Final Exam

Final Exams: wednesday 8th April
Start at 10:30
Finish at 1:30
Main course consists of :
Bechamel sauce
Carrots vichy
Kingklip ( apply own cooking method )
classical potato dish (apply own method )

Dessert:
Chocolate Moose

pg1. Name and Id

pg2. Menu, main and dessert

pg3. Mise en place: Timetable, equipment , ingredient list of everything /cooking method (french)

pg4. Plate design.....of main course and dessert

pg5. Costing sheet of each dish
Cost of dish

pg6. Recipe/no method

pg7. Test

Being a chef in the kitchen

When starting the chef course i did not now what to exspect, it was a little different at first because i thought that i was going to go straight into hotel and lodge work.But little did i now i had to experience alot of other departments. So i started with the chef course, the thought that ran through my mind was WoW i am actually going to learn how to make food for once in my life.

We started off with the basics such as cutting different kind of fruits and vegtables, but not old wife style way, professional chef way which was really great....so now i now how to cut with out cutting my fingers off!
We learnt as well that you get different kinds of cutting boards in the kitchen and they are also colour coded.

Boards:

White board- Dairy products
Red board- Raw meat
Blue board - Fish
Yellow board- chicken
Brown board - Cooked meat
Green board- Fruit and vegtables

Recipies

While we were in the kitchen we cooked alot of different types of food such as Beef roullade, Pancakes, Stuffed lamb loin, Eggs flourentine and creme caramel....just to name a few the rest wre all just as nice.

We also learned that there are different cooking methods such as........

• Blanching
• Poaching
  
• Baking
  
• Boiling
  
• Grilling
  
• Steaming
  
• Brazing
  
• Glazing
  
• Stewing
  
• Pot roast
  
• Deep fried
  
• Shallow fried
• Saute

Knife skills

When i entered the kitchen i had no idea that you get different sets of knifes and each name has different names. The most common three in the kitchen is the chef knife, the peeler and pairing knife. The chef's knife is probaly the most common because yoy can use that for almost everything from cutting fruits to squashing prunes to get the pip out. With the peeler you would use that to get skins off of any vegtable or fruit. And the pairing knife you would use to create design for your plate for a exsample a piece of butternut with carving on the edges.

French names

When working in the kitchen you learn alot of new things such as everything in the kitchen has a french name...

Here are a few!

• Beef-bouef
• Lamb-agnean
  
• Mutton-mouton
• Pork-porc
• Veal-veau
• Poultry-volaille
  

And Aldente-To the bite

Tempretures in the kitchen

In the kitchen when cooking you use different tempreatures for each method you do. For exsample.

• Pot roasting - 140-160
• Deep fry point- 160-180
• Boiling point- 65-85
• Grilling-220-250
• Baking-180

Arrival at sondela

Arriving at sondela was probaly the most nervous i have ever been in my life. Arriving here was very exciting but at the same time overwhelming because i couldnt believe that i didnt have to go study at a college or university. Being here made me do what i loved hotel and lodge management and what was nice is that there is more practical than theroy and being a person that cant sit still i enjoyed that very much.

First week at sondela

With in our first week here at sondela the students got to learn more about each other and how to communicate and trust one another with in our group. We got to learn who was the managing director, opperations manager, hospitality manager and restuarant manager was amongst others. Before starting with our courses and our induction week we got a greeting speech from the principal of the academy Mr. Diederick Rienecke on our how courses will work, we also got a friendly speech from Mr. Ian van Rensburg on how things run on sondela but what stood out for me the most was how he said that everybody at sondela is a family and how us as students will now be part of that family and we will be recognised as staff here and we will work just as well as anybody else.

Straight after that we got introduced to the academy chef Edward Smith he spoke to us about he does at sondela and how he will be with us during our first week. We also found out that he all the hospitaliy students were going to be with him for the first three months. Then we got introduced to Mrs. Edith Snyman as the person we could go to if we had any problems and about our courses, but she would also be part of our induction week.

Learning to work with people

With in the first week we would learn about customer care, needs, trust, communication, mind mapping, and amongst others but the most famous thing we learned from our academy principal was the famous five w,s.

