Monday
The beginning of our fourth
week started with a change of scenery as we toured the Brakebush Chicken
processing facility!
We began our tour by
talking to one of the chefs, Alan Newman, and the marketing director. We watched
a video celebrating Brakebush’s 90-year anniversary, which describes the modest
beginnings of Brakebush and how it turned into the successful facility we are
seeing today.
We then toured their 5,000+
square foot facility, which included eight total production lines (6 of which
were in use that day), and we were able to see all stages of processing the
chicken meat, such as grinding, marinating, breading, steam cooking, freezing,
packaging, and more! We also learned about their sanitation procedures and how
they communicate within the facility. For example, in areas of the plant that
only deal with cooked chicken, the floor is blue to alert workers and help stop
contamination. They also spray a sanitation agent on the floor when foot
traffic is high in that area to help disinfect and keep the plant free of
cross-contamination.
After the tour, our group
was able to sample some Brakebush products prepared by Chef Alan Newman, such as this flatbread
pizza:
We then toured UW – Stevens
Point’s main dining facility, which includes a dining hall and a convenience
store that also serves some entrées. The main dining hall is all you care to
eat buffet style, with multiple buffet lines that offer salad, soup, various
entrées, and more:
They are planning to
renovate the main dining hall within the next year or two to a marketplace
style, with stations instead of buffet lines. We also toured their bakery in
the basement, which is operated completely by students. They offer a few
special and unique products, such as cookies with sprayed logos on them, and
house-made donuts:
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| The donut fryer! |
Tuesday
Tuesday began my rotation
in the central bakery and cook chill production! I started the day by shadowing
one of the chefs before helping make the crust for some cheesecakes, which
included weighing out various dry ingredients and mixing them into a big bowl:
Later that morning, I took
a break from helping the bakery to attend a meeting with Kaylene, the Executive Chef
Paul, the Associate Director Julie, and the Registered Dietitian Denise to talk
about our Partnership for a Healthy America project. The meeting was really
helpful and pointed us in the right direction for our portion of the project,
which is marketing the changes they are making in the dining hall to students
next fall.
After our meeting, I
returned to the bakery to work with one of the bakers for a cake-decorating
lesson! She taught me how to use a piping bag to frost the cake, how to do a
few basic borders, how to write basic letters, and how to create flowers:
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| Practicing on wax paper! |
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| Don't worry, it was just a practice cake! |
After lunch, I moved to the
cook chill portion of central production to watch them cook a massive batch of
pasta. They boil the pasta in one kettle, and then immediately transfer it to
an ice bath to bring the temperature down to 35°F. Once the temperature reaches
the idea temp, the pasta is weighed out into containers to be stored in the
warm freezer before being transported to different dining units on campus:
Wednesday:
I began my second day in
bakery by assisting the other chefs with various tasks, such as spreading
brownie patter onto pans and forming the crusts for pecan pies:
My main project for the
morning was completing a recipe from start to finish: Frosted Cranberry Bars! I
began by mixing brown sugar and butter, the wet ingredients, the rest of the
dry ingredients, cranberries, and white chocolate chips:
I spread the mix into pans
to bake in the oven:
And voilà! Completed
Cranberry Bars:
That afternoon, Kaylene and
I attended a pizza testing hosted by the Executive Chef, Paul, with the goal of
potentially switching to a better pizza crust! Cheese, Sausage, and Pepperoni
pizzas were served on a variety of six crusts:
After sampling a multitude
of pizzas, we rated each pizza on appearance, texture, and flavor and indicated
which was our favorite.
Thursday:
We spent the morning learning
about the Restaurant Association’s Labeling Act that the university is choosing
to comply with. We watched a webinar that explained the specifics of the act,
and walked through the dining hall to discuss with Denise the next steps the
university must take to meet the guidelines.
After determining a
labeling to-do list, Kaylene and I switched gears and began working on the
Partnership for a Healthier America project. We searched CBORD for lunch and
dinner meals that meet the guidelines set by the initiative: less than 700
calories with less than 10% of calories coming from saturated fat, and less
than 800 mg of sodium. We were able to find a few entrées for lunch and dinner
to help Denise in the future!
Kaylene and I also attended
an Allergen Meeting with Denise. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the
surge of students with food allergies and how the dining halls are planning to
handle this. We discussed ideas for contacting the students before they even come
to campus to encourage students to self-identify, which will help the chefs and
staff make any accommodations necessary. We also talked about the roles staff
members will play, such as Unit Chefs meeting with the students to determine
what accommodations will be most helpful to them.
Kaylene and I then trekked
back to Carson’s for pizza testing, round two! This time, Chef Paul and the
Unit Chef at Carson’s, Kevin, were trying a different technique: grilling the
dough!
We sampled three different
crusts in peperoni, sausage, and cheese and rated them as we have previously
done. I am excited to hear the results of the tastings to determine which pizza
crust we will be serving!
After lunch, Kaylene and I
met with Mike and Sue (the program coordinators) for our mid-internship
evaluation! These four weeks have flow by, I can’t believe we’re halfway done!
I’ve learned so much already and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the
internship has in store!
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