Monday, June 13: This morning I met with Kelly, the customer
support coordinator at CSU. She manages
Computrition and oversees the data specialists at all of the dining
centers. The menu management database
contains all of the ingredients and recipes Dining Services has ever used,
which I learned is almost 8,000 recipes!
Kelly explained the different roles and communication between the
executive chef, production chefs, general managers, and herself through Computrition. It is certainly a process to manage the menu
forecasting and ordering for six dining centers and two express locations. Late last week I reconnected with a friend
who I met at running camp in Maine a few years ago. It turns out she lives in Fort Collins! She invited me to join her high school cross
country team’s summer practices, so I ended up running with them. It was such a nice coincidence and I hope to
run with her team again!
Tuesday, June 14: I started the day meeting with Skyler, the
senior procurement manager. He talked about
purchasing as an art form, from bidding with companies to dealing with state
regulations for ordering anything from milk to new ovens. Skyler described the process of bidding for a
coffee supplier. The Bean Cycle, based
in Fort Collins, is a fair-trade and organic company that roasts and grinds
their beans locally and delivers the coffee to CSU dining halls on a bike! I found this very interesting and
unique. Later in the morning and
throughout the afternoon, I worked in the storeroom with Jeb and Jordan. They gave me a tour of the facility, showing
me where the dry goods, cooler, and freezer were located and what they
contained. I was impressed with the
amount of local products CSU dining sources, including spices, hot sauce, and
gluten free baking mixes! Jordan and I pulled
a few orders and checked inventory. We
were back and forth in the cooler and freezer, so I bundled up in jackets and
gloves!
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| The Original Squash Nachos from Silver Seed |
After a full day, I headed out
for a very sunny afternoon run and checked out the Fort Collins Food Truck
Rally at City Park for dinner. There
were so many food trucks with incredible options. After delicious vegan nachos from The Silver
Seed, I got Ba-nom-a-nom’s banana ice cream, which is just bananas in the form
of soft serve, topped it with vegan chocolate sauce and vegan sea salt
caramel. It was a delightful and fun
Tuesday night!
Wednesday, June 15: Today I shadowed Brittney, the
registered dietician on campus, and Ann, her intern. They are organizing the Health & Wellness
Challenge and the participants just handed in their tracking logs from the
first week. Ann complied the information
and created progress reports for each participant. Afterwards I stuffed envelopes with the individual
reports and tips for the earning more points (ways to get more sleep, correct
serving sizes of fruits and vegetables, etc.).
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| Bread samples from the Bakeshop |
In the afternoon, Brittney, Ann and I headed over the to Bakeshop to
sample new whole grain bread recipes.
Janet, the executive pastry chef, had three breads for us to try. All were made with ancient grains and were
non-GMO. If the breads are approved and
added to the Bakeshop products, Janet would like them to be used for bread
boards (sliced bread), sandwiches or the replace the hoagie rolls at the express
dining locations. With some light
adjustments to boost the carbohydrate-to-fiber ratio, like the addition of
flaxseeds or oatmeal, the bread would receive the “Eat Well” label on the
dining halls menu.
Thursday, June 16: My morning started bright and early at
6am at the Bakeshop. CSU does a
fantastic job with gluten free offerings, both savory foods and baked
goods/desserts, and today I spent the day working with Kendy in the gluten free
area. We made blueberry and peach muffins, individual-sized pizza dough,
snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and almond cherry
bars. We also tested a new vanilla
cupcake recipe, but it unfortunately wasn’t a big hit. During out breakfast break, Kendy gave me a
huge granola bar loaded with chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans. It is my favorite gluten free offering from
the Bakeshop! The afternoon was spent
individually sealing the items and organizing them for Fridays delivery to the
various dining halls. It was a very
productive and exciting day.
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| Kendy with gluten free peach muffins |
Friday, June 17: Today was my second day at the Bakeshop,
which I spent with Lauren and the cake bench.
In preparation for the Bike MS150 event next weekend on campus, we made
16 sheets of rainbow blondies! We also
made lemon cakes and cupcakes, raspberry cupcakes and blueberry cupcakes. We had some leftover batter, so Lauren let
me mix the raspberry and lemon into cupcake batter. It was a rather calm day in the bakeshop, but
I enjoyed talking with the Bakeshop staff and learning more about large scale
baking. Stay tuned for my adventures
this weekend!
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| 112 pounds of rainbow blondie dough! |
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| The rack of gluten free goodies from the day |
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