Final Week at Rutgers University

For our last three days, our coordinators let us pick 3 rotations during these past two months that we wanted to revisit. We picked Starbucks, Henry’s Diner, and Neilson Dining Hall (to work with Chef Barry). We also wanted to visit UBHC (the behavioral health center) and IFNH (with Peggy) again, but Peggy and Jessica are both out at the NACUFS conference.

Intern Choice #1: Today was the first of our intern choice days. We decided to go to Starbucks and spend the day learning about the art of coffee making. When we arrived at 8am, we worked with the managers, Ronny and Rachel. Ronny taught us how to make some of the drinks such as iced espressos, iced coffees, and different mixed teas. He even taught us how to steam milk properly.

Denisse and I made the famous green and pink drinks!

When Glenn, the other manager, arrived, he drove us out to visit the Starbucks Truck, which was parked near the Bake Shop. We were so amazed by the Starbucks Truck! Everything was so clean and it was amazing how all the devices in the regular store fit in such a small space.

This is the 5th Starbucks Truck to open in the country!

Inside of the Starbucks Truck

When we came back, we did some coffee testing. We tested multiple types of chai, which were made with soy milk since Denisse is lactose intolerant. I actually really liked the use of soymilk since it was sweetened with vanilla, so I enjoyed the slightly sweet and creamy taste of the regular chai. We compared that to the cinnamon chai, which was sweeter than the regular chai. We also tasted the espresso chai, which was good, but I’m still not used to the coffee taste. After another day spent at Starbucks, I can see how it’s challenging to learn all of the different drink codes and steps involved in making different types of drinks. However, it seems like a very fun job and the whole learning process will be very rewarding.

Breakfast at the Diner

Intern Choice #2: Today, we shadowed Laura, the student manager, and Theresa, one of the kitchen staff at Henry’s Diner. We started the morning by slicing cucumbers and halving cherry tomatoes for the side salads. We also helped tray up some cole slaw that Theresa made. Laura taught us a lot about waitressing and we got to shadow a few of her tables. As a student, she noted that at the end of the day, it was all about getting  higher tip. Therefore, when she asked tables what they would like to drink, she would also mention a few options to peak their interest. I thought it was interesting that the drink options that she would list would change depending on the group she was talking to. When the table was filled with high school students or younger kids, she would suggest a milkshake, but when she was assisting older individuals, she would mention the unsweetened iced teas and soda beverages first. I thought it was really cool that after years of waitressing, Laura didn’t even need to write down the orders on a pad, even when the orders were pretty complex.

Intern Choice #3: It’s our final day of the internship! It’s astonishing how quickly these past two months passed by. Today, we spent the day at Neilson Dining Hall with Chef Barry. We chose to work with Chef Barry as our last intern choice because the last time we met with him, the large international conference was happening and it was very hectic in the dining hall. When we left that day, after dicing multiple bags of bell peppers and vegetables in preparation for the large event, Chef Barry noted that he wished he had more spare time to talk to us about his role. Therefore, we decided that it would be a good idea to spend another day in the dining hall to make up for that. When we arrived at 8am, the morning breakfast group was just finishing up, so Chef Barry had us dice some bell peppers and onions for the upcoming lunch. Chef Barry told us about his background and how he opened up a restaurant in New York with a few of his buddies. He said it was successful, but it was also very tedious. The three of them all emphasized how working in a restaurant, while fun, involves a lot of sacrifices. There were many instances in which they had to skip holidays, family parties, and weekends. While we worked in the kitchen, Chef Barry also demonstrated how to use a knife sharpener and the different ways to cut red bell peppers.

Overall, the NACUFS Internship has been so eye-opening and amazing. I’ve learned so much in just these past two months and I never knew that foodservice and management encompassed so many different fields. Our coordinators, Peggy, Kelly, and Sandy, have been extremely helpful and friendly throughout this whole program and it’s been a very memorable summer!

Weekend Adventures: During our two months here in New Jersey, everyone we met has been asking us whether or not we visited the Jersey Shore yet. Since it’s a little far from where we are and would be hassle to commute by train, we would always sadly respond with a “no.” However, now we can proudly say that we have! Kelly and her husband were super gracious and invited us to spend a weekend with them at her house. After our shift on Friday, Denisse and I took the train down to Point Pleasant, where Kelly and her husband warmly welcomed us and picked us up. On Saturday, we drove out to Island Beach State Park, a beautiful and pristine beach. It was really cool because you could drive onto the beach!