• W- who
  
• W - what
• W - where
• W - when
  
• W - and what there after
  

He said that it would help us with working with guests and conferences and it would help us to deal with situations.

The evening of senior management

Well we were we starting to begin our courses we were told by Mrs. Snyman that we had to present an evening to senior management on how we see and view sondela. This event would be preseanted at the boys house. We were also told that we had to preseant to songs as well and we had to sing it as a group and the songs we chose were sondela by Jonny Clegg and our second song was O'siyeza also sung by Jonny Clegg. And to add to the entertainment the chef students cooked dinner for them which i must say they really enjoyed. We ended the night with singing and dancing and so much laughter.

Working in the guest house

When i first starting working in the guest house it was very over whelming because it is probaly the most stunning five star guest house i have ever seen. It has the feeling of being at home and has the most relaxing atmosphere ( In basic english home away from home). On the beginning working there was a challenge because it was your quality ultimate service a private maid who cleans seven rooms almost everyday , two private butlers and believe it or not your own personal chef which i must say would at all.

Working there is an amazing exsperience because you learn to work with guets one on one and it is a very intimate away in getting to get to now them. You learn to set up a table and now how to inspect a bed and a room and to now it must look exaxctly and to proffesional standard.

There is more pressure in the sense that it is very much of high maintenace and quality but it is probaly the most fun you can ever have..............

The food in the guest house

The food in the guest house is probaly the most stunning i have ever seen. The meals are to perfection and the taste is exsotic to some it up. The set up of the meals are probaly is the most nicest artwork to begin with.

The mood in that kitchen is probaly the most relaxed atmosphere you can imagine there is hardly any pressure from mangement, because basically what you do is you prepare everything before the time so you nw that the time you had was enough and you didn't rush it at all and it looks neat. ( In the kitchen that would be mise en place). When it comes to breakfast for the guests it is basically a buffet of muffins, fruits, cerel and of course juices.

In lunchtime there's mainly snacks followed by little sandwichs made with salmon, cappacio and amongst others. Now when it comes to dinner in the guest house it kind of a different story...the intensity is much higher there is no time to be wasted on anything else instead of the food. I learned that when it comes to dinner in that kitchen at night when the food comes off that stove it goes straight on the plate STRAIGHT ON THE PLATE!!!!!

First time at Tambuki Camp

The first time i went to tambuki was during my first three months of working in the kitchen. Where i had to do a small conference for a group called eco-life who had come all the way from Australia which was really cool. Before they arrived we had to make sure that everything was set up for them nicely and well prepared when doing this i would have assistance from Barbara a student that is studying professional chef followed by two chefs Steve, Vanessa and Mapheka. The person who headed the whole thing was our academy chef and our trainee chef Edward Smith.

The food that we made for them was bread on the braai and a few saussages and some pieces of meat.. the rest of the food was prepared in the kitchen before the time in the main kitchen by the restuarant. Such as the salads, fruit and gathering of equipment.

Cooking at tambuki camp for the nature students

With coming to the end of my three months in the kitchen myself and the other hospitality students were approached by Mrs. Snyman and she told us that we had to plan there food for breakfast, lunch and dinner because they were going on a walk for three days. Which was part of the course nature conservation.

In the beginning it was quit a surprise cause we had to do it on our own with out any help from any chef or manager. Every moring for breakfast they would have mosbolletjies and jam with butter. For lunch they would get lunch packs which would consist of at least two pieces of chicken, two boiled eggs, potato salad, a chocolate, a fruit and juice which would fill them up for the afternoon. Dinner would be different kinds of potjie foods followed by braai the next evening with pap and sauce.

While doing it there was a couple frustration here and there but in the end it was really fun.

Parents Day

Two weeks ago we had parents day for our parents. We made them feel at home with cookies , tea,coffee and banana bread. The point of the parents day is that our parents could see what we were dong and how far we had come since we started here. This took place at the boys house and we uesd there classroom to display our portfolios, meimors and learner guides. Followed by a speech by Mel Meyer opps manager to end off things

IT WAS GREAT FUN.

