After working my first week with the Central Dining managers and learning how the overall operations of UC Berkeley is run, I went to work and observe at my first residential dining hall, Foothill. It is one of two res halls that are currently open for summer students, as well as hosting conference groups and summer camps.

I spent my first morning there working with Ysmael, the Senior Storekeeper who is in charge of placing inventory orders and then receiving them. After working with him and reviewing invoices and checking to make the proper items were shipped, I met with the Executive Chef, Eric Haney, to learn about the many hats he wears for his job. These include cooking, correcting/creating recipes, holding staff meetings and addressing any problems within the kitchen, and creating new menus.

After meeting with them, I was able to watch and learn as the General Manager of Foothill, Brian Walker, pushed 500 football players attending a summer camp through the small dining area within an hour. I have never seen so much pizza and burgers get devoured so quickly! Once the football players cleared out, I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on an interview for the Late Night Sous Chef position. It was great to see this because the week before I had done some hiring paperwork for this exact position so I was able to see the entire process of hiring a new employee.

The next two days at Foothill involved me working with Brian to learn more about his role and how he came to be the GM of that dining hall. I also worked with Anita, the Lead AM Cook and she was able to explain to me how she delegated the day’s tasks and preps the day ahead for meals.

Thursday and Friday were spent at Clark Kerr, a group of buildings used for student dorms, banquets and functions, and dining. I worked with Ron, the Conferencing and Catering Manager on Thursday. I learned and helped with an outside banquet event that was held for 400 teachers from Teach for America. At my job back home I’ve always worked as a prep cook making the food for events such as these, but this is the first time I was able to help run one. Once the event was set up, I was placed as a bartender which was great because I was able to chat with everyone and make some tips!

Along with learning about how banquets and conference functions are booked and organized, I learned how a catering company is run as well. Cal Catering is technically a separate operation from Cal Dining, but majority of their business is created through campus events. Only two people primarily run the catering event – Tete and Doug, which is amazing because of how much work they accomplish. A normal morning for them starts anywhere between 4 to 5am and involves receiving the catered food, sorting it by events, driving the food to the event and setting up, all the while ordering and planning more events when they’re not running to different event areas.