You could drive onto the beach!

Jersey Shore

Kelly, Denisse and I spent most of our time reading out on the beach, and Kelly’s husband taught me how to fish! I’d never gone fishing before so it was a really cool experience!

First time fishing!

We didn’t catch anything :(, but Kelly’s husband had bought some fresh scallops and sweet New Jersey corn the day before at the Farmer’s Market. So that night, he cooked up a delicious dinner. The scallops were so juicy and meaty. I had never eaten such large scallops!

Freshly caught scallops for dinner

On Sunday, Kelly and her husband brought us to the Point Pleasant Pier. We tried raw clams for the first time, and ended the day with some refreshing soft serve. One thing that I discovered on this trip was Italian Ice! I don’t think I’d ever had it before, and I really enjoyed the smooth creamy texture!

Point Pleasant Beach Boardwalk

What a great way to end our adventures here in New Jersey. :)

Week 8: The Week of Being a Chef at Rutgers University

Citrus Cilantro Watermelon Salad (+ avocado)

Our luncheon is in less than one day (see previous post about the luncheon)! On Monday, we showed up to Brower Commons to work with Chef Pete to do some additional prep for our luncheon. Many of the chefs were very helpful in the development of our menu items. Many of our main entrees, like the roast beef, chicken pomodoro, and shrimp scampi were assigned to multiple chefs to cook. As a result, we mostly only had to prepare the cold foods, such as the kale and watermelon salads. We started by making a mise en place for the Ratatouille. We diced up many vegetables, including asparagus, and called it a day.

Strawberry Frosting Cupcakes

Tuesday was our luncheon day!! We arrived to Brower’s at 7:30am this morning to finalize our luncheon! In the morning, we mostly worked with Vicki, who usually manages the salad station. She helped us make the Kale and Citrus Cilantro Watermelon Salad. We started by chopping the kale and watermelon into little pieces. We then cut the avocado into slices for the watermelon salad. On a side note, I still find the combination of avocado and watermelon very interesting. However, when we tasted it, the pair worked very well and the creaminess of the avocado added a nice touch to the sweetness of the watermelon.

When it time for our luncheon, Denisse and I changed into our Minnie Mouse and Russell (from Up) costumes, respectively, and were ready to showcase our luncheon. Overall, I’m very pleased with how it turned out and all the support we got from everyone who attended. (Click here for a more comprehensive blog of our luncheon!) I still can’t believe that the luncheon happened. We’ve been planning it for so long with so many different individuals that living in the moment at the luncheon was kind of surreal. I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to execute and produce this project though, and I’m not sure how I will top it in the future. This was such a great experience and I’m so thankful for everyone who helped us along the way (Peggy, Kelly, Sandy, Jenny, Rukiah, Chef Pete, Chef Todd, and others!).

On Tuesday, we spent the day with Sandy. Sandy is one of the managers at Brower’s, so we spent the morning in the faculty dining hall discussing some of the challenges that one might face on a day-to-day basis. One challenge was handling personnel issues within your staff. Many of these issues were petty; however, some of these little arguments could turn heated and disrupt usual dining operations. Therefore, we learned that it was important to stay calm and use your best judgment to approach the situation. I learned that as a manager, you really have to think on your feet, and be innovative, flexible, and patient. Dining is currently in the process of hiring new employees, so we got the opportunity to observe Sandy making a hiring call to one of the prospective employees. n the afternoon, Kelly and Peggy joined us for evaluations! We learned about our strengths and weaknesses, as delineated by the staff we worked with during these past two months. While I know that I still have some things to work and improve on, reading and hearing about another person’s perspective of me was very heart-warming and encouraging.

Kristin, Chef Todd, Chef Pete, and Denisse

Thursday was spent at Livingston Dining Commons. We were supposed to meet with Chef Bryan; however, since he wasn’t coming in until 10am (we arrived at 8am), we worked with some of the staff in the kitchen. We mainly worked in the cold kitchen, where we helped make pita, croissant, and sub sandwiches for a catering event in the afternoon. We also cut and washed bundles of grapes for the upcoming lunch service. Fran, one of the managers, also took us on a tour of the areas that Cynthia didn’t get to last time. We were able to go upstairs to see the faculty dining room. The parents that were part of the New Student Orientation were dining there today, so we got to see the setup.

