Last weekend, Hasbrouck and I each participated in events for the catering department. Charlotte Levasseur and Helen Mesi were huge helps to us explaining catering operations and the department as a whole. The event I helped out with was the Taste of UConn on Alumni Weekend. There was a pork slider cook off competition between 4 different departments within the university. Each team was responsible for coming up with their own recipe and guests could sample each and vote for which one they liked best. Kristin Tellier helped me to get a feel for what would be expected of me during the event and the way she wanted the event handled. The event was a lot of fun and I got to learn how much preparation goes into each catering event for weeks before the actual event, as well as the day of. Hasbrouck helped out with an event that honored the retiring dean of the School of Pharmacy. Zulianita Leon-DiNatale and Rich Fentner shared their knowledge with her about working in both the front and back of the house during the event and she had a great time!
On Monday, we reported back to the Union Street Market for our day as baristas. Megan Den Haan showed us each unit on campus before stopping at Wilbur's for a more in depth look at working in cafe retail. We had so much fun testing out all the teas Wilbur's has available, as well as trying our hand at making specialty drinks. One of the sustainability initiatives UConn supports is "From the Grounds Up," which repurposes old coffee grounds as fertilizer in gardens. There are baskets of old grounds at each coffee retail store for you to take free of charge! (I'm definitely stealing this idea when I get back to Michigan.)
Tea tasting at Wilbur's!
From the Grounds Up
On Tuesday, we met with Cheryl Radzvilowicz for a health inspection at McMahon dining hall. We went around to all the stations as well as the back kitchen checking for common health code infractions. McMahon has a staff of champs so they passed the inspection with flying colors. Later that day, we put our menu into FoodPro for our theme meal that is fast approaching! Eric Janssen and Derek Carlsen have once again been a huge help to us in working all the kinks out of our menu plan. Since we've been shifting to different units outside the dining hall for training, we really enjoy our brief visits at McMahon. The staff is always excited to see us and hear about how we've been doing in our rotations and where we've been traveling to. They've been so welcoming and we really appreciate everything they've done for us!
On Thursday, we were given an overview of the purchasing department. Tracey Roy explained her job as an associate director and we got to take a tour of the commissary where all of the equipment and extra stock is stored. Peter Haynes offered us a lot of knowledge on his transition from catering to procurement. It was interesting to hear his progress so far in a new department. Louise Locke took us through her daily tasks in communication with suppliers and how she handles any discrepancies.
On Wednesday and Friday, we rolled ourselves out of bed to be at the bakery before the sun even thought about coming up. Sandy Sandberg and Donna Kay helped us design and plan our display cake for our Hobbit-themed lunch at McMahon. We started the day by molding fondant figures for the top of the cake. We also got to make Oreo cakes for the next day's dinner at McMahon. Hasbrouck and I had a friendly cake making competition. (We're still accepting votes, see picture below. Hint: The one on the left is better.) On Friday, we spent our day at the bakery making all different kinds of bread and finishing up our fondant figures. As you can see in the pictures, we had a lot of fun.
Oreo cake making competition!
My fondant Gandalf and Hasbrouck's fondant Bilbo!
We made so much bread..
..and then we nommed it all.
I'd like to extend a special thank you to the sweethearts at the UConn Bakery. On Wednesday, while I was in my early morning grump, I mentioned that I loved pistachio muffins which I had never had before coming to UConn. When we arrived on Friday, they had made a whole batch of the finest pistachio muffins in all the land. For this adorable act, we award them the Top Tomato Culinary Award of Excellence. The muffins were fabulous and you're all adorable.
The tastiest noms, pistachio muffins.
While we were having so much bread baking fun, our intern coordinator, Carol Cronin, came to whisk us away to a flower arranging class at the Benton Museum. Carol is always finding great things for us to do! Jim Palmieri of UConn Blooms gave us a one-hour crash course on floral arrangements. He even let us take our creations home with us!
Jim Palmieri of UConn Blooms
After our florist lesson, Carol did our mid review and thankfully, she decided she liked us enough to keep us around which we couldn't be more happy about! Over the weekend, we went to Providence, Rhode Island. We explored Federal Hill and went to Little Italy for dinner. We accidentally got caught in a "crosswalk catwalk" put on by students in the design program at the University of Rhode Island. They designed an outfit and walked up and down Thayer Street modeling their creations. However, the best part of the trip was the Roger Williams Zoo! Hasbrouck and I both have a special affinity for elephants so we were really excited to spend a few hours watching them eat grass and dance around.
As you can see, our weeks are full of fun and new experiences. We'll have a lot more for you soon so stay tuned!
-Kelly & Hasbrouck.
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