Function for eco-life

On saturday evening we had a functin for eco-life at tambuki once again. But this time it was a bunch of Canadians and a few South Africans and all together there were 22 people, including the people that were in charge. The event started at about 07:30 to 08:00pm.

The food they ate was potjie and rice. For dessert they had black forest cake and fudge picasso and biltong as a snack.

Conference for RCI

We new they were here the minute they arrived they came in with a bang and we new it was them RCI they came in to sondela in group of tens or more. They were cheerfull and happy. It was abit strange cause this would be my first conference in sondela since i have been here. For the first part of the evening they had a couple of drinks and chilled out and spoke abit with eachother. After that they went staight for the the food which was a full on buffet ranging from meats to salads. Then came they dancing which they really enjoyed.
On saturday they would start with breakfast in the moring and by the afternoon they would get ready to do some activities such as horse riding , paint balling and quad biking amongst other stuff. That would be followed by a pool party in the guest house at about 02:00 and soon after that would come the rugby. In the evening they would go to the bush and have dinner there which they also really enjoyed. Next moring it would be there final day on sondela, and once again they started with breakfast which they enjoyed and they had to leave.

Working on my first really big conference was fun and i really enjoyed it at the end of they even though i had quit a few late nights which dont. I would do i t again in a heart beat.

Spilt into different departments

Once finishing after chef or should i say being in the kitchen my fellow learners and i were told that we were going to be spilt up into serparte departments. At first we werent to keen on it because we were so used to each other already and if we werent together it would be so much harder because we learned to rely on eachother. But we all new it would probaly be for the best, cause when it happened we new that we would grow as indiviuals and the staff that we worked with would see us as indiviuals and not as a group.

Myself i was send to F and B ( Food and Beverage ).
Chane to Reception
Monika to Accomodation
And Barbara stayed in the kitchen because of the reason that she is studying professional chef.

Working at Food and Beverage

When i was told that i would be going to F and B i was very excited because i had worked there before by doing functions and conferences. And i had built relations with the staff. I would start off by waitering for the first four weeks and a training supervisor for the next three weeks. Waitering at the restuarant would be a fair enough easy task, cause it was very basic in the sense that it would be easy to pick up on how the waiteress did things. Literally if it was your first time doing it would take you basically a day to learn every thing.

Moring procedures at F and B is very basically you come to work at you would come to work at 07:30 and the waiters/waitress would wipe the outside tables and chairs on the verander with a hot bucket of water and then you would sweep the verander and then mop it staight after it.

Doing Conferences

While working at F & B we had to do alot of conferences from anglo platium to bush for friends which sondela hosted, for about 150 people. You would work shifts which included working moring shift, late shift and spilt shift. And sometimes you would work from 07:30 to 11:00pm or 12:00pm by the latest. But to be honestly true it wasnt a probelm for me because i loved working there every second.

Doing stock taking

When working at F&B one of the most important things that you need to do is stock taking. Which gets done at the end of the day most of the time. The first time i did that i thought i was about to loose my mind because its so much to remember in the sense that you have to pay attention to what you are doing and take note of how much you actually counting. Once you are finished that you will rind itt up on the system and then it will automatically add on to the records.

Stock sheets

This consists of about 2 or 3 sheets of paper which has all your cooldrinks and alcohol. But you count the cooldrinks seprately from the alcohol and vis versa. You will start from the back fridge which is in the coffee station and then you will continue in the bar area. You will then add it together and get a grand total. And that will show you how much you have over all.

Working at the anglo platium conference

While doing the anglo platium conference was quit exciting cause it wasnt something that i did not do before. It mainly consisted of 50-70 people which was quit alot.What was nice was they had a planned schedule at certain times they would eat at another time they would do activities or team work. Then at about 19:00 to 19:30 they would have dinner. And it would last for about a wee.

General Pre-service Procedures

For the past few weeks in class we have been focusing on General Pre-service procedures. The knowledge requirements instruct us to do certain tasks in the classroom which accompany our practical competences in the work place. The knowledge requirements include different tasks, procedures, specialist items, appropriate equipment and importance of portion control.

