WEEK 4 IS COMPLETED! Where has the time gone? This past week
we spent a lot more time on tasks for our final projects (the banquet and Scott
Hall project). I was happy that we previously learned about the other areas
within UGA food-service because it was easier to visualize and understand how
things are going to work out in the future.
MONDAY—Project day
In the morning Meghan and I headed off to Snelling to meet
Gregg who is one of the managers at Scott Hall in the fall. Gregg is in charge
of our project for Scott Hall, we are making build charts for menu items as
well as temperature and safety guideline charts. We met with him to go over the
exact requirements of our assignment and we also got to look at examples of
these items in Snelling. Snelling did not have build charts which we are going
to be making, but we came up with a game plan on how we are going to attack
them and Gregg approved. After we got all of our information we took temperatures
for all of the line items and milk dispensers. We did this so we could
understand the flow of the chart and how it correlates with the line and also
how help us make the most efficient chart for our project. Something I found
interesting from this assignment was that you had to test the temperature of
the milk coolers as well as the temperature it dispenses at to ensure it is at
the proper temperature.
Monday afternoon we headed over to The Summit where we will
be hosting the Freshman Closing Banquet to go over the menu with Bryan (unit
manager) and Sam (Chef). We went over the recipes which Meghan and I had found
as well as changed some ideas. We collaborated throughout the whole meeting to
try and make the items that we wanted work. It was a little challenging because
it will be buffet style and we had to think about items in terms of how they
will hold on the buffet. By the end of the meeting we pretty much finalized our
menu; both our salad and desserts were subject to change. At this meeting Bryan
also helped us write two of our recipes which we would be doing a test run on
later in the week. Like I said before FoodPro is its own world and we had to
write the recipes according. The food items have to be put into chronological
order, the first one being the first item that is used in the steps of
preparation. The items also require having a pounds or ounces label when being
entered into FoodPro.
TUESDAY—Construction/Inventory
On Tuesday we started our day off by heading to see the
progress of Scott Hall both exterior and interior, so we got to sport our
stylish hard hats again! For the most part the exterior is complete. The circle
for the bus is complete as well as most of landscaping. The inside is a
different story. The meeting was different than the construction meeting we sat
in for Bolton because the Scott Hall project is much further along. Instead of
sitting around a table and discussing the progress we walked around and
inspected and made sure it was up to UGA Food Service standards. Since the project
was not started by Food Service there have been many obstacles along the way
dealing with size and efficiency of the space. Although, it did look more
complete than the last time there was still some areas of concern. Some
problems that we ran into were shelves that were going to be holding plates
were not caulked and it left a space in between the shelve and the back wall.
This was both ascetically displeasing as well as functionally, because it can
cause water to go back in there a rot as well as increase the chances of the
gap to get larger. Secondly, was the ceiling tiles being used in the back of
house. There is a code of some kind that requires the ceiling tiles to be
smooth so the whole surface is able to be cleaned. The company ordered perforated
ones and could not be used. With an inspection coming up soon this needed to be
dealt with in a timely fashion. There were a few other ascetic problems, but
the biggest concern/issue was the gelato and deli case. When the counters were
being built it was either measured wrong or communicated incorrectly how they
wanted it to look, but the end result was a substantial gap from the cases to
the counters. It looked bad and the Food Service department was displeased.
They worked with the construction company to come up with a fix for the gap so
we will see how it turned out at our next visit to Scott Hall.
Scott Hall Exterior
The Niche from the lobby
Progress of The Niche
The Gap between Gelato Machine and Counter
The Hearth where the pizza we helped make will be cooked
Gap at the Deli counter
Missing Caulk
After the construction meeting I headed over to Dawg Snacks
to help them with inventory. They do this once a month at each of their retail operations.
