in the library.  We learned how to use the espresso machine which was pretty cool.  The girl who works there in the summer seemed to really love her job and was quite happy to be at work.  She made us a yummy drink too!  After lunch, we learned how to close the place down and clean everything up.  We had quite the busy and informative day, but had a lot of fun doing it.  The people in the retail operations seem to have a lot of fun and we are looking forward to working with them some more. 



Day 34 and 35: OFF

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