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Hi! I’m Eling, an intern with the New York campus. This month, I finished my FSM rotation in a corporate dining environment at the law firm Weil, Gotshal, & Manges in midtown Manhattan. I have always been interested in food service and loved learning about food production and getting to research (and taste!) new retail snacks and food brands to carry— not to mention the fast-paced and fun environment of working alongside and in a kitchen.
A definite highlight of my rotation was supporting the management team in opening a brand new cafeteria, kitchen, and coffee bar. For the past year, the team had been preparing to move all operations to a new floor, which doubles the square footage in both the kitchen and cafeteria and allows for newer equipment and updated, modern decor.
Making the move required a lot of long days, but it was really exciting to be a part of creating new systems and policies for their operation. Some specific issues we worked on was how to best manage the new self-serve hot market bar so that food was always hot and plentiful, how to better schedule employees breaks so that there were no gaps in service during busy times, and how to market new stations to customers, along with analyzing sales trends to make informed decisions to boost transactions and make customers happier.
I used to hold a false preconception that cafeteria food is uninventive and bland (certainly not trendy, nutritious, and beautiful to boot) but the culinary team at Weil proved me wrong day in and day out. With the new expansion came a toast bar with ingredients like whipped ricotta, bee pollen, and more, a smoothie bar with over 20 superfood add-ins such as matcha and acai bowls, breakfast grain bowls (which were my theme project), and a gorgeous daily market bar that featured new seasonal and themed dishes each day. I found the corporate dining environment to be a rewarding and creative space to work in; I am so grateful for the experience!
A definite highlight of my rotation was supporting the management team in opening a brand new cafeteria, kitchen, and coffee bar. For the past year, the team had been preparing to move all operations to a new floor, which doubles the square footage in both the kitchen and cafeteria and allows for newer equipment and updated, modern decor.
Making the move required a lot of long days, but it was really exciting to be a part of creating new systems and policies for their operation. Some specific issues we worked on was how to best manage the new self-serve hot market bar so that food was always hot and plentiful, how to better schedule employees breaks so that there were no gaps in service during busy times, and how to market new stations to customers, along with analyzing sales trends to make informed decisions to boost transactions and make customers happier.
I used to hold a false preconception that cafeteria food is uninventive and bland (certainly not trendy, nutritious, and beautiful to boot) but the culinary team at Weil proved me wrong day in and day out. With the new expansion came a toast bar with ingredients like whipped ricotta, bee pollen, and more, a smoothie bar with over 20 superfood add-ins such as matcha and acai bowls, breakfast grain bowls (which were my theme project), and a gorgeous daily market bar that featured new seasonal and themed dishes each day. I found the corporate dining environment to be a rewarding and creative space to work in; I am so grateful for the experience!