"Where Dreams Come True" Farewell Luncheon at Rutgers University

Though we still have one more week of the internship, we executed our Farewell Luncheon this afternoon. We’ve been preparing for this day for the past month and we’ve worked with multiple chefs, managers, and advisors to make this event perfect.

Since we both LOVE Disney, we decided early on that we would want to follow a Disney theme. The rest was all planning! Overall, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out. There are so many people to thank who helped make this event possible, but some people in particular include Jenny, the catering manager, who was extremely helpful during this whole process. She’s the brains behind some of the creative assortments (like placing Ratatouille in little shooters!). She’s also the one that helped us with the room decorations and food arrangements! Rukiah, the marketing manager, also helped us tremendously by making our lovely animated invitation and posters for our event. Chef Pete, who worked with us for 3 days to cook and prep all the menu items.

Kristin (Russell from UP) and Denisse (Minnie Mouse)

Our center table with all of the entrees

Our entree table consisted of 4 different disney movies: Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Toy Story, and Ratatouille.

Little Mermaid

This section included the Ursula’s Shrimp Scampi, Sebastian’s Cilantro Watermelon Salad, and Ariel’s Shell Collection (Asparagus and Spinach Pesto Pasta). We used light blue linen (the sea), fish net, and seashells to decorate this section. We also placed a white whale tale statue inside the shrimp scampi to symbolize Ariel diving into a sea of shrimp (we kept it white for food safety purposes(; ).

Ariel diving into a sea of shrimp scampi

The little mermaid station with the Citrus Cilantro Watermelon Salad

Shell Pasta with Asparagus and Spinach

Peter Pan

Our menu items for this section included Pirate Pilaf (Rice Pilaf), Foccacia Bread (Treasure), and Neverland Paninis (Grilled Eggplant Paninis). We used little sword toothpicks for the paninis, cut upon and lined a treasure chest pinata to hold the bread, and bought green and white confetti to act as Tinkerbell’s fairy dust across the table.

Grilled Eggplant Paninis with the cute sword toothpicks

Jenny helped us make this treasure chest box out of a pinata!

Toy Story

Our menu items for this section included Rex’s Dinosaur Kale Salad and Lemon Basil Roasted Potatoes. We used cowboy hats, a red handkerchief, and mini toy soldiers to adorn this section. My favorite were definitely the little toy soldiers. They held up the menu placards, how cute!

Lemon Basil Potatoes in the Toy Story section

Ratatouille

Of course, we had to include Ratatouille on our menu! We also had chicken pomodoro (Gusteau’s Chicken Pomodoro) and roast beef (Remy’s Signature Roast Beef). For this section, we found a large eiffel tower statue that had been used in a previous catering event and a chef hat.

Ratatouille - the granite was kept hot with a sterno underneath it

Dessert Section

Our dessert section followed a “princess theme.” Our decorations included the cloth cupcakes, large glittery princess crown, and princess-themed confetti on the table. Fun fact: if you stand in front of the princess crown, the mirror cubes make it look like you’re the princess!

The two desserts we offered were pink chocolate covered strawberries and assorted cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

The princess-themed dessert section!

Beverage Station

The beverage station was our “Fueling Station,” and thus Cars themed. We adorned the station with a Radiator Springs sign (like in the Cars movie), a mini retro gasoline station, and red and black striped paper straws (to look like a racetrack!). We offered water infused with strawberry, cucumber, lime, and mint (“Antifreeze”), Sweet Tea (“Motor Oil”), and Lemonade (“Fuel”).

Cars themed beverage station

Photobooth

And of course, a party wouldn’t be complete without a photobooth! After Rukiah taught us some basic photoshop skills, we went ahead and created a bunch of fun props.

Rukiah helped us make the large backdrop for the photobooth

Table Arrangements

Our table settings followed a “Beauty and the Beast” theme. The table linen was light yellow and we had dark blue napkins. Our centerpiece for half of the tables was a rose encased in a dome glass case with black rocks on the bottom. For the others, we placed a little glass bowl with a floating candle in water.

One of the centerpieces, made to resemble the rose in Beauty and the Beast

Overall, the whole process of preparing for this luncheon has been such an incredible experience and I’m so grateful for all of the support we got from our coordinators (Peggy, Kelly, and Sandy), and all of the people we met with along the way. I had so much fun being creative with this event and it has definitely been a “dream come true.”

With our program coordinators!