There are some items (don’t individually scan) like salt and pepper that have
to be done by paper and pen and then entered later manually. I got to help with
the easier process of inventory. I went around with a PDA and scanned each
item, counted them and entered that into the PDA. Later in the day the PDA’s
are collected by managers where they are then plugged in at their central
location and inputted into FoodPro. After I took inventory I headed back over
to their offices where Stuart taught us a little about inventory management as
well as help answer some of the manager’s recent questions. Stuart answered
questions on why some items are highlighted blue and others are red. The red
ones indicated that an item is higher than what is standard. This can either be
a favorable or unfavorable variance because it may have sold more that they
predicted (favorable) or there could be too much damaged inventory
(unfavorable). Stuart also talked about the Food Cost %, which also was a flash
back to accounting (Thanks Jeff). We did the cost of goods sold, Beginning
inventory + purchases- ending inventory will get you your cost of goods. We
were not able to calculate the food cost because there sales for the week were
not in yet. One thing that was
interesting to me was that their food cost is always MUCH higher on the last
week of the month because it is when their inventory is taken into account and
calculated.
WEDNESDAY—FoodPro/Experiements
Today we met with Shelly who is the head chef at Bolton who
was recently transferred from The Summit so she has a lot of knowledge about
the banquet. She taught us about forecasting and their process of reviewing the
success of a menu item. Once a semester she goes through the cycle menu and
decides which menu items worked and which did not. I think it stinks that
although an item may be a total flop they have to stick with it for the whole
semester because that is what the menu says, but I understand the difficulty
that would come with changing it. We went through Tuesday night’s dinner and
inputted the forecast and service needs. It needs to be edited because the
number they actually used on that day may be different from what FoodPro
predicted and it needs to be updated for a more accurate number in the future.
In order to do this the cooks preparing the dishes need to write the amount
they actually used, how many pans it produced, and the left over items at the
end of service. To figure out the portions served requires some math, but as long
as you know the primary/dominant ingredient (sometimes takes investigation in
FoodPro) you can find out how many portions were served from the amount
prepped, which involves conversion and cross multiplication.
After visiting with Shelly we went to Bryan Varin’s office
and he helped us enter our recipes we made with Bryan Haymans into FoodPro. The
reason we went to his office is because there is limited access to certain
areas of FoodPro. This is partly so someone doesn’t enter/edit a recipe and
forget to tell the other staff to edit the nutrition information and my plate
food app. He taught us that certain
items need to be measured in weights. Bryan will send the recipe back to the
chef if they do not have them in the correct weights because it will take too
much time for him to convert it and then enter and it is not his job to do that.
When you enter the name of the recipe it needs to be in all caps and we added
the tag FC13 to be able to identify it is being used for the Freshman College
Banquet 2013. Another part we covered is the process pointer which puts a tag
on your item if you want it chopped, shredded, sliced thin, etc. which enables
you to leave that detail out in your preparation steps. In our recipes we had
shredded cheese as a process pointer but realized we ordered sliced cheese,
which cannot be shredded (at least easily). We had to make a few calls but
realized we could get a block of provolone cheese from Larry’s Giant Subs
inventory and go from there. Those are some of the steps Bryan has to go
through to be able to complete a recipe input.
Upon entering our recipes into FoodPro we finally were able
to test two of our menu items which are Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza and a
Filet Stuffed Philly Cheesesteak. I have still yet to reveal our theme, but you
can take your guesses. We worked with Shelly and Sam and encountered a few
problems, which is why we are doing the test run.
Meghan and Sam
Working hard with sam
Pizza: We decided to try out two different tomatoes to
decide which would make the most authentic Chicago Style Pizza. We choose to
try Roma tomatoes and our method of preparation was tomato concasse and our
second tomato was canned Pome tomatoes. We then added the same spices to each
batch and prepared our crust. Our crust is the most important element in this
dish because we need to make it deep dish! Meghan learned from friends that a
secret ingredient in a good deep dish is adding beer to the yeast mixture. When
we were preparing the crust we did this, but may have let the yeast and beer
sit too long because it did not rise as much as we liked. Another problem could
have been the temperature of the proofer because yeast is killed when it is
exposed to a temperature too high. Overall, we were please with the pizza but
have more work for our crust and possibly a new pan to cook our crust in
because it may have been radiating too much heat.
