Week 4:
After New York, our first day back on the job we
worked with Chef Mark. We had a culinary training where we diced a potato, bell
pepper, made an apple swan, and cut herbs and garlic. We also had a small
lesson about knife safety and knife sharpening. Once we were done with our
training we talked about our Culinary Challenge. Next week we get to have a
sort of "cook off" to determine which salad we will use at our final luncheon.
The winner of the competition gets to set the theme for the final luncheon.
| Our lovely apple swans |
| Chef Mark teaching us knife skills |
Our next stop was a tour of the BJC, the Bryce Jordan
Center where the basketball games are held. They also hold huge concerts and
have guest performances there. We saw the star room where famous people like
Bon Jovi, Kanye, Rihanna etc. have stood in. We also saw the concessions and the menus
they have for their events. The kitchens we toured were smaller than we expected and everything ran
on gas. We will be working the concessions on Saturday for a high school
commencement.
| BJC tour with the Student Nutrition Assistants |
For lunch we met with Human Resources managers who
talked to us about their job and what they do. It was a little interesting
because of them having to deal with union employees. Lunch was amazing
though... there was buffalo dip, Italian pita sandwiches, fruit, scalloped
potatoes, and vegetables. After lunch we headed over to the Mateer building the
Hotel Restaurant and Institutional Management building for a resume building
class. From this we took away some of the things we could do to make our resume
look even fuller and better. It was a good learning experience.
We also had the opportunity to meet with the common
wealth dining and housing services senior director Chris Hurley. He talked about all the
things he was over and then talked about the contract that Penn State has with
Pepsi. It was more about marketing and how complicated choosing Pepsi over Coke
was because of the different product lines that are offered. Depending on which
company they contract with they have to offer products that only that one
company offers. He also works with the Culinary Support Center and the
warehouse that houses all the food they ship to the commonwealth campuses all
over Pennsylvania. He was really nice and gave us a goodie bag with Penn State
trinkets in it.
After this meeting we headed over to the Mateer
building again, this time to tour their food/nutrition research lab. They do
food testing/tastings and they also have a kitchen that they conduct different
food research and studies in. I thought it was pretty amazing the types of
things that they study. Jess who gave us the tour was a previous NACUFS intern
who apparently ended up clicking with the Creamery Manager and got to work more
with him and then in the Research Lab as well. Long story short, she ended up
staying at Penn State to do her masters in Hospitality Management. She's worked
a lot with one of the Professors who has been working on this drink for
athletes to help build and repair muscle tissue after workouts. Apparently it
has been pretty successful.
| Food Tasting Lab |
Once that tour was done we ate lunch at the Business
School it was a blue line deli place that had subs, salads, and panini's. We
had to wait around for a while after that because our next meeting wasn't until
later. The next meeting was with the safety officer, Ed Bobo, for business and auxiliary
services. His job was really interesting because basically he deals a lot with
litigation and workers compensation. He had tons of stories about people
getting injured at work and then litigating to get tons of money out of workers
comp. He talked about the importance of filing accident or injury reports
immediately so you have that safety. It's crazy what people will do for free
money to cover medical expenses and work missed because of injury. We couldn't
believe it... it was incredibly fascinating.
We had
the unique opportunity to help set up and serve food to the Penn State Board of
Trustees this week. It was a little stressful but it was a good experience. When we
got to work in the morning we had to help set up the tables with white linen and
fancy silverware and glasses. Everything had to be perfect. Once we had things
set up we helped out with a hot dog taste testing. We were really excited about
this because I think there were 12 hot dogs we had to try. Of course we only
cut of a small piece of them so we could taste all of them. After taste testing
we changed into white button down shirts and then waited for the luncheon to
get started. We were introduced to the Board of Trustees and then helped serve
food. I think we were all a little nervous about it. We learned a lot about dining ettiquete... you serve food on the left and take food away on the right side of
the person. You also always fill the drinks by taking the glasses from the
right side of the person. We had to learn how to carry a tray with food on it
and then set it down on the rack
| Hot dog taste testing...yum! |
| Flower Arrangement |
The food
was absolutely amazing. Chef Stephan made this avocado, corn, mango salad and
then for the main entree there was pork with grilled pineapple, sweet potato,
and a coconut reduction sauce. The dessert was by far the best. A biscuit with
vanilla creamery ice cream, strawberries, with strawberry mousse and meringue
on the side. We were able to have a little bit of everything and the other
manager even made us pizza for lunch on top of that. This was our only big
thing for the day so once that was over we cleaned up and left to go back to
our dorms.