Week 7 at Rutgers University

Our week started with working with Rukiah at the marketing office. Since the new student orientation would be later in the afternoon, we helped cut about 300 dining flyers in preparation for the event. We then traveled to Livingston Campus to attend the new student orientation. The students were split into two groups and they spent one rotation in the library, where there were tons of student tables full of resources for the students. We were there to represent Dining Services, and some of the other groups included the Police Department, Student Health, Financial Department, etc. For our station, we offered some dining resources and had an electronic wheel where students could spin for prizes. Only a few students had specific meal plan or RU express questions; however, a ton of students were enticed by the bags, bottles, ID holders, sunglasses, and memo pads that we gave out! Even though we’re not entirely familiar with the meal plan since we don’t actually go here, we were quite pleased that we were still able to answer a few basic questions.

At the New Student Orientation with Rukiah

All the goodies on our table

Since the orientation was on Livingston Campus, we met with Cynthia, the manager at Livingston Dining Hall in the afternoon. Cynthia walked us through the front of the house and described all of the different stations that they offered. The students here are so lucky! The dining hall offers a made-to-order wok, pasta station, and omelet station. We also worked briefly with Fran, who had us package some nuts and cereal into large bowls for the dinner and breakfast services, respectively. They had a lot of leftover snacks from the International Conference the week before, so there were a lot of bags of chips, cotton candy, nuts, and fruits available for the students. Normally, packaged goods would not be offered in the all-you-care-to-eat dining hall.

This morning, we visited Shawna, the associate manager at Busch Dining Hall. Shawna went over productions with us. She showed us how forecasting worked on FoodPro and brought us into every refrigerated storage room. It was amazing to hear about how many meals Busch produces everyday. Just the dining hall itself serves about 8,000 - 9,000 students per day. On top of the normal dining hall operations, Shawna also orders food for the commissary and nearby cash operations. We were also given the opportunity to sit into a meeting with the nutritionist and a student regarding special diets. The meeting involved Peggy, Marina, the Chef Manager, Shawna, the student, and her family. Peggy began by asking her about her dietary needs and the daily foods that she would normally eat. She also went over the similar types of food that the dining hall offered and the procedures in which to obtain them. Ultimately, the student was recommended to use the Text-to-Order program, which Peggy informed us of during our first week here. It was so interesting to see the conference in person!

A classic meal at Busch Dining Hall

On Wednesday, we helped out at a catering event in Deiner Park (on College Avenue Campus). We arrived 2 hours prior to the start of the event to begin setting up the tables and utensils. Since the event was outdoors, we had to keep in mind external factors such as the heat and the wind. The wind could possibly knock down the sterno and cause a fire, so we had to place skirts around the platform so that the wind would affect it less. Since the group consisted of 631 people, we set up three identical buffet lines to facilitate the process of getting food. Each buffet line could serve people from both sides. The dinner was a bbq, so the foods included hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, plantains, watermelon, and funnel cakes. When the students came trickling in, I stood by Soraya, one of the catering staff. We kept a close eye on the food, and when the food pans began to empty out, I would go to the grill station to obtain a new tray and replace the empty one.

On Thursday, we spent the day at Dunkin Donuts today, working with Cheryl, the manager, and Gina. The Dunkin Donuts store was located within the Douglass Student Center. There weren’t a lot of customers, but since there was a student affairs event going on in the building, larger groups of people would come through occasionally. Cheryl taught me how to work the coffee station. I felt like a barista! It was so interesting how intricate coffee and tea could be. There were so many different types of coffees and ways in which you could prepare them. Additionally, you could also vary the amount of cream, sugar, or milk in your drink. As an individual that doesn’t drink coffee at all, it was a bit challenging at first learning all of the specific variances since I’m not too familiar with the types of coffee. However, every order that came through helped familiarize myself with the coffee machines. Soon, I was able to make a coffee for a customer all by myself!

Decked out in our Dunkin Donuts uniforms from head to toe

In other news, this is the last week that the Rutgers Club is open, so we made an effort to attend the buffet lunch today! The pasta was made with goat cheese and porcini mushrooms, and it was fantastic!

