Final Banquet Pictures

Marcia and Liza just left, and I will miss them so much! I wanted to post some pictures of their final banquet. The food was AMAZING - they did such a good job working with the chefs and cooks to create an exceptional menu that the guests were still talking about the next day!

Farewell UGA..

It is our last day... A bitter sweet feeling. Im glad to be going home and getting into a familiar environment, but I have had a great summer and will miss all the great people I have met. Will I miss Marcia?? Of course! I am very thankful that Marcia and I have gotten along so well this summer. We are opposites, each at the opposite end of the spectrum, but it has worked out really, really well!! I have learned so much this summer. Not only about Foodservice Management and how much it takes to keep Foodservice operations running, but more importantly about people, dealing with people, and myself. There are some things I know I will have to improve if i plan to be an effective manager one day. For an example, I highly lack assertiveness. Whether I go in foodservice management or not, everything I have learned I know I will take with me and use wherever I am. This has been a great experience, and I consider it to be a great blessing and opportunity to have been able to work with some great people this summer that have taught me a lot. Not only with their words, but actions. Bye Bye UGA!

Bye UGA

I can't believe today is the last day of my internship, boy has time flown. This ending is definitely bitter sweet I've really enjoyed my time here but i am ready to see my family and friends again. I'm very happy I was given the opportunity to do this internship because i have definitely learned alot about myself as well as management. I also was privileged to meet some wonderful people and try alot of new things while here. I'll definitely miss my roomie Liza we are completely different when it comes to personality and environment but we got along really well and have learned alot from each other. This experience was great and I'm glad i got to share it with her.
Friday night Liza went downtown one last time to say goodbye to some co-workers and then on Saturday I went paint ball shooter with some of them. It was so much fun;I have some bruises to show for but it was worth it!!!















On Sunday Liza and I went to Bolton and helped with prep for our banquet on Monday. We had a little trouble making the caramel lol but we got the job done. It was very interesting to see how some of the Hispanic dishes we served were made and what went into them.!!
Monday was our big day and I think the banquet turned out very well. I was very happy with how everything fell together and I think that all of Liza and I's hard work paid off. I appreciate all the amazing people from the dining halls that helped us because with out them there is no way it would have been as successful as it was.
Thank you to everyone, Good Bye UGA!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRIS!!!!!!

Our Banquet is tonight!!
Friday we went and picked up our flowers to make our flower arrangements for the tables. I believe we made somewhere around 85 vases. Later that day we went to a Mexican Grocery Store and got some ingredients for our recipes. It was fun to see all the different foods that they had.
The weekend was fun. It was our last weekend in Athens. Friday night we just went out and enjoyed the town with some of our friends that we have met here so far. Sunday we went to work at 8 to help prep for the banquet today. We helped assemble the tamales, we worked on the flan (which took a few attempts before it got right), and we cut a lot of vegetables. Im excited. I hope it goes well. The cooks have been great in helping us with everything and allowing us to be creative. Im very thankful.
We leave on Wednesday. We still have some things to get done. We need to finish up on our mystery shopper forms and work on our presentation for the management personell.
Oh!!! and Today is Kris' Birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Its the final countdown..

So, I have highly slacked off on this blogging stuff. I think it is now known that my weakness is journaling. The last several days have gone by really fast, ok, maybe it has been three weeks since the last time I posted. We have been putting some finishing touches on our banquet that will take place on Monday. I got to test make flan! That was my first time ever. Besides the fact that we left it in the refrigerator at a very low temp causing it to freeze, it was very good. We have shadowed and worked with some of the management personell for the retail operations here. We have learned the differences in the dining halls and retail operations and have found out that they are separate identities and require different management skills. Their operations use more marketing since they are targeting students with and without meal plans as well as faculty. We got the opportunity to visit the Zaxbys Corporate office. We learned about their Quality Assurance and then they gave us a tour of a nearby Zaxbys. And of course, we got to eat their for lunch, their treat! This past weekend was a lot of fun. As you can see in the pics, Marcia and I along with a friend went kayaking down the Broad River. So much fun. Sunday we went to the Braves game with some people that we have met from work, which was a lot of fun as well. Right now we are focusing on finishing up our projects and getting this banquet started! Wish us luck!

1 Week to go!! :-(

Last Thursday I went on two mock health inspection with Beth, she showed me what she looks for and explained how everything is scored. Then on Friday we toured Zaxby's a chicken chain down here and it was actually very interesting, we got to see their quality assurance standards for the chicken they purchase and sample some items. Saturday morning Liza and I went Kayaking on the Broad river with a friend it was so much fun and very beautiful, we kayaked about 6 miles and it took us 3 hours I really enjoyed myself. On Sunday she and I drove down to Atlanta and went to an Atlanta Braves game, even though they lost horribly to the Washington Nationals I still enjoyed the experience this was my first baseball game!!
This past Monday and Tuesday I spent more time shadowing managers for a day but instead of in the dining halls they were the managers of the retail restaurants on campus so it was nice to compare and contrast the two. Today I worked with Pat the dietary specialist on campus and helped pick out the menu for a new restaurant they will have on campus soon, and go with her as she talked with a sales men and sampled new product. I enjoyed watching how they market their products to her and taste testing them as well; they were selling sausage links, sausage patties, Canadian bacon and more all made out of turkey many of these products were very good. To finish off my day I spent some time with Catherine the dietitian on campus and she went over some of the things that she talks about in her nutrition class that she teaches on campus, its offered for free to any student on the meal plan. The rest of this week will be office hours and prep time to work on our projects I can't believe next Wednesday is my last day!!!
I'm really excited because I will be going paint ball shooting on Saturday!!
Cia

The past week or so has been pretty busy, we spent the rest of last week taste testing recipes which were amazing!!! Then we got a lot of much needed office time to work on our projects, Liza and I were able to finally make some pretty good progress on redoing the customer service training modules but have yet to get to the mystery shopper evaluation forms. This week I shadowed chef's Paul and Bryan learning about inventory and how they use food pro to assist them with daily task. Tomorrow I will be shadowing another chef in the commissary and Friday visiting a restaurant.
Cia