day three

Day 3;

Yesterday I was host again just to affirm with my skills.  I worked with Wolf as host today and showed him how to do everything so that I could have him take calls and I could learn about distribution of customers between waiters and filling the house. 

Today I was in the back with Kevin.  He taught me how to set tables, clear tables, what to do with dirty silverware, what to do with clean dishes, how to create the proper tray with everything needed for resetting tables… you know, normal everyday things that you never ever think twice about but, actually it’s super important.  Kevin was trained by a guy who was not there today but he knew what he was doing and so did Kevin. 

I wanted to learn more after awhile because it was a slow day and so I learned to be ‘hands’ for the guy who checks all the food to make sure it looks sellable. I learned how to read the tickets and how to serve the food to the guests (from the left).  I also learned how to clear empty plates from the customers (from the right).  And I lastly, learned what some of the foods served looked like so that I could match tickets to plates.  Overall good day!

day one

Day 1;

I am working at Cedar Creek Grille with Kevin Goodrich and Adam Wolf. The plan for our project is to work a week in the ‘front of the house’ and then for three and a half weeks, we will be in the ‘back of the house’.  Today, we met the managers and most of the regular waiters and the morning host along with Mr. Doody coming in the early morning to say “hello guys!” and do his business with the managers. 

            I was a host today meaning I stand upfront and look pretty and walk people to their tables.  I also answer the phones and set reservations.  The computer system they use was very simple and the tables are reasonably labeled and it didn’t take more than one run through for me to learn them all.  I learned that smiling is key when you are the first face the guests see walking into the restaurant.

Kaitlyn Cerne

Today was my second day working with Meg the Trainer at school. Yesterday, I was able to watch the boys lacrosse game as well at the softball game. Before practices and games, Meg showed me how to fill and clean water bottles and get the cart ready for equipment that needed to be transported to games. While watching the games, Meg and I were able to discuss my experiences at the hospital as well as my favorite experiences. I really enjoyed orthopedics and that branch of medicine works very well with athletic training. Meg is also taking the time to teach me anatomy. We are beginning with being able to recognize every bone in the body and will be moving on to learning muscles next. Today, Meg and I took inventory as well as filed paperwork for the students. In addition to all of this, Meg is hoping to tach me the proper way to wrap ankles and knees. We are also currently working on setting up dates for me to join her at her other job. She also works at Precision Orthopedics in the mornings. I am very excited to meet all of the orthopedic surgeons that she works with.

Good Greens Day 2

Today was my first day at Good Greens. We thought our goal was to make advertisements and learn about advertising but everything does not go to plan at small businesses. Good Greens is a very small start-up and there is a lot of need for odd-jobs around the office. It turned out that they needed sample bars stapled to informational hand-outs for an event in Pittsburgh. They can't be at the event in person so they needed people to have the information when they try the bars. Therefore, we spent the day in an office stapling. Will Holden and Peter Labes were also in the office working on a new product so the helped out with the stapling. It seems tedious and boring but it really wasn't that bad when you're doing it with some friends. It also taught me about small businesses in general and how sometimes everyone in the office has to drop everything and work on a simple task like stapling just because it's something that needs to get done. Though it wasn't the worst job, I would be lying if I said I wasn't relieved after we were finished. Overall we stapled 1600 bars throughout the day and I'm glad we finally are done.

Photography Day 10

Stephen and I had both taken the Entrepreneurship class this past year so we were planning on visiting their class and taking some pictures around University Circle. It worked out perfectly that they were taking a walking tour of Uptown, which is not far from that area. Unfortunately, the weather was not very agreeable and the skies were quite gray. This hampered some of our pictures because the area around uptown is all built with silver steel and aluminum so the buildings were blending in with the sky in a lot of the shots. It was still cool getting a tour of the area and it was great to see Ms. Cho again. Stephen also got some cool shots of the Entrepreneurship class reflected off the modern art museum.

Overall it was not a wasted day and we focused specifically on working on focus and blur using trees in front of the buildings. We would either blur the foreground and focus on the building or focus on the tree and blur the buildings. These pictures turned out well especially with the green trees against the gray skies. We left at the perfect time because as soon as we got to the car, we were pounded with hail (classic Cleveland weather). This was our last day of taking pictures and I can definitely say that I've gotten a lot better since the beginning.

Post 8

today while at the kitchen, it really feels as If I am becoming a part of the group.  When I get in I no longer have to ask where I am working because someone is always needing help.  I ended up helping a prep cook today to create the Salmon burger patties.  After cutting the Salmon we add lemon zest, capers, and pepper.  Next, he showed me how to make coleslaw, there is really nothing to it.  However the best part of the day was making the bacon.  Everyone loves you when you make the bacon, as soon as it is pulled out chefs and waiters run over and take a handful.  One of the more important parts of this week was when Rick Doody sat all three of us down and had a talk about a restaurant and just how important small details are. From lighting to how a plate looks when it gets to the guest, everything ties together.  One day a guest will be looking at he light fixtures another how the plates look when they get to them.  Anything could go wrong and turn away a guest which makes a restaurant a difficult task to manage.

Post 7

While working yesterday, I believe that I learned probably the most important part in this project.  While I was preparing peas, I was talking with a chef who had burned his hand and was helping me with the peas as he could not work on the line.  While talking about computer games and things of that nature he asked what my real goal of this project was.  I told him I wanted to learn how to cook.  He then told me that the best way to learn is to just do it.  He went on to explain how he had learned. Experimenting is the only way to really become a great cook.  So if I want to cook better than the average person, I need to start experimenting with different foods, he told me the best type of food is Chili.  There are so many different things to do with it: put it over noodles, change the proportions of ingredients, add spices, take out spices, add vegetables, etc.