Our final project was creating a thank you luncheon for all of the people we have met throughout our time here. For the past couple of weeks, we have been working hard to make the luncheon a success. All of our breaks during our regular managers shifts were spent glued to the computer.
We decided to be the back of the house team. As the back of the house, we were in charge of creating the menu, ordering the food, managing inventory, collaborating with the bakery, and prepping the food the day of the luncheon. Michelle and Hannah were the front of the house team. Their jobs were creating invitations, creating thank you notes, buying decorations, decorating the room, and serving the guests the day of the luncheon. It was a great experience to be in charge of this luncheon from beginning to end. It really shined a light on all the small things you need to think about when being in charge of people's food.
One of our biggest challenges was two of our guests had peanut/treenut allergies. Since some of our food was coming from the bakery, and the bakery does not have an allergen free kitchen, we had to create a modified menu for those guests and handle their food with special care.
Since the winning salad of our culinary challenge was a light summery salad, we decided to to do a summer French theme. For our appetizer, we served a cheese board with boursin and brie cheese, fig butter, honey butter, raspberry jam, french bread, and gougeres. The salad was a spring mix with peaches, red onions, tomatoes, goat cheese, candied pecans, and a peach white balsamic vinaigrette. The salad was topped with either chicken or steak option, which had been marinated in a peach lemon basil marinade. The dessert was a raspberry creme brûlée. The guests left with a bag of macaroons. Below are pictures from the luncheon
The front of the house did an AMAZING job!
No this is not a picture from Pintrest, we made this beauty!
I'm not drooling, YOU'RE drooling
Creme brûlée heaven
Of course, none of this would have been possible without our fearless front and back of the house mentors, Maria and Chef Mark. We worked primarily with Chef Mark, who was fantastic. He kept us organized in the back of the house, tweaked recipes, and assisted us whenever we needed help. Not only is he a great chef, but he is a great leader who always has a smile on his face. We will miss you Chef Mark!!
Us and Chef Mark right before the guests arrived at our final luncheon
Lastly, we would like to thank our pineapple-loving internship coordinator Maria for such a wonderful experience at Penn State. In our first blog, we talked about how we noticed right off the bat how much she cared for each of us. That feeling has only grown exponentially as the weeks have gone on. She went above and beyond to make this experience one full of fun and great learning experiences.
One last family portrait by the Lion's Shrine
Thanks for reading about our experiences at Penn State!
Love, Marie and Niki, NACUFS 2016
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