Monday was a good look at what goes in to the MSU Sparty stores. They are similar to miniature convenience stores within campus and students can use what is called a combo x-change to purchase a meal from a Sparty's store. Each week Sparty stores feature two salads along with various other entrees and sides. Myself and Sonny made the salads Monday that went out to the Sparty stores with Daman, a student intern in the test kitchen. All together we produced about 230 salads. That number is less than half of what is produced during the school year. Monday Sonny and I also gained a little more food truck experience with working the truck for about two hours to take orders for customers.
Tuesday Dorothy and Kyna, student administrative assistants, explained many of the administrative duties they take on. This included scheduling food truckers, how to correct time clock mistakes, hiring and processing of new employees and the training of the new employees. Mitch, a third student administrative assistant, explained invoices and billing and how all the paperwork is organized. All three student administrative assistants seemed very proud of their roles within culinary services and are all very dedicated. Lary toured Sonny and I around the different areas in East Lansing which is always amazing to see.
Wednesday I brought in two salad dressing recipes to test on a fruit salad. Sonny and I were able to make the recipes and the first time each was made there were modifications to the recipes we wanted to try to make them even better. The lemon-basil dressing had a balsamic vinegar in the first trial, so it was decided to try white wine vinegar instead and to use dijon mustard to emulsify the dressing. The red wine dressing used cloves and cinnamon and the first recipe was strong in the accents from those spices. The second time we reduced the cloves and added black pepper. They both turned out great! We also made a spicy raspberry chicken dish to test. Developing and testing new recipes is one of the main purposes in the test kitchen and it was invigorating being able to have a hand in that process.
Thursday Sonny and I both took a prepared salad from what goes out to the Sparty stores and picked each ingredient apart with tweezers. This allowed us to weigh out each ingredient in the salad and compare it to the recipe amounts for accuracy and food cost. This was a long and tedious process, but something that should be done on a scheduled basis to make sure recipes are being followed accurately. We also made a potato salad with a honey-lemon vinaigrette for testing. To round out this day we helped with signage for the culinary competitions MSU is hosting next week.
Friday was a very unique experience! Natan, assistant dining manager, was able to schedule a tour at the University of Michigan for Sonny and I to tour their dining facilities. This was amazing for me because Fontbonne is very small and not an equal comparison to Michigan State dining services. Tom, Director of University of Michigan residential dining, walked us through the newly renovated South Quad dining hall. As Tom explained more and more about their dining hall it was reoccurring that University of Michigan modeled the South Quad after Brody Square at Michigan State. Even though I have only been with MSU for only two weeks I felt a sense of pride in listening to Tom explain how University of Michigan is trying to catch up to the innovative things going on at Michigan State.
Hard at work testing new salad dressings.
The top was the first trial of the lemon-basil dressing and the bottom is the red wine dressing.
These are a few of the ice creams offered at MSU's dairy store. I have yet to try one I do not love...
These were taken during the tour at University of Michigan. Similar to Brody Square, UM has different stations to cater to the needs of a diverse student, faculty and staff population.
No comments:
Post a Comment