The Two Different Pies
Pies made into one for tasting purposes
Philly Stuffed Filet: This was a much easier process than
the pizza but equally as tasty. First, we prepped the ingredients by julienning
the peppers, onions, and mushrooms and then sautéed them on the flat top. The
steak was prepped by first placing the filets on the grill and getting grill
marks we then stuffed the steaks. We decided to try two stuffing methods the
first one we cut horizontally through the side and the second one we cut a vertical
slit in the top and baked them to finish cooking. To top it off we made a
demi-galce port wine reduction with mushrooms, which was fantastic (thanks
Sam).
Finished Projuct
Posing with the steak (love my hairnet)
THURSDAY: Tate Café and Interviewing
We arrived at The Tate Café in the Tate Center to learn
about their operation. This location is a retail operation. They have three
different food locations- Larry’s Giant Subs (Franchise), Barberitos
(Franchise), and Hoitei’s Asian Grill. They added Hotei’s as another option. We learned how each location operates, money-handling, and
their management styles. We talked to one of their newest managers on how she
adjusted from being a student supervisor. She said it is important that you
build the barrier between manager and friend and that it can be a fine line. We
helped work at Larry’s Subs and also learned Louis method of killing drain flies—the
vacuum!!!!
Throughout the day we spent time with Susan and the managers
of retail, catering, and the Tate eateries to conduct interviews and discuss.
It was interesting being on the other end of an interview and seeing what to
look for. We conducted four interviews and had three slots to fill. We
discussed each position and what would be necessary of a candidate and the
decision was made from there.
FRIDAY: Administration/Marketing/Work Day
First, we met with Cindy Malcolm in the Food Administration
Office. Most of their tasks are being a liaison with the university whether it is
payroll, accounting, or purchasing. Something very important is to make sure
they are abiding by the same rules and policies as the university. The whole
administration office is in charge of hiring and firing, paying bills, and
following rules. She told us about different positions within the office. Dan
the meal plan man reconciles student accounts with the university. He also
looks to see how many times a kid goes in and out of facility and the times in
between. This is to catch if they are swiping their friends in or passing their
ID off to another student since they have unlimited entry all you can eat
dining facilities. Dan also works closely with the athletic association and
their program.
Cindy then went into her job and requirements. She takes
care of budget accounts and reports as well as making sure they are paying what
they need to and if they are staying close to budget. Around March or April is
when they put together their new budget for their fiscal year starting in July.
She starts by first predicting the revenue and then gets the cost of goods as a
percentage of revenue. Cindy also
informed us that they set up capital expenditure budgets if they are buying
equipment and this will never be taken from their operating expenses. There are
also purchasing card (p-card) regulations and rules that can result in
disciplinary actions if the employees do not follow these guidelines. Then she
told us about how their pay works and that there is a minimum salary for
full-time workers which breaks down to about $10/hour. They have different pay
scales for cook 1, baker 1, and kitchen staff 1. Finally, she told us about certain
bonuses that their student employees can get if for instance they work on or
before the first day of class. In that case the student will receive $0.15 more
an hour. I thought that was a great way to motivate the students without
completely breaking their bank.
After meeting with Cindy we met with Beverly who is in charge
of HR. She informed us of how small the department use to be and how you could
walk into the HR office and ask for a job and be put to work. The main things
that they do in the summer are attend different fairs on campus to attract
student workers. Another way they get student workers is by advertisements on
the busses and word of mouth. In order to get full-time mangers and chefs they
post on the NACUFS website and then the individual units proceed with the interviews.
