MSU Week 2

It was another great week here at Michigan State University. Our schedule was a little more varied than last week, so there's lots to talk about!

Monday

Jeanette and I were in The Gallery again working with the staff. This was my favorite day in the dining hall so far though because I got to work at the station called Latitudes. This station serves a lot of international cuisine, mostly Asian dishes. Monday was the infamous pasta bar that I had heard is a big hit during the school year. I worked with one of the full time employees named Marie. She was really nice and fun to work with. She and I got the station all ready to go before lunch started. The customers would come up and choose all of the vegetables and meats that they wanted in their pasta, we would then cook it all in a pan of heated olive oil, put it over pasta noodles, and top it all of with the sauce of their choice. It was a pretty efficient system and everyone seemed to love it. It was a fun way to serve and cook the food right in front of the customers.

 Here I am over the stove, ready to cook up some pasta orders.

After lunch was almost over, Jeanette and I went back into the kitchen to help out. One of the dinner meals was going to be sushi, and the staff were really behind getting it ready for that night. That's where Jeanette and I come in! I had never rolled sushi before. I mean, I tried eating it for the first time 2 1/2 weeks ago, so sushi in general is a new experience for me. It was a lot of fun though. 

Jeanette and I with Chef Eric who taught us the art of sushi rolling

Tuesday

This day was possibly my favorite day of the internship so far. On MSU's campus, they have the president's house, called the Cowles House. In the past, presidents have lived here with their families. They also host events here. The current president already had a house in East Lansing, so she chooses not to live here. 

The Cowles House

Events are still hosted here, however. The only events that take place at the Cowles House are strictly those of MSU and the president. You can't call and schedule a booking; you have to be invited to host the event here. We met the manager of the Cowles House, Peter. He is a really cool, friendly guy. 

Jeanette and I with Peter

He introduced us to Corina. She's worked at the house for decades, even when previous presidents lived on site. She gave us a tour of the house and let us explore a little bit. 

Here I am sitting at the president's desk

Most of the mingling took place in this room during the event. I love the tree in the middle of the room.

Then we met with Peter and he told us a little history of the house as well as about planning and preparing for events to take place. He gave each of us a set of the menus that they've used for previous events. We observed the staff for a bit to see how they set up and get ready for an event to take place. Then Corina got Jeanette and I in uniforms so that we looked like we fit in with the staff. 

I look like I belong right?

The event that we were there for was a thank you reception for deans and administrators on campus. Jeanette an I spent most of our time at the front table with the name tags. We got to meet and welcome everyone to the Cowles House. It was really fun to observe and be a part of the event. We also got to taste all of the yummy food that was served after the event was over. It sure was delicious!

All of the desserts

All of the yummy food to try

Wednesday

On campus, there is the Kellogg Center. It's a really nice hotel and conference center. That is where Jeanette and I spent our Wednesday. When we arrived the sous chef gave us a brief tour and showed us the beautiful conference rooms. 

One of the big conference rooms

We spent the morning working with one of the full time staff named Bernard. We helped him with some of his tasks and helped make some lunch for the employees. They feed their employees all 3 meals if they're working. I thought that was really cool.

Jeanette and I rockin our hairnets

After lunch, we worked with another man named Matthew. He was a lot of fun to work with and seemed really excited to test our skills and teach us. Our first task was skinning salmon. 

Bernard showing me how to skin it with my bare hands

We also helped Matthew prepare a test meal for a couple that was planning their rehearsal dinner. He let us taste the food and showed us how he plated it to look really nice. 

That gnocchi was delicious!

Thursday

Jeanette and I were back in The Gallery this day. We were at some of the less busy, easier stations. 

I got to scoop a lot of ice cream

Jeanette worked at Ciao, the sandwich/wrap/pizza station

Friday

This day is tied with the Cowles House for my favorite so far. Jeanette and I spent the day with Chef Kurt. He was excited to work with us and had lots of good stuff planned for us to do. He started by testing some of our kitchen skills. Luckily I passed with flying colors :) He also showed us a really cool vacuum sealer machine. I thought it was just used for storage purposes, but it actually changes the flavor of some foods, so it can be used for that purpose too. We tested it with some spinach leaves. Basically you put food in a bag and into the machine. The machine then sucks all of the oxygen out of the chamber and seals the bag.

Spinach after the oxygen was sucked out

 Then, Chef Kurt cooked up the spinach from the machine and some fresh spinach in the same way so that we could see if we could taste a difference. We did! The spinach that had its oxygen removed had a stronger spinach taste and looked nicer for plating purposes. It was really cool!

We also took a trip to the local Asian market so Chef could pick up a few things that they needed that day. I had never been to one before, but it was awesome! There were so many products I had never even heard of before. Too bad I couldn't read most of the labels.

It was fun to explore the market

Then, Chef Kurt dropped us off at the food truck. MSU has a food truck that parks in different locations and sells really delicious lunches. It was cool to see what the inside was like and how cramped the space was. That definitely requires organization. The employees were the best. They were all so passionate about their job and I could tell that they all honestly loved working there. That really makes a difference for a foodservice operation.

Me and the food truck

Hanging out with the employees and watching them do their thing for lunch

The food truck recently won an award for their burger, which features meat from the MSU cows, cheese from the MSU dairy, vegetables from the MSU student organic farm, and bread from a local baker down the road. Obviously Jeanette and I had to try it.

It's no wonder that burger's award winning

I loved seeing the food truck

After a few hours at the food truck, Jeanette and I went back to the test kitchen with Chef Kurt. Our next job was recipe testing for a recipe that Chef Kurt is thinking of serving. We got to make a few batches of cheddar biscuits to test scoop size and tweak the proportions of ingredients a little bit. It was a lot of fun!

Jeanette and I baking our hearts out

Chef Kurt said he wanted us to work with him again and do some more recipe testing, so we're really excited for that. Overall it was a great week and I'm excited to see what's next!

Saturday afternoon Jeanette and I decided to check out the Dairy Store ice cream for ourselves. I have a high standard for ice cream since I come from Blue Bell country, but the MSU ice cream was really creamy and delicious. They had lots of fun flavors.

 Until Next Week,

Megan