Berkeley Week #5!

Ashley, Amanda & Kristen working in the Bakery!

This week Ashley and I were privileged enough to spend some time working in the Honey Bear Bakery, with Executive Chef Bob, and Chef Amanda. This bakery is located in Crossroads dining hall, but prepares baked goods for all 4 dining halls. I had never worked in a bakery before, but found it to be extremely fun! We worked mostly with Amanda, who showed us some baking techniques, taught us about large scale bakery production, and even let us take home one of the pies we made. We had such a great time working together. Some things we made include: s'mores cake, pecan pies, frosting, cake, vegan brownies, cobbler dough, sunflower cake, chocolate ganache, scones, pastries, and banana chocolate chip muffins.

Ashley, Chef Mary, Kristen, GM Frank

Another place we worked this week was Cafe 3, one of the four dining halls on campus. Here, we worked with Executive Chef Mary, and General Manager, Frank. During our time here, we got to experience a little bit of everything! We prepped 300 baked potatoes for dinner, learned about budgeting & numbers, evaluated inventory to place an order with BiRite, and even got to write a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document for use by the dining hall regarding their service records.
On Thursday, Renee (Registered Dietitian for Cal Dining) brought Ashley, Maria and I on a little field trip. We visited the Berkeley Farmer's Market where I was able to talk with some local farmers about their products. I sampled things like vegetarian quinoa sushi, low pasteurized milk from jersey cows, and the largest variety of peaches I have ever seen! We stopped at a nearby cookie shop to buy some of Renee's favorite cookies: Macaroons. They were very tasty, and gluten free! Lastly, we made a stop at the Berkeley Bowl, which is an independent, specialty grocery store where you can find a large variety of foods. At this stop, I founds something I have been looking for all over California: Raw Milk. Raw milk is illegal to sell in Michigan, but not in California! They had both raw goat milk and raw cow milk. I chose the cow's milk, and have been enjoying its freshness in my morning coffee.
Friday it was back to work at The Den, which is a retail location connected to Crossroads dining hall. This was the first day that Ashley & I have been split up since starting the internship. While Ashley worked as a barista making coffee drinks, I improved my sandwich and smoothie-making skills. It's been another great week of learning, fun, and new experiences here in Berkeley!

Double Salmon Sushi Roll at a Japanese Restaurant