On Friday, we worked with Chef Pete in Brower Commons. Our luncheon is right around the corner (next Tuesday!) so it was time to make some mise en place for our menu items. We began to prepare the vegetables by washing them with the antimicrobial vegetable treatment and giving them a fine dice. After dicing the zucchini, squash, onions, red and green peppers, we were all done with our mise en place for the day! Our next step is to come in on Monday to finish preparing our menu items. During the day, Chef Pete taught us some important lessons regarding writing menus and recipes. One of the main things we learned was keeping vegetarian ingredients and meat products separate in a food item. For example, our lemon basil potatoes called for low sodium chicken stock; however, Chef Pete pointed out that this would be very dangerous since a vegetarian individual might consume the potatoes thinking that they are vegetarian when they were actually prepared with a chicken stock. Therefore, it’s important to keep these ingredients separate. We also briefly talked about food allergies as another important reason to label every ingredient clearly on recipes or menu cards.

Jenny, the Catering Manager, made us some cute Disney-themed menu cards for our upcoming luncheon - stay tuned!

Week 6 at Rutgers University

How are there only two weeks of this internship left?! They say time passes fast when you’re having fun.

On Monday, we visited Henry’s Diner, a retro cash operation on Livingston Campus.

We arrived just in time to observe a breakfast service for a girls field hockey camp. Lunch service was going to be busy, so we helped prep sandwich platters and garden salads. After lunch, we worked with Kelly (our preceptor) to input inventory on FoodPro. We got to work with and meet some of the friendly student employees there, and I really enjoyed the comfortable, and supportive atmosphere at the diner!

On Tuesday, Kelly drove us out to the Camden campus to view a dining hall operating on a satellite campus. On our way there, we drove over some of the expansive bridges, which offered a nice view of Philadelphia!

En route to Camden Campus

Upon arriving on campus, we first went to the student activity center. Kelly gave us a tour of the facility, showing us the banquet room, the common lounge area, the kitchen, and dining area. There was a catering event happening in the banquet hall, so we got to see a bit of the set up as well.  







Since there aren’t as many students on Camden campus as compared to New Brunswick campus (and because the majority are commuters), the cafe only opened until 10pm on weekdays. Nevertheless, we would still see students trickling in to eat with their friends, and especially since there aren’t as many summer classes, I imagine the place is probably more packed during the school year.

On Wednesday, we visited the Bake Shop that produces baked goods for all of the dining facilities on campus. We got to help make some chocolate cupcakes for the upcoming International Conference. In the past, one of the bakers explained that they would eye all of the proportions and using their hands as pipettes. Now, to help improve consistency and portion control, they have a machine that squirts out the appropriate amount. One of the bakers taught us how to make uniquely shaped cookies and roses out of whipped cream.

On Thusrday, we spent the day at Neilson Dining Hall in our chef uniforms. Since the international conference is happening this week, everything has been a little hectic in the dining facilities. The dinner for the thousand-people conference was going to be held on Cook/Douglass campus (the campus on which Neilson Dining Hall is located), so we spent the rest of the day helping to prepare and prep food for the dinner. We worked with several chefs, but mainly with Chef Barry and Gerry. Some our my tasks included chopping roasted tomatoes, canning pickled vegetables, skewering individual watermelon pieces, julienning roasted red peppers, and dicing beets. While we were prepping the food items, it was so interesting to observe the chefs around us. There were so many chefs from all of the different units here to prep for the big conference dinner, and it was interesting to see how everyone worked together to make it happen.

Each individual watermelon cube was placed on a bamboo skewer.

Beginning our prep for the international conference dinner.

Some hors d'oeuvres

We worked with Jessica and Melissa, dietitians at UBHC (University Behavioral HealthCare Center) on Friday. In the morning, we worked with Jessica and assisted one of her nutrition education classes. The topic was “Portion Distortion” and we taught a primary grade class about mindful eating and portion control. After the lesson, there was a hands-on activity to engage the students and solidify what they learned about portion control. Every student got to make and decorate two “Red and White Yogurt Bites,” frozen yogurt cubes filled with granola and fresh fruit.  We then walked with Melissa, the Dietetic Technician, to the in-patient rooms to visit the patients and see how their meals were. In the afternoon, Jessica had to meet with a few patients, so we sat in and listened to their consultations. Before the meeting, Jessica looked through prior notes about the patient to assemble a page of notes and questions to ask the patient. Therefore, when she went into the conference, she knew what points to hit and what questions to ask. Today was my first time shadowing a dietitian, and I’m so intrigued at all the various tasks that dietitians do in a hospital setting!

P.S. A sneak preview of our farewell luncheon invitation. :)