Hello!!
This week started off slow since we were coming back from a vacation mindset! Once we got some sleep after driving
our visitors to the airport on Monday, we found our way to North dining hall.
We got to work with Assistant Managers Chris Delmastro and Mike Viens. Mike
walked us through how he does the ordering. We got to do the dairy inventory
and put that into the order in FoodPro. We got to see how the ordering is never
set in stone for upcoming weeks because it is all dependent on the inventory
taken before each order day. It was neat
to do since we have seen how orders are submitted but never how they were
created. We then observed as Chris did closing procedures. These days in the
office also help us to get a lot of work done on our salad project!
On Tuesday, we got to work in the
Food for Thought truck! We worked with chef Omayra Quiles. She was a lot of fun
and showed us the tips and tricks of running the food truck. We began by
prepping all the food up in the USM catering kitchen. We cut up tomatoes,
lettuce, and pickles and then filled containers with condiments like relish,
onion, and different kinds of mayos.
Since it was lobster Tuesday, we portioned out some lobster for the
lobster rolls. We then made two trips down to the basement to load up the
truck. The truck had been repaired over the weekend so it was completely empty
so we had to set it up and load it with food. This took some time but we got it
done and opened a little after 9:30am. We had a few people here and there but
it never really picked up until about noon. This gave us time to go get some
lunch and participate in the Summer Activities’ ice cream pales. They were
delicious!
Once the excitement of getting our ice cream
wore off the pace picked up at the food truck. We kept up pretty well! John
Smith, area manager, only had to stop by a few times! By the end of the day we
could make just about everything. We did pulled pork, the trio grilled cheese,
the “eggcellent” sandwich, the mojito chicken sandwich, and the turkey
sandwich. We also learned how to fry up some French fries and use a lot of
equipment that we had never used before. We really enjoyed working in the food
truck and were thankful that it wasn’t too awfully hot! After we closed up around 2:30pm, we headed back to USM to unload
the truck. We brought out all the food that they didn’t need for Wednesday and
left the rest in the truck. Once we got upstairs we cleaned all the dishes and
put away all the leftover food. We had a lot of fun working in the food truck
and spending time with Omayra and John. We were also pretty proud that we only managed to set one thing on fire in such close quarters!
On Wednesday we had a work day in
South dining hall. It was a great opportunity to catch up on our projects. We
did as much as we could on our salad rotation and then began our Weebly page.
We are creating the website for future interns so they know what to expect when
they come to UConn. We will be sure to warn them about Ron Swiller.
On Thursday, we worked at the Dairy
Bar and watched as their Oreo ice cream was being made! Before we went out onto
the production floor we talked with Bill S., the manager of the creamery. He
told us all the ins and outs of how they create the ice cream and how he came
into the job position he has. After we talked with him and went over some
logistics we went out onto the production floor. We looked at the equipment and
watched the student workers make the ice cream. We first looked at the large
holding tank with heavy cream and mix that they made into vanilla ice cream.
After we looked at the holding tank, Bill showed us their larger tanks that
would pasteurize and homogenize the milk. These tanks were quite large and
could make about 400 gallons of ice cream! We then watched as the vanilla
mixture from before passed through a machine that cooled it and spit it out as
a thick, almost ice cream, consistency. This is when the Oreos were crushed
into the ice cream and it was packaged into 3-gallon, half-gallon, and pint
sized containers. The ice cream was then put into the freezer to get to the
perfect consistency for serving. Bill was kind enough to let us try the ice
cream in multiple different stages of production and it was delicious from beginning
to end. Bill also told us about the mixture they use in their ice cream. Their
ice cream is geared towards families and children. They purposefully make their
ice cream so that it takes longer to melt. This makes it more efficient for
children because then they can eat more of their ice cream cone and less runs
down their arm! It is also extremely helpful to parents because it results in
cleaner children for the ride home. Bill then took us up into the store and had
us try various different kinds of ice cream. We were happily stuffed with ice
cream by the time we left!
After we learned about making ice
cream we went to Gelfenbien to help package kosher meals. We got there and
everything was prepared and ready to be packaged. Bruce Hessing, assistant
manager, and chefs Bruce Haney and Mike taught us how to package up the meals
and we got them done in no time. They prepared about 200 meals that were
delivered around campus to the dining halls. Since Gelfenbien is closed in the
summer they must deliver kosher meals to the dining halls for students who need
them. After we packaged up the meals we got to sit and talk with Bruce Hessing
while Bruce Haney and Mike did all the hard work of delivering the meals. Bruce
Hessing also showed us how to tell if a package of food is kosher or not. We
never knew there were so many kosher symbols for food packages! Bruce taught us
that there are many different Jewish organizations that can give the kosher
certification. He also described why some are more trustworthy than others. We
learned a lot about kosher food production and hope to cook in the kosher
kitchen before our time here ends.
On Friday we started our day out in
South Dining Hall. We worked on our projects and had to opportunity to catch up
on all of our work. After lunch we went back to the commissary to work with Ron
to make some progress on our salad rotation. He was very helpful with the
recipes and he taught us how to shoot rubber bands. Surprisingly, we got a lot
of work done with Ron today and we are very thankful for his help!
On Saturday, we got up bright and
early to head out to the Cape. Since we left early we didn’t hit any traffic
and got to Hyannis by 10am. We couldn’t check into our hostel yet so we checked
out the surrounding town. We got some coffee and late breakfast from a café by
the harbor. After we ate we checked out the John F. Kennedy Museum. There were
tons of pictures from his life on the Cape and his presidency. We never
realized how often he was on the Cape and that he handled many presidential
affairs there! We also didn’t realize that his entire family eventually had a
home in Hyannis! We stayed at the museum until our whale watching cruise
boarded. We went to Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises and they were great. We saw
lots of whales and even calves! We got close enough for some really good
pictures! Whale watching was an overall success since we got good pictures and
didn’t get sea sick. We took motion sickness pills before leaving just to be
safe since our Midwest stomachs aren’t accustomed to the sea. After we got back
from the trip we checked into the hostel and went uptown. We shopped around and
got some Cape Cod gear as well as some pizza for dinner. We were pretty tired
so we headed back to the hostel to shower and relax. We met lots of new people
from lots of places. The girls in our room were from Germany and Chicago. We
also met a guy from Germany and another guy from Canada. We like staying at the
hostels because we’ve met so many people and everyone is always friendly!
Sunday was pretty rainy (all weekend
for that matter), so we never got to experience the beaches in Hyannis.
Instead, we decided to sleep in and explore more of the town that was closed the
night before. We also went on a duck tour! We had seen them in multiple other
sea ports but had yet to go on one. It was pretty funny and we enjoyed the
tour. (“I thought this was about actual ducks and was disappointed when we saw
none. Still not over that. But I liked the tour of the town!” –Mariel). It
began on Main St. in Hyannis and then went straight into the harbor! We decided
that we liked Hyannis but we would love to go back and experience the Cape in
some brighter, warmer weather!
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