Saturday was a wonderful 4th of July! We solicited candy from the Independence Day parade participants (who all enjoyed the enthusiasm displayed by us twenty and above year olds), ate delicious Mexican food, swam in the lake and laid on the beach, played games and grilled dinner, and sat on the beach to watch the town's impressive fireworks show. I didn't know a single person at that gathering besides Natalie going in, and I'm happy to call some of them great friends after this weekend of fun!
3) It can be difficult to hire new cooks/ chefs because of the school's background check requirements which are unmatched by others in the foodservice industry. Hiring turnaround delays mean that they often offer a job to an applicant who has already accepted a job elsewhere.
4) It is very important to work out the logistics of your dishroom and machine before you design a building with foodservice in mind!
5) One of their convenience stores located in the dorms is completely student run. A student manager takes care of staffing, ordering, purchasing, and scheduling for the store. It's a pretty cool little operation!
6) Here is their lovely capital building right before Lisa and I enjoyed some famous Wisconsin cheese curds!
On Tuesday, we toured the U of W-Madison Union foodservice operations, which are separate from the residential operations. The Union is meant for student, faculty, alumni, and staff business, but they might serve laypeople depending on if its a game day or if it's not busy. A large part of their sales are from alcohol, and they specifically do not sell alcohol to the public unless it is a game day. In this case, alcohol sales make up most of their revenue. They have their own catering department and several little concepts on the main lobby floor. They also have a little bar called The Sett (that's what a badger's home is called, and that is the mascot of their university!) that has a lower level with a rock wall, pool table, and bowling alley!
The Union an interesting combination of fancy hotel, rec center, and food court. They also have a trademark sunburst design that they utilize on all their chairs. Apparently, if city police see these chairs in people's lawns or in houses, they have the right to seize them and return them to the Union-pretty nifty, huh? They also compost 500,000 pounds of food waste per year, which is used by the school's agriculture department for its own gardening and for the campus gardens as a whole. They do sell it as well, but like to keep the compost for school use because the students paid for the food that it is made from. One more cool thing: they have a RTE cold-prep room in their kitchen that stays a cheery 45-48 degrees. This room has significantly reduced issues with time/ temperature control, particularly with their sandwiches and wraps. Lisa and I learned a lot from this trip, but were definitely glad to be back in Cedar Falls for the evening.
Wednesday was a frenzied prep day because MY SPECIAL EVENT WAS THE NEXT DAY, AAAAAAAHHHHHH! Nah, just kidding, it wasn't that bad! I did spend a significant amount of time counting out mini marshmallows for a "guess how many are in the jar and win a prize" game though!
I'll have a separate post for my special event because there's a lot of pictures and I don't want to crowd this post and make it super long. I can tell you that it went very well--nothing exciting at all happened, which is great in the world of foodservice because it meant we were prepared for everything! Friday was spent relaxing in the office and finishing up a few projects I still had trailing along behind me. I ate dinner and went mini-golfing with some friends from the Piazza to celebrate my success and the end of the week!
Monday was a busy day because Lisa and I drove up to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a tour! They have a huge operation; some unique things about them are as follows:
1) They have a whole area in their main kitchen in the Gordon Center reserved for food prep destined for their blast chiller. They store bags of sauces and gravies on plastic racks on wheels in their fridge and freezer. As new inventory is added, the carts get pushed along the wall, so one side is for adding new product and staff remove product they wish to heat up on the other side.
2) They value consistency. All the salad bars operated by the residence department have the same name, same logo, and similar menus. The same is true for all the mexican, pasta/ pizza, and home style cooking venues. They're currently exploring implementing identical menus across the campus for each venue.
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| This venue is unique to Rheta's Dining Center. Rheta was a beloved manager who loved to make new desserts, so they named a venue after her. I'd love to have a dessert venue named after me! |
4) It is very important to work out the logistics of your dishroom and machine before you design a building with foodservice in mind!
5) One of their convenience stores located in the dorms is completely student run. A student manager takes care of staffing, ordering, purchasing, and scheduling for the store. It's a pretty cool little operation!
6) Here is their lovely capital building right before Lisa and I enjoyed some famous Wisconsin cheese curds!
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| My first Wisconsin cheese curds! |
On Tuesday, we toured the U of W-Madison Union foodservice operations, which are separate from the residential operations. The Union is meant for student, faculty, alumni, and staff business, but they might serve laypeople depending on if its a game day or if it's not busy. A large part of their sales are from alcohol, and they specifically do not sell alcohol to the public unless it is a game day. In this case, alcohol sales make up most of their revenue. They have their own catering department and several little concepts on the main lobby floor. They also have a little bar called The Sett (that's what a badger's home is called, and that is the mascot of their university!) that has a lower level with a rock wall, pool table, and bowling alley!
The Union an interesting combination of fancy hotel, rec center, and food court. They also have a trademark sunburst design that they utilize on all their chairs. Apparently, if city police see these chairs in people's lawns or in houses, they have the right to seize them and return them to the Union-pretty nifty, huh? They also compost 500,000 pounds of food waste per year, which is used by the school's agriculture department for its own gardening and for the campus gardens as a whole. They do sell it as well, but like to keep the compost for school use because the students paid for the food that it is made from. One more cool thing: they have a RTE cold-prep room in their kitchen that stays a cheery 45-48 degrees. This room has significantly reduced issues with time/ temperature control, particularly with their sandwiches and wraps. Lisa and I learned a lot from this trip, but were definitely glad to be back in Cedar Falls for the evening.
Wednesday was a frenzied prep day because MY SPECIAL EVENT WAS THE NEXT DAY, AAAAAAAHHHHHH! Nah, just kidding, it wasn't that bad! I did spend a significant amount of time counting out mini marshmallows for a "guess how many are in the jar and win a prize" game though!
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| That's only 120 marshmallows! |
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| Can you guess how many? |
I'll have a separate post for my special event because there's a lot of pictures and I don't want to crowd this post and make it super long. I can tell you that it went very well--nothing exciting at all happened, which is great in the world of foodservice because it meant we were prepared for everything! Friday was spent relaxing in the office and finishing up a few projects I still had trailing along behind me. I ate dinner and went mini-golfing with some friends from the Piazza to celebrate my success and the end of the week!
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