University of Kansas: Week 5

Monday: Catering Fun

My week began bright and early Monday morning with a shift in the catering department. In order to gain a better understanding of the catering operations and how catering events run I sat down with Robert Pierrelee, the Catering Director, and we discussed everything from event booking to staffing. After much talk and discussion, I was put to work. I assisted in the set up of a small event for 30 people and also helped during the service of the new student orientation luncheon. This event boasted over 500 attendees and featured buffet style service. 

New Student Orientation Luncheon

Tuesday: The Studio and Barista Training

The Studio is a very unique establishment within the KU Dining Services locations, offering a full service kitchen with food to order, grab 'n go convenience items, deli sandwiches, and coffee selections at The Roasterie Coffee House. Very convenient for me, The Studio is located in my residence hall and I often venture down to enjoy a grilled chicken sandwich. During my shift I spent the majority of my time working at The Roasterie. A great deal of fun, I learned an immense amount of information about making coffee drinks and even smoothies. I even tried my hand at latte art, unfortunately I failed miserably. 

My Frappe

Latte Art Fail

Wednesday: The Roasterie Tour

I have to say that field trip days are turning out to be some of my favorite days. This week we went to The Roasterie, a specialty coffee roasting company, that services the coffee houses on the KU campus. Never having been to a coffee roasting facility before and given my personal love for coffee and espresso this was a very exciting experience for me. At the end of the tour, the guide demonstrated and explained the various techniques for brewing coffee and we were given a sample of a pour over. I must say, this was probably one of the best coffees I've had in my life. 

Air Roaster

View of the Operations Floor

Coffee Beans for Days

Thursday: Discussion with the Dietitian

On Thursday, Talia and I sat down with Cheryl Wiley, KU Dining's on staff Registered Dietitian. With Cheryl, we discussed all things nutrition related and also discussed staff training. We watched several of the videos used for staff training, which was a great help for my special interest project. As a recent nutrition and dietetics graduate, it was very interesting to hear all Cheryl does as Ku Dining's Registered Dietitian. 

After our meeting with Cheryl Wiley, we had a couple other meetings pertaining to our special event and finished the day with some recipe testing. I am happy to say that we are now officially finished testing all of our recipes for our special event dinner. The final recipe that needed testing was our Bison Black Bean Burger. We unfortunately didn't have the bison meat on hand yet, so we used ground beef as a stand in. The burgers came out tasting great and we are very excited to see how they taste using bison. 

Our Burgers on the Griddle