This week was so much fun. Monday began with touring the 3 Starbucks locations on campus. Michelle, the Starbucks manager, was so wonderful to us. The first thing she showed us was how to have a proper taste-testing of coffee. You slurp it! This way it splashes around your whole mouth without being too hot. Then she gave us mini samples of the new Cinnamon Roll frappe. We had so many samples this day, it was amazing. The Green Tea frappe tasted better than I thought it was going to be. We also were able to tour the Broad art museum while checking out the Starbucks location in there. This was especially exciting because a portion of the new "Superman vs. Batman" movie was filmed at this location.
Cinnamon Roll Frappe
Wells Hall
Wells Hall
Broad Art Museum
Broad Art Museum
Broad Art Museum
The afternoon was spent with the manager of the concession stands, Bill, at the Spartan Stadium, and later the Breslin Center to tour the basket ball arena. In the stadium we got to see the different suites that can be rented for the football season. I told Bill I was from Idaho, and so I am a huge fan of the Boise State Broncos. He said that when MSU played against BSU, it set the record for concession profits.
The original Spartan statue is now inside the the stadium.
Spartan statue history
The stadium seats 75,000 people!
Wednesday was Grandparents University (GPU). This event is for grandparents to bring their grand kids and and I was a host and helped to prep. My favorite part was interacting with the guests and getting their feedback on the food and their experience. Mostly we heard that the food was very good, and that it keeps getting better each time they come back.
Thursday was my favorite day of this week. We worked on the Student Organic Farms. It was beautiful. I was so excited to finally see it. I learned about crop rotation, which means they rotate the crops they grow to different fields so that way the soil doesn't get used to always growing the same thing. The pigs also help with the fertilizing the soil.
The first thing we did was help to clean the harvested greens and bag them up to be sold.
Everything was triple washed before it was bagged.
We spun the greens in this huge salad spinner.
And ate edible flowers.
A chicken coop is kept at the farm along with piglets, but we didn't get to see them.
After touring the farms a little more, we joined some of the employees at the farm stand.
The stand usually brings in about $2000 every Thursday.
WEEK 6
Monday morning Tammy and I weighed out 4 salads each by using special tweezers to separate each ingredient. This is a long process, but important and necessary in order to determine consistency with the amount of ingredients being placed in each salad. Later that day we gathered kitchen supplies for a demonstration executive chef Kurt was doing for some youngsters that were there.
Tuesday we were introduced to the MSU Food Stores. This operation provides services such as purchasing, warehousing, and transport and delivery of food and items throughout the MSU campus. This gives the managers of different food services the option to order what they need directly from campus as opposed to ordering from a Sysco or US Foods.
Just one small piece of the warehouse
Later we toured the MSU Dairy Store. It was so impressive to see all the large machinery that makes the ice cream and cheese. We were shown where the milk is delivered, and the process of making the milk ready for use. The best part was getting to sample the different flavors of ice cream!
The milk is delivered in this truck.
Then it goes through a few processes before it can be used for ice cream and cheese.
This is the machine homogenizes the milk.
Then it is pasteurized and made safe for consumption.
Wednesday we toured different Sparty's locations on campus that we hadn't seen before. Dennis, manager of the Sparty's operations, wanted us to see how certain locations differ in size and what is offered. A lot of the smaller operations do not serve any hot food because they don't have the means to make them, but they make sure to offer something that the students can grab-and-go to eat. There are 21 Sparty stores on campus.
Thursday we spent the morning with the executive chef at the Kellogg Center. The Kellogg Center serves as a hotel and conference center. Chef Mike explained to us what his role is in the kitchen and office. He then gave us a tour of the kitchen and dining areas, including the State Room and private dining rooms. After, we met with sous chef Matt. He also explained his role and also gave us a tour of the kitchen. Matt expounded on the relationship that the Kellogg Center has with Food Movers, which is a program ran by the Greater Lansing Food Bank that will pick up prepared and perishable food that is left over from special events. This food is delivered to shelters and community kitchens to help feed those in need. In 2010 they donated almost 20,000 pounds of food! This is such a wonderful program because food doesn't go to waste, and it is helping people. I am particularly interested in learning more about this program. Then he let us eat breakfast in the State Room!
Food Movers have their own separate fridge in the Kellogg kitchen
Food saved for the Food Movers
Fancy dining in the State Room
Private dining room
After our time at the Kellogg Center we went to observe the "Battle of the Food Trucks". This is the event where the Executive Chef Kurt and his interns compete against Sous Chef Kari and her food truck employees for the best-tasting menu created. The green truck, Kurt's crew, won by only $7. But both menus tasted wonderful.
Menu for the White truck
Green trucks menu
Sous Chef Kari
The interns at work in the Green truck
White truck creations
White and Green truck group picture
Friday Tammy and I helped prep for a demonstration Chef Kurt and Gina (the dietitian) were giving. I mostly chiffonade basil for the morning until it was time for the demonstration. Then we just made sure things ran smoothly and observed the demonstration.
No comments:
Post a Comment