May 18th 2010

Hi :),
Now taking my 15 minutes from a long morning of work. I have been working with both Mindy and Luis, the head chef on staff, all morning and once again I started at six. Today was another day of preparing breakfast however, I learned a lot from both Mindy and Luis in my short time here. Common sense is very important when working in any profession however here in the kitchen at McMahon Dining Hall it comes very handy. While preparing the day’s lunch menu of vegetable tacos, I noticed that Luis opted not the make the tacos even though all the ingredients were right in front of him (prepared of course by the one and only me). He asked me why I thought he didn’t make the tacos and said that this was my daily quiz. My education at SUNY Plattsburgh came in hand here because immediately I knew the answer to his question. You see, it was only 9 o’clock and the tacos were for lunch. If Luis had made the tacos there and then common sense would tell you they would be very soggy and unappetizing by 11 when we open for lunch. This is one of many things Luis stressed in the kitchen today. Luis also said something that blew my mind . He said that 30 years ago when he worked in dining services there was not a lot of emphasis placed on food safety. Today in 2010 he is amazed at how far we have come as an industry and I have to say that I agree. Anyway I have to run Eric is starting to eye the length of my self proclaimed break lol.

Mahalia