| Chef Stephan and the amazing desserts! |
The next
morning we had to get up early to go to the Bryce Jordan Center. We were
scheduled to work concessions for 4 hours while a high school graduation was
taking place in the arena. It was interesting to see how everything was set up
and run. We helped make hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, nachos, soft pretzels,
and pizza.
Week 5:
Tuesday -
Warehouse and Bakery tour / Food Pro training
Penn
State has an amazing infrastructure for food delivery. They store all the food
for all their campus commonwealths in a huge Warehouse in University Park, PA
right outside campus. By doing this they keep their food costs very low. We had
the grand tour of the facility and even got to go into their freezer and
refrigerated storage areas. It was really neat to see how everything was set up
and organized to make things efficient. Right behind the Warehouse is the
Bakery. I think this was our favorite part. This was where they make over 1100
dozen cookies and tons of cupcakes, cakes, etc. We saw their oven systems,
where they make breads and cookies. They even have a blast chiller so they can
make cookie dough and send it to the dining facilities to make as needed. We each
got our own 12 pack of cupcakes that we hand decorated. There was red velvet,
chocolate, vanilla, and confetti cupcakes. They were amazing. We even got to
sample a freshly made cookie.
After
that tour we headed back to the dorm to drop off our goods and then went to
Mateer to Cafe Laura for lunch. It's a class for Hospitality Management and
Nutrition majors. The end of the day finished with a presentation on Penn
States ordering system, Food Pro and how it is used to do cost analysis,
inventory, food ordering, and forecasting.
Wednesday
- Belleville Market
Belleville was AMAZING, I think it was one of the highlights of the internship. Belleville is pretty much Amish country. They have flea markets and a live animal auction that is held every Wednesday starting in March. We ended up going with Chef Bill and Dave and some of the other nutrition interns at Penn State. We learned a lot more about Amish culture than we had ever learned before mostly from Chef Bill. We spent a good part of our time at the Baked Goods part of the market. The Amish make Whoopie Pies, Moon pies, pecan tarts, breads, pasta... etc. We spent a good portion of our money on these. They also had a vegetable auction which was pretty funny. They started the bid out at 35 cents for a head of lettuce... ha. They also had a lot of other antiques and cheap items for sale.
After
checking out both flea markets we ate lunch at this amazing sandwich cafe. The
food was great. Once we finished lunch we back to the Amish market to go to
their livestock auction. It was in this small barn and they were selling pigs,
piglets, and cows for pretty cheap. We really wanted to get a piglet but we
weren’t allowed. They also had a different auction selling turkey, chickens,
and chicks. There were also bunny rabbits for sale. I forgot to mention that
the Amish hook up their horses and buggy's in the parking lot and we got to pet
and take pictures with these horses.
The rest
of the week concluded with some more meetings and tours. We finally met with
the Registered Dietitians who work in the dining halls. It was really
interesting to learn about their work mostly with students with food allergies
and coming up with food labels to make the dining experience better and
healthier. After meeting with the RD’s we met with the Purchasing Department.
We learned all about Penn States biding system and contract with Pepsi.
| Beaver Stadium |
| With Jimmy at Wegmans |
| Mt. Nittany Hospital |
Stay tuned for next time!
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