The University of Kansas: Week Seven

How can it already be week seven?! That means there is only one more week left in this exciting NACUFS journey!

Monday and Tuesday, July 18th and 19th

Monday and Tuesday were some of Julie and I's favorite days! We were baristas at The Roasterie! We were trained on everything coffee including how to make drip coffee, lattes, cappuccinos, frappes, Americanos, macchiatos, you name it! The most interesting thing was learning the differences between those drinks and how to tailor each one for all the different customers that came by The Union. In addition, we also learned how to make smoothies and chai tea lattes! After all said and done, we had a quiz with Katie, The Union Roasterie supervisor. She ensured we passed with flying colors, mostly because she was an excellent teacher! Julie and I loved working at The Roasterie!

Barista fun!

Julie made her first latte!

Maybe one day we will be able to master latte art!

We love making frappes!

Wednesday, July 20th

Wednesday was a special day for Julie and I. We had been working hard to prepare our final dinner packets to present to management at Mrs. E's. We were to communicate our overall dinner theme, lead responsibilities on event day, diagrams of concept set up and decoration, our recipe creation, and anything else we needed to discuss to ensure successful execution of the event! Though it was intimidating presenting to the management at Mrs. E's, the meeting went well and the help and support across KU Dining has been tremendous! In the afternoon, Julie and I shadowed Travis, brand new Executive Sous Chef at KU Dining, about his previous position as Production Manager at Mrs. E's. It was interesting to hear how his past three years working at Mrs. E's to manage the back of the house has most definitely prepared him for his new, larger role in KU Dining!

Our 24-page final dinner packets!

One sample concept diagram

Thursday, July 21st

On Thursday, I had a very exciting day shadowing Kory, Mrs. E's Service Manager. We first started with an interview for the open supervisor position at The Studio! It was a three person interview, lasting about 30 minutes long. Afterwards, we all had the chance to discuss how management typically assess candidates and also records interview answers in their online system. It was so interesting to get to watch their interviewing process as I have been wanting to sit in on an interview for a while! Afterward, Kory and I attended a meeting to discuss the craziness of the first week of school and the students' tail gate and boxed lunch events. KU Dining will be serving about 3,600 students so it is vital that all of KU Dining is involved in the production and execution of the food and events! Mark, KU Dining's new Director and John, KU Dining's new Executive Chef, led the giant team of upper management in ensuring everyone knew their responsibilities to prepare for the first week of school at KU. It was a great meeting to sit in on! After all the excitement, Kory gave me the chance to ask him about his role in KU Dining and his specific management style. It was a fun day!

Friday, July 22nd

Friday was jam packed with FUN! Christine took Julie and I to Kansas City to do some very cool things! We first went to The Roasterie, a locally started coffee shop/factory in the heart of KC. We learned how The Roasterie got it's start and how it's one of the most unique coffee shops in that they air-roast all of their coffee beans (which tastes fabulous, by the way)! We got a tour of their factory to see how they hand package their coffee and then also tasted a new coffee blend made by both a pour over method and French press method - both having totally different tastes! After the Roasterie, Christine took us to one (if not the) best places for BBQ - Joe's Kansas City BBQ. We all had the best lunch ever! Later that afternoon, we all headed to Boulevard Brewing to go on a brewery tour! We heard how the company got it's start in creating great craft beers and toured the huge brewing facility. We (not underaged Julie!) even got the chance to try a few samples! We all had so much fun spending all of Friday together!