MSU Week 3

Week 3 was a lot of fun. Jeanette and I got to do a lot of different things this week. I really enjoyed the variety and was able to learn a lot!

Monday morning we started by meeting with Gina, the RD on campus. She set up our logins for FMS, their foodservice/menu/recipe software. She refreshed us on how to use the program so that we could get started on our project. I don't know if I've really explained our project, so I guess I'll do that briefly, just in case. Basically Jeanette and I are looking up each menu item that will be served in the fall in the dining halls. We're checking to make sure things are properly labeled as vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, etc. This will make the dining halls much more allergy and special diet friendly. I've already found quite a few items improperly labeled as vegetarian even though they contained meat products. We're also making sure that each dining area on campus has options at each meal for those with allergies or special diet needs, as well as offerings of whole grains and fruits and vegetables. Gina also added another component to our project that I'm really excited about! Jeanette and I have been assigned the task of developing a recipe for a special to be served on the food truck. (Remember how much fun we had on the food truck in Week 2?) We will think of an idea, develop the recipe and test it, enter it into FMS, do all of the marketing, etc. I'm really excited about this opportunity and can't wait to see what we come up with! After we worked on our project a little bit on Monday morning, Jeanette and I spent the rest of our day in The Gallery. I worked in the Ciao station, making sandwiches, wraps, etc. It was one of the slower stations, but I got complimented on my excellent sandwich making skills :) Also, Jeanette and I didn't take any pictures this day. Obviously we weren't feeling well.

Tuesday was one of my favorite days so far. After getting stuck waiting for not one, but two trains, we finally made it to the bakery for our 5:30 am shift. We spent our first few hours learning how to make bagels. I've always secretly wondered how bagels are made, so it was neat to see the cool bagel shaping machine.

The student employees showing us how they shape and cut the dough

Jeanette and the bagel machine

I loved the bagel machine. I got to pull the bagels off when we did the asiago and everything batches. It was quite the adrenaline rush trying to pull them off the belt, dip them in cornmeal, and dip the other side in the toppings.

The full-time employee was named Rita. She was a really cool lady and I enjoyed working with her. She's formulated a lot of the bagel recipes and has a few others in the works. She also told us about the Gwen's bagels that they make. Gwen was Rita's mother who passed away from breast cancer. These are pink, ribbon-shaped bagels. Some of the profits even go to breast cancer research! I thought this was a really cool thing for MSU to do. We were lucky that some NACUFS people had come the day before to videotape the bagel making process and Rita had made some Gwen's bagels so that we could see and taste them.

Rita with some Gwen's bagels

Jeanette and I also talked with the full time decorator for a little bit. We got to watch her make some Spartan cookies. She said they sell TONS of these in the fall during football season.

Spartan Cookies

We also got to work with the full time employee in charge of cakes. She gave us some of her cake decorating tips and let us go to work. It was so much fun!

I'm pretty much just like Hostess

Jeanette frosting a carrot cake

Just enjoying myself a little too much

Cake decorating was fun

After we were done working in the bakery, we talked with Cindy, the woman in charge. She talked to us about their products and the business side of the bakery. She had a lot of cool things to tell us. Then, she let us sit in on the buyer's focus group meeting. The procurement team gathered all of the chefs, etc. that they buy for in order to hear some discussion and see if needs are being met. It was interesting to hear some of the concerns that both sides had. Overall, I LOVED this day. I love baking and decorating desserts, so I was in heaven.

Jeanette and I found the bagels we had made in The Gallery the next day, just like Rita told us. I was pretty excited.

On Wednesday Jeanette and I went to Food Stores. We met with Don Swanson (name sound familiar anyone? reminded me of this guy). Don gave us a tour of the facility, the coolers, freezers, and everything! He also told us a little history of food stores and how receiving and picking the orders works.

inside food stores

We talked with a few other people in the office. They informed us how they record orders, how invoices and inventory are managed, and how the scanners work. Then we spent a while talking with Denise, a member of the procurement team who had led the focus group the day before. She told us a lot, in depth, about how procurement works and some more about food stores. It was very informative.

After food stores, we had lunch at Brody, the huge newer dining hall. Then Lary showed us where the organic farm is and some of the other parts of campus that are a bit further away.

Since it was a beautiful Michigan night, Jeanette and I decided to check out the 4-H gardens on campus that we had heard a lot about. They were beautiful and fun to explore.

There was even a Michigan section of the garden

There was even a cute little maze with tiny trees

Thursday was our first field trip day of the internship. We went to Grand Rapids with Gina, the dietitian, and Keri, the chef in charge of the food truck. We met up with the interns from Ferris State, Emily and Margaret, at the Gordon Food Service distribution center. It was fun meeting them; they're both really nice! It should be fun doing a few other field trips together this summer. We took a tour of the center. It was amazing how automated and organized the warehouse was. A job that would normally take about 15 employees takes one machine. After touring the warehouse, we went to the corporate building, which is gorgeous! It was a really nice building. We had lunch and listened to a presentation by one of the dietitians on staff for GFS. Although her presentation was a bit long, I really enjoyed hearing about what the staff of RDs does for GFS. They even let me take home this huge calendar of menus, recipes, activities, etc. that they made for elementary school lunches. It was a pretty cool field trip.

Jeanette and I at the corporate building

Friday Jeanette and I were back in the test kitchen. This time, the manager of some of the restaurants in the Union building wanted to test some different flatbread pizza recipes. It involved a lot of fun experimentation and tasting. Can't be a bad day if those two things are on the agenda right? We also got to work with Taylor, a student supervisor at the Union, and Saman, a new intern in the test kitchen. It was a lot of fun getting to play with flavor combinations.

Jeanette with one of her creations

All of the pizzas and sandwiches ready to go into the oven

Me and Saman with two of the yummiest pizzas

My two favorites from the day were the honey dijon and the chicken teriyaki, which I made (so I'm not biased at all haha). Chef Kurt also made us this seriously delicious avocado spinach salad that I need to make when I'm back in my apartment at BYU.

After we were done with test kitchen shenanigans, Jeanette and I worked on our project for a while. It was nice to get quite a few menus done so that we can hopefully focus more on our food truck tasks.

Only a handful of the menus to go through

Action shot of Jeanette on FMS

Week 3 was great! Each week just keeps getting better and better! Can't wait to see what's ahead.