Up and about at 4:30am
My first day of foodservice rotation finally arrived! I've been so excited to begin my rotations and to learn about the foodservice operation and management in the hospital. Today was different though - we are learning foodservice operation in the retail perspective (profit-generating part).
Never in my life have I woke up so early for work... 4:30am since my rotation began at 6:30am in the kitchen. I mainly worked in the food production area, especially the cold station; thus, working with vegetable, fruits and salad dressing - which definitely require my incompetent knife skills...
Looking at the recipe, I felt a little helpless and clueless. I felt bad for asking the employees for help because I thought they were too busy. I was wrong! They were willing to teach as long as I asked. I asked the most stupid questions ever, such as how big is 1/4" for zucchini (I also had trouble looking for zucchini in the cold room), what does wedges mean for cutting tomato (=radial cutting)... However, I did learn how to properly use the knife and I felt a lot more confident now in cutting and chopping finely. I did chop parsley most of the time... haha
Some stupid mistakes that I ALMOST made... put the thermometer in the sauce rather than the hot water to test the temperature, pour the fresh lemon juice into lemon juice container... I will be more careful next time... lol
We were asked to stay behind after our usual rotation to help preparing the kebabs. They had to make 300+ kebabs for the convocation (for us!) tomorrow but they didn't have enough time and people to complete on time. You really don't know what to expect in the kitchen - everyday is different!
Note to self- what I did today:
- equipment checklist at room 500
- learn how do the event booking and preparation work
- orientation into the workplace- how non-union work and how employees there are always on call
- sales in room 500 depend on the events at the conference center and deliveries, rather than the dine-in
- introduction to salad project
- work in production area - cold food station
- room 500 shopper survey
- stayed behind to prepare kebabs (because kitchen doesn't have enough people to do so)
Never in my life have I woke up so early for work... 4:30am since my rotation began at 6:30am in the kitchen. I mainly worked in the food production area, especially the cold station; thus, working with vegetable, fruits and salad dressing - which definitely require my incompetent knife skills...
Looking at the recipe, I felt a little helpless and clueless. I felt bad for asking the employees for help because I thought they were too busy. I was wrong! They were willing to teach as long as I asked. I asked the most stupid questions ever, such as how big is 1/4" for zucchini (I also had trouble looking for zucchini in the cold room), what does wedges mean for cutting tomato (=radial cutting)... However, I did learn how to properly use the knife and I felt a lot more confident now in cutting and chopping finely. I did chop parsley most of the time... haha
Some stupid mistakes that I ALMOST made... put the thermometer in the sauce rather than the hot water to test the temperature, pour the fresh lemon juice into lemon juice container... I will be more careful next time... lol
We were asked to stay behind after our usual rotation to help preparing the kebabs. They had to make 300+ kebabs for the convocation (for us!) tomorrow but they didn't have enough time and people to complete on time. You really don't know what to expect in the kitchen - everyday is different!
Note to self- what I did today:
- equipment checklist at room 500
- learn how do the event booking and preparation work
- orientation into the workplace- how non-union work and how employees there are always on call
- sales in room 500 depend on the events at the conference center and deliveries, rather than the dine-in
- introduction to salad project
- work in production area - cold food station
- room 500 shopper survey
- stayed behind to prepare kebabs (because kitchen doesn't have enough people to do so)
I subscribe to your blog, but they don't send me updates -________-
ReplyDeleteAfter your internship, you can manage my cafeteria!
hello! i do read your blogs, but i don't know if i can comment if i don't have an account. how long are you going to be in the foodservice rotation? you'll be an expert in the kitchen after :P
ReplyDelete-viv
hehe thanks viv! you are always so supportive! I will be in my foodservice rotations for 10 weeks... 5 weeks in retail and 5 weeks in patient meal services! I AM getting better at chopping stuff~
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