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
No comments:
Post a Comment