The day after July 4, we spent the day at Busch Dining Hall. Busch is one of the four all-you-care-to-eat cafeterias located on Busch campus. We met with Michael, the general manager who walked us through his daily tasks of reviewing the PNL statements, handling HR issues, and programming. One unique aspect about Busch Dining Hall is that they really value student input and have a napkin board to facilitate that. Students can write comments or concerns on a napkin and pin it to the board. Someone will then answer those concerns. Michael mentioned that he prefers speaking to students in person about any issues; however, sometimes students might feel intimidated and would rather remain anonymous. After learning about the roles of a general manager, we spent the rest of the day with Ramon. Ramon gave us a tour of the whole facility. We mostly looked at inventory since they had recently done an inventory check.
We also helped out at the Re-Grand Opening of the Busch Faculty Dining facility. Denisse served sparkling cider in fancy glasses while I cut up slices of cake. It was really nice that Busch had a little celebration for the faculty and staff who ate at the facility. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it!
 |
| Denisse serving sparkling cider in fancy plastic cups. |
 |
| Kristin portioning the cake. |
On Wednesday, we spent the day with John, the University Sanitarian. Universities are not required to have their own sanitarian; however, it’s really cool that Rutgers University has it’s own university sanitarian to constantly maintain the facilities for food safety. John walked us through Brower Commons as if he were doing an inspection. Some of the items he looked for were the traps along the wall for pest control, paint on the wall, refrigerated ingredients, and kitchen equipment. After shadowing John for a day, one challenge that I saw was remembering and keeping up with all of the facilities. There are so many facilities on campus, and remembering to follow-up on any of the changes is necessary but cumbersome. After visiting a few places around campus though, it’s really cool to see how John maintains such good relationships with people from all of the facilities.
On Thursday, we helped cater a Honor’s College Parent Lunch. Our tasks included setting up the table linens, placing the red R-shaped cookies, brownies, plates, cups, water, and iced tea pitchers on each table, and placing food onto the serving station. As parents began to trickle in, we made sure all of the food items were fully stocked. After everyone got their food, we walked around to answer any questions and fill up the water and iced tea pitchers. When the luncheon was finished, we asked people if we could take their plates. It was quite the waitress experience!
 |
| Denisse and Kristin at the Honor's College Parent Lunch with Catering Services. |
 |
| The roof area of Browers Commons (student dining hall) |
 |
| Cold soup |
 |
| An array of different sandwiches |
 |
| The Catering Services crew at work |
 |
| The table display: red R-shaped cookies, fudge brownies, water, and iced tea pitchers |
On Friday, we helped out with the breakfast service at Brower Commons. There were two camps coming in, so we had to open up all of the lines. Afterwards, we met with Todd, the Chef Manager. Todd helped us finalize our menu for our farewell luncheon. After we printed out all of the recipes, we calculated the measurements of each ingredient to equate to 50 portions. Our next task is to group all the same ingredients together and essentially build a shopping list. I’m very excited to see how our luncheon is coming along and I’m so grateful for all of the help we’re getting along the way.
As for July 4, we decided to spend it at Jersey City, with a view of the beautiful city and the Statue of Liberty. Live music, food trucks, rides, and kite flying. What more could we ask for?
 |
| View of NYC from Jersey City |
 |
| Shout-out to my footlong hot dog at the July 4 Celebration! |
No comments:
Post a Comment