Where Is The Time Going???? #Wk5

I’m going to have to disappoint this week; I have no extremely large pictures to put in my blog. I’m usually too caught up in the moment to pull out my phone and take a picture. One thing I wish I had a picture of is McAlister’s Deli, which is undergoing renovations and is currently in the demolition stage. Everyone is excited to see things happening, and this is only the first step in the metamorphosis of campus dining. Maybe I’ll come back four years from now and see what the transformation looks like.

This week was only a four-day week and Dianne was not there. I did a lot of work on the sesame project and even started contacting manufacturers. This project is a lot of tedious work, but I’m sure it will be worth it with the amount of sesame allergies out there.

I also did a lot of work with Chef Matt this week. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all in the kitchen, but it was still incredibly interesting. In the kitchen, we tested some roasted broccoli. It turned out great so we put it on the line for lunch. We also got to test the vegetable calzone for the second time. The vegetable calzone still needed some work so I got to have it for lunch the next day as well. The calzone contains goat cheese, which makes my taste buds happy. Speaking of goat cheese, we were also able to retry some goat cheese and zucchini stuffed avocados. Tasting other people’s recipes might be my favorite thing to do.

Besides eating things, I also attended a couple meetings with Matt and did some work in CBORD. In CBORD I formatted some menus and did a little bit of detail work. Nothing too exciting. The first meeting we attended was a meeting on staff training and how it would be formatted this year. With hundreds of student employees and a substantial amount of civil service employees, training is a big part of the whole campus dining production. Training must be scheduled so that everything important can be covered in the allotted time and the kitchens can also function. The second meeting was on the local foods dinner. My mouth was watering just talking about the menu. Of course, other details must be discussed besides the menu. We talked about where the food would come from, how and when it would be prepared, and how to showcase the local suppliers. The rest of the day was a bit of a struggle just thinking about the foods they would be serving.

Four hours of my Thursday was devoted to a meeting on the Bone renovation, design, and marketing of new retail locations. I found the meeting incredibly interesting and I’m enjoying watching the vision develop. The meeting was with the three individuals working on the progress of the renovation, design, and branding. People say nothing gets done in meetings, but I couldn’t believe how much was accomplished in that meeting, and all of the meetings here for that matter.

Friday I sat in on another meeting (only two hours this time) and got to learn a bit more about catering. The main discussion was the catering menu. Obviously there are different styles of catering service and that helps to dictate the menu. The menu must also be priced. That was another beast to tackle. I really enjoy pricing. It’s a combination of what the numbers dictate and what is realistic.

My weekend was spent in total relaxation. I went to my favorite coffee shop a couple of times. Since there was a major art festival outside of the coffee shop, I spent a few hours observing a large amount of wonderful art. Besides that, I really just read and soaked up the sun. Another perfectly normal week in Normal Illinois.