Fun in the Oven.

Hello everyone! Glad to see that more and more people have started their internships and are getting into the program. This week here at UCONN has been one that Laura and I have been looking forward to pretty much since the start of our internship.

On Monday, we had the opportunity to take a field trip to Northeastern University to visit their international dining hall with a handful of the chefs and Managers from UCONN, such as Chuck Couture, Eric Janssen, Mario Dabrowski, Mike Viens, and Chef Derek. Since one of the dining halls here at UCONN is currently being renovated to include some of the options seen at the Northeastern dining hall, it was a great opportunity to see some of what works and doesn't work for them. For example, the Northeastern dining hall originally did not have tray lines, but due to many accidents and spills they opted to install tray rails at all the stations to avoid this problem. Overall the visit was so much fun, and I also got the chance to have my first taste of wheatgrass! The food and environment was amazing, and felt more like a restaurant than a college dining hall. I may have to take a visit back to UCONN once the renovation on McMahon is complete!

Later in the week we also got to assist in a mock health inspection with Cheryl Radzvilowicz. It was interesting and also a bit scary to know what could go wrong if food is not properly cooked or handled, and if proper safety precautions aren't taken care of. We took many food temperatures and learned some of the unthinkable stories that Cheryl told about other places she inspected in the past. One included a live fish swimming in one of the mop sinks! Not exactly acceptable!

Taking Food Temps.

Lastly, our week ended with the much anticipated trip to the UCONN Bakery! Chef Min and all of his staff were awesome to work with, and taught us so much. First, we got to bake some cakes where we learned how to scale ingredients, and make a marble cake. We also added some colorful sprinkles and food coloring to make fabulous cupcakes!

Laura scaling a marble cake

We then worked with Meghan, who taught us how to roll out cookie dough using their giant rolling machine, and also got to cut out and decorate cookies that fit with our themed meal. These included sailboats, seagulls, sharks, whales, and fish. It was fun to get creative and play around with different frostings and glazes that it didn't feel like work at all. The smell of baking cookies wasn't so bad either!

My beautiful sea-inspired cookies!

Jelly rolls were also on our list of how-to's which is a bit of a challenge. Key tip: Just keep going! Once you roll, you can't go back!

Preparing for jelly rolls!

Chef Min also taught us how to make roses out of frosting and other creative touches that they put on a lot of their cakes such as ducks, storks, and even Santa! We had the opportunity to make our own flowers which is harder than Chef Min makes it look. Sorry that the video is so small.

Mine & Laura's first roses!

Laura piping flowers

This week was a lot of fun, and we learned so much! Keep an eye out for our delicious cupcakes, jelly rolls, and cookies in the dining halls! And don't forget to like the UCONN Bakery on facebook here!