Top Chef
On Monday spent our morning working on the tags for our rolls of silverware.
Then at lunch we had the privilege of working with The Summit's 5 star Sam Somar. Sam is such an amazing chef,we have been very excited to get the opportunity to learn cooking techniques from him. Sam's love and passion for his work show's in how he teaches and how excited he was to get a chance to teach us how to make several dishes.
I had expressed to Sam that I like to cook and I do cook often, however it always takes so long and is such a process that when I'm done cooking for everyone I have lost my appetite. He told me that this was very common, and he wanted me to learn to cook, and get out of the kitchen faster so I can enjoy what I cook as well.
He showed us how to make three dishes. First we learned to make Penne a la Vodka. This is Penna noodles with vodka sauce. I was a lot simpler to make than I thought.We sauteed shallots, and garlic in olive oil. Then we added Pome tomatoes. Next Sam added the vodka, this is the tricky part. You can't just add vodka to a pan over the heat, you will get huge flames. Sam showed us how to remove the pan from the stove add the vodka and let it evaporate for several minutes before putting it back over the heat. Lastly he added some half and half and butter. The dish was delicious. Sam also showed us how to make Chicken Marsala and Shrimp Scampi. Each dish we made with Sam was delicious and best of all very easy to make. I can't wait to make these recipes for family when I'm home.
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| Chef Sam in action |
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| Penne a la Vodka |
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| Shrimp Scampi |
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| Cooking Chicken Marsala |
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| Chicken Marsala with roasted Eggplant and Zuccini |
Your Pie! Your banquet and Your first soft opening!
On Tuesday we got to see The Niche all finished!! We went to the breakfast soft opening for the Niche. They are not open to the public yet. However they are doing some soft openings, inviting staff from other dinning commons to come eat there so they can practice making all the food and running a normal business day before they have meal plan customers.
After The Niche, we went to the restaurant Your Pie. Your Pie is a pizza restaurant that started in Athens. The founder is a UGA graduate, Drew French. Drew started Your Pie in April of 2008. He got his inspiration for his concept while he was on his honey moon on the Island of Ischia. He was inspired by the way they baked pizzas in Brick ovens. He wanted to make brick oven pizzas, and he added his open spin to it to make down the line pizza making. His restaurant Your Pie, the concept is you get to make your pizza however you want, you choose the sauce and toppings as they assemble it in front of you. His business has been very successful and their have been several franchises opened since he opened the first Your Pie, while he still owns three of the franchises. What I found to be most impressive is that Drew started this successful business when he was only 24 years old.
At the end of the day, when we were fuel with delicious Your Pie pizza Drew made for us, Colleen and I working some more on our banquet organizing decorations and materials.
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| The Market concept at The Niche |
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| The Niche's Hearth concept |
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| Drew putting together my delicious pizza |
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| Drew displaying the pizza right out of the oven |
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| My Pizza !! Spinach, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, artichoke hearts! yum!! |
Decorations and Dollars
On Wednesday, we spent more time planning out what decorations still needed to be made and assembled for the banquet. We found images for all of our street sign centerpieces for each table. We also finished making one of the light poles we will be hanging, that way there would be a template one for anyone else who had time to make more of. We also designed the frames we wanted for the table numbers. Each table number will have information about one of our dishes and where it comes from.
We spent Wed afternoon at a financial round table meeting. The meeting consisted of all of the unit managers for each dinning commons and retail facilities. Susan lead the meeting. Her presentation was broken down into different topics. First we talked about Inventory Analysis which covered three main points: looking at big cost items, consistency in counting, Chef's role. We also talked about Direct and indirect expenses. Finally we read through a PNL, which stands for profit and loss. We saw where there are some discrepancies and errors that can alter PNL numbers, such as inaccurate inventory counting. I can't share very much of the details of this meeting for the information I learned is confidential. I learned so much I didn't know about before, and did not know went into finical planning.
We spent Wed afternoon at a financial round table meeting. The meeting consisted of all of the unit managers for each dinning commons and retail facilities. Susan lead the meeting. Her presentation was broken down into different topics. First we talked about Inventory Analysis which covered three main points: looking at big cost items, consistency in counting, Chef's role. We also talked about Direct and indirect expenses. Finally we read through a PNL, which stands for profit and loss. We saw where there are some discrepancies and errors that can alter PNL numbers, such as inaccurate inventory counting. I can't share very much of the details of this meeting for the information I learned is confidential. I learned so much I didn't know about before, and did not know went into finical planning.
All things Banquet!
On Friday, believe it or not there was still plenty more for us to work on for the banquet, that is what we spent our day doing. All the rolled silverware was finished with tags, thanks to help from the great student workers. We finished all the light poles we will be hanging at the banquet and we worked on the table numbers.
Sam also tried out another recipe for the Deep Dish Chicago style Pizza we will be serving at the banquet. Sam has always been very inspiring to work with, he will be cooking the food for our banquet and he has a "can do" attitude about everything. He is constantly telling us we can make this banquet exactly how we want it and not to give up and make sure we our happy with our decisions. This pizza recipe was pretty good. We want to change one or two ingredients, then we think we will finally have it just right. Which will be just in time, since the banquet is Tuesday.
Sam also tried out another recipe for the Deep Dish Chicago style Pizza we will be serving at the banquet. Sam has always been very inspiring to work with, he will be cooking the food for our banquet and he has a "can do" attitude about everything. He is constantly telling us we can make this banquet exactly how we want it and not to give up and make sure we our happy with our decisions. This pizza recipe was pretty good. We want to change one or two ingredients, then we think we will finally have it just right. Which will be just in time, since the banquet is Tuesday.
Mama's Boy
On Saturday My friend Amanda, who is a UGA alumni came to visit. She took us shopping to get plenty of UGA apparel and took us to a local restaurant everyone has been telling us we have to try. The restaurant is called Mama's Boy. All the food was delicious. Colleen got to try biscuits and gravy for the first time, She liked them.
After that Colleen and I ended our Saturday working out at the UGA track, which is open to the public. It was a great facility to give us a place to work out, outside. And burn off the calories of all the delicious food from Mama's Boy.
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