NACUFS Internship - Summer 2016

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Michelle and Hannah at the Product Tasting!

Hi from Pennsylvania State University,

Hannah Abbruzzese is a senior dietetics major studying at Miami University, and Michelle Lindell is also a senior dietetics major studying at Brigham Young University. Niki and Marie are the other interns who are working on another blog post!

On our first night here in State College we met our preceptor, Maria Kim. She brought us downtown and took us to a gourmet pizza shop called Inferno. The five of us surprisingly devoured 3 appetizers, 6 pizzas and 4 slices of cake and it was amazing! Maria is so fun and energetic, we are so excited to get to work with her for the next 8 weeks!

Maria created a selfie scavenger hunt for us to get to know the campus better, and here are some pictures:

Our cakes from Inferno! (Carrot, Chocolate, Coconut, Carmel Apple Cheesecake)

Hannah, Michelle, Niki, Marie in front of the fountain at the Arboretum

All of us at the Nittany Lion Shrine

We also found the creamery within the first few nights here and the ice cream was so creamy and rich. We might not leave looking the same weight wise haha.

The first week we were here we had a few lunches with different people including the associate director of residential dining, the director of residential dining and the residential dining coordinator. It was really interesting to hear about their jobs and have the opportunity to ask them questions.

We also worked in the dining hall as student workers for the happy volley and special olympics conference. Happy volley is a summer camp for high school volleyball teams and special Olympics is an Olympics for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. During these conferences we did a variety of jobs including working in the dish room, salad bar, serving food, and setting up for the conference. The most exciting part of the conferences was being able to work with the chefs and preparing the food. We made about 500 grilled cheeses, pancakes, and cut about 1000 chicken breasts!

Michelle and Niki prepping grilled cheese (Michelle drank some of that melted butter by choice).

We had the opportunity to sit in on a product tasting event which was really exciting because we were able to see all of the new products that could potentially be sold in the convenience stores on campus in the fall. We tried so many types of candies, granola bars, chips, popcorns, frozen items, protein bars, trail mixes, and beef jerky! They brought so much extra food, so everyone who attended the event was able to bring home bags full of product!

Marie with Pumpkin Spice Popcorn

Niki and the Chicken Bacon Club!

A small portion of the product tasting event

During the week we were able to work closely with some of the chefs at Redifer Dining Commons. The executive chef, Mark Kowalski, taught us basic knife skills. We cut a variety of produce with him and he even taught us how to make apple swans!

Chef Stephane Gawlowics taught us how to separate the turkey skin from the meat and marinade the turkey, which will be very useful for future Thanksgiving dinners! The next day, Chef Terry taught us how to carve the turkey, and garnish the carving station with apple swans, and nicely cut fruits.

Chef Terry demonstrating proper garnishing techniques!

All the chefs we had the opportunity to work with are very passionate about their jobs and were happy to teach us. It was very pleasant working with them because they were all eager to answer our questions and help us learn!

After a busy work week, we had a two day break so we took advantage of it by traveling to New York City! We visited so many tourist sites including the 9/11 Memorial, Central park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Station, Times Square, the Rockefeller Center, China town, Little Italy, and we ate at Serendipity for Michelle's birthday!