The second week of my food service management was just as fast paced as the first week. The manager at the school where I am located handles all the catering for the school district in addition to her regular duties as cafeteria manager. This week there were three events to be catered for so on top of all the regular duties we had catering food to prepare, transport and serve. It gave me a great opportunity to see how a manager handles several priorities at once. I also saw how good direction to your staff and delegation of tasks can go much farther than trying to do everything yourself.
I really am enjoying food service management because it is fast paced and never boring. There are different challenges every day and each day is different. Learning how to complete production sheets and the weekly grocery order has definitely been a challenge, but it is rewarding once everything starts to make sense. One challenging task that I have been assigned is to devise a new entrée recipe to be placed on the menu throughout the entire school district later this year. The recipe needs to include the required meat/meat alternate and grain components as well as fit within the 41 cent per serving budget. On top of that the recipe needs to fit the sodium, saturated fat and calorie guidelines being implemented for school meals. I have a few ideas that I will be pricing out and completing nutrient analysis on to see if they fit within the criteria. Nutrition and cost aside I think one of the most important criteria for this recipe is child acceptance. I do not want to spend time and energy creating a recipe that kids do not want to eat. So in the midst of learning how to be a cafeteria manager I will be putting my culinary skills to the test as well!
By: Amanda Bot
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