Her job deals a lot more with the full-time employees because she needs to hold
sessions to inform and teach them about their benefit package. Also she has to
work closely with them on policies such as FMLA. Since FMLA is 12 week job
protection and does not guarantee pay they have shared leave donations where
other employees can donate hours of leave to an employee. The donator has to
have 120 hours minimum balance to be able to donate and it limits the number of
hours received to 480. Beverly also works directly with units if there is a
personnel issue, suspension, or termination. The thing that is tricky with this
is that it needs to be accepted by Employee Relations before you can terminate
an employee.
From Beverly we moved on to Allison where she informed us
with what she can help us make for the banquet. Meghan and I got to express our
creativity this afternoon by working on pictures for banners, menu item design,
and the overall menu design. We had a lot of free time to do this, but Allison
also taught us about the marketing department. In the recent years they did a
lot of redesign on their menu books as well create an email marketing program
where you can click on links directly in the email. Some things she has done are
update the menu signs, design better layouts for menu books, and create signs
for busses, newspapers and publications. The marketing team also creates
digital signage for retail locations. Overall, they want to get the customers
excited about the food-service operations and marketing is the way to do it!
WEEKEND-ATL
Meghan and I were fortunate enough to have Marcus (Summit
Manager) take us to Atlanta and show us around a bit. We went to a Braves came
where they gave me trouble for being a Phillies fan and tried to get me to do
the Tomahawk Chop (I REFUSED)! It was a really great day and fun to see another
sports facility. He also took us to a park to look at an awesome laser/firework
show which got us excited for the Fourth of July!
Finally Tried Zaxby's
Olympic Ring Fountains
Park Fun!
Turner Field for the Braves Game
At the game with a pretty view of Atlanta
On Tuesday, we had a benefit dinner for Moore county Oklahoma which was hit hard
by the tornadoes. We handed out t-shirts and meal tickets, direct people, and set up the A-frame and balloons. There was also a prize
drawing, DJ, banner to sign, and t-shirts (see pic) that come with meal purchase. The event ended up being pretty successful especially considering it is summer.
On
Wednesday we went to a meeting with Nathan the web concept designer and
presented our ideas to make the website easier and more efficient to use for
parents and students. We were able to see the draft of the new website format.
The web designer is going to implement some of our ideas when updating the
website. Also, KSU culinary & hospitality services was in the newspaper for their big culinary sustainability award (see pic). 
On Friday we had new student
and parent orientation. We went with Rob to set up a drink cart at the Bailey
performance center where the parents were offered cold beverages when they
exited. We worked on the marketing plan a little afterwards before we headed to
the entrance of The Commons and handed out fliers to parents and students about
the two new culinary classes that will be offered in the fall along with the new
culinary sustainability major. We then headed upstairs to the Culinary &
Hospitality table to answer questions from parents about meal plans. At the end
of the day we met with Rob about our marketing plan and went over what we have
done so far and what else we need to do to accomplish our goals. I also tried craw fish for lunch (definitely a different taste than lobster!) (see pics)
We found out from Rob on
Thursday that we are officially going to the NACUFS conference in Minneapolis,
MN from the 9th through the 14th! I am so excited J We began filling out forms and making travel arrangements. The
rest of the day we worked on advertising for the fall meal plans. We have
gotten a lot of positive feedback on our “keep calm and meal plan” design for
posters, t-shirts, napkin holders, and flyers and found out they are going to
use the design for fall promotions instead of spring. We also worked on a “keep
calm and carry out” poster to inform students that there is now an optional
take out option for their meals for an extra $5 per semester. Check out the posters that Natalie and I designed (below). It was exciting to see our hard work paying off! We also worked on a
second ad that will be a poster and possible floor sticker in the student
center and The Commons. It says “It’s as easy as 1,2,3… upgrade your meal plan
today.” It has a picture of hopscotch and three easy steps for meal plan
upgrade. If we purchase the floor sticker, it will be life size so that people
can actually jump on the spaces. At the end of the day we got to try the hot
sauce that we prepared a couple of weeks ago and Chef Billy gave us a jar of it
to take back to our apartment (see pic)! It was really
good especially with eggs.
