UW Madison Week #3

Monday & Tuesday:

Inventory sheet 

The focus of the last two days was inventory and receiving. On Monday, I was at Four Lakes working with Cory. We did a lot of unloading pallets of food into their proper places. While doing this we had to make sure everything that was ordered was there and that the invoices matched up. I spent some time in the refrigerators and freezer which were a little too cold for my liking.  I also did some inventory work at four lakes. I was given a sheet of the dry products used in central production and had to write down what was left. He had me input this information into CBORD which told us how much needs to be ordered.

The dreaded freezer 

 Before the lunch period started, there were some severe weather warnings. There was a meeting to ensure everyone knew what to do in case of an emergency situation. The safe zone for dining guests is in the downstairs bathroom and for employees or people in the back of the house the basement is the safe zone.

Tuesday morning started with receiving and stocking. The shipment at Gordon was much larger than at Four Lakes.  Stocking gave me more awareness of where everything is in the facility. There were a lot of people eating at Gordon today so I helped out in the coffee shop for a while before I started doing inventory.

I was taking inventory at flamingo run in Gordon for the last hour of my shift. It is a pretty time consuming process considering I only got ¼ of the store covered while I was there.

Wednesday:

I spent the day working in the cook chill operation in the basement of Gordon. They supply basic items to the other units like alfredo, soup, salsa, and much more.They also cook and supply the pasta to all the units. We made alfredo and pork gravy while I was there. We started by making a rue. Eventually we added in cream and milk and some modified food starch to help thicken and stabilize the product. When it was done cooking and it cooled down to 145, the guys started pumping and packaging it before it was dropped into a cool bath of

water to make it cold enough to go into the warm freezer. It was a really cool process but it took a while to get to the end product.

Thursday:

I started in the central bakery today. They make all of the baked goods for the units except for cookies and muffins which come ready to bake. I got to help make brioche dough today which is used to make all of the cinnamon rolls sold at the units. I also portioned pie dough into balls to be used for very berry pie. I made some spice cupcakes for an event that turned out really well. The girls in the bakery have a lot of fun while they are working. When I was there they made m&m cookie bars that looked pretty yummy.

Later on I met with Kevin Kontny (the chef working with Miranda and I on our theme dinner), to go over some questions on the menu and create official recipes for our new items. He also went through how he forecasts meals while I was there. We worked on the recipe for our California dreamin’ pizza so we can start testing it next week. We will also be testing out a recipe for an Elvis panini with peanut butter, bacon, and banana.

Friday:

I split my time today between cook chill and bakery. In cook chill they were making massive amounts of macaroni and cheese. They encountered a little issue with the water cooling system today so the process took a little longer.