The Practical Competences consists of different stages that needs to be completed in the work place.And the factors are :

• Preparation deadlines - From the time staff come in
  till service starts.
  
• Equipment - Checklists
• Staff training - Schedules - Teamwork
  
• Accompaniments checked - Clean sufficient, tableware, glassware, cover and linen - checklists.
  
• Order - Book, pen - Billing, reservation book - how many pax.
  

General Pre - services is meeting deadlines, knowing your product knowledge, being able to assist guest with special requirements. As a manager of the food and beverage department is your job to make sure that when it comes to conferences and functions your staff have the ability to do the work. So that as manager you can do a inspection of your food service area and confirm the standards of the restaurant.

Stock control

For the past week we have been learning how to do stock take and how the process works in the hotel establishment/industry.
Here is a the process on to take a stock take:

Factors:

• Staff, time and date - Environmental
  
• Purchases
  
• Sales
  
• Stock preparation
  
• Stock count

To improve the efficiency of preparing your stock take you must always make sure or confirm with your stock supplier that there are no deliveries been done that day for your establishment.

Factors of stock take:

• Decide on date and time
  
• Inform all ballplayers
  
• Documentation processed - prices up to date - unit/quantity is correct on the stock sheet
• Prepare stock take area
  
• Moring or night print stock sheets
  
• Preparation - Familiarise yourself with your stock.
  
• Materials
  
• Equipment
  

Stock control:

This is what summarises the stock control on the whole.

• How much stock is in the store?
• What has been sold?
• What is still in use?

What will your employers want to know?

• Reductions- what has been taken out of there store/storerooms.
• Movement- Where is the stock moving from what department.
  
• Variance- What is missing from the stock.
• Breakages- What has been damaged.
  

Basic examples of a issue sheet:

Date - Description-Amount-department.
NB- Stock sheet an issue sheet should match.

Stock sheet documentation:

Description - Coke
Quantity - 2l
Stock count - 5 /9.00
Total- 45.00
That is yor basic stock sheet that you would use to count your stock in your establishment restuarants and shops

Stock sheet:

• Description- coke
• Unit/size- 2l
• Price- 9.00
• Open stock- 72
• Purchase -120
• Issues- 100
• Spoilage- 2
• Closing stock- 90
• Actual- 85
• Value- 700

This would then be the stock sheet that your manager looks at the end of day/month and he sees exactly what is broken,what has been issued,how much did he/she and how much is left over and of course what is broken.

Types of stock:

1. Equiptment
2. Furniture
3. Operating stock
   

The first two points is your capital stock.
The last point is the stock that you use on a continous basis.

Wildlife Centre Breakfast

On Saturday morning we did a bush veld breakfast at the wildlife centre for one of Sondela's top clients Mr Friedman and his family. Myself and a fellow colleague Chane would be setting up the breakfast on the deck which is situated by the rhinoceros, giraffe and zebra's. The buffet table would be set up down at the the bottom of the deck where we would have assortments of cold meats, cheese platter, different types of muffins and scones. We had coffee station set up as well as a wide variety of juices.

Managering the Restuarant

When i started working at the restuarant in the beginning of the year i was told that i would be doing the management and aadmin side of the restuarant. I would begin my weekeneds at the restuarant by managering a certain area.

• Pool area
  
• Grass area
  
• Veranda
• Bistro and Loft
  

From them on i would handle any complaints that the customer would put forward about staff members or the food. I would also be supervising the staff and giving them tasks to do. Such as:

• Cleaning the bistro and loft area
  
• sweeping and mopping the verander
  
• sweeping and mopping the hall
  
• Bringing the swimming cushions in
  
• Cleaning the coffee station

We would then end off the day by doing stock taking cleaning the last few items. After that we would put the alarm on and lock the doors.

Preparing for welcoming

Setting up steel tables and chairs as well as table cloths and over layes. with a gas bottle to put your pan on, a shaving dish to keep your pancakes warm, a main plate to put your pancake on and to sprinkle cinniamon sugar over it. A bit of juice to quenish any guests thirst. But best of all you get offer Sondela's house wines as well Dry Red, Dry White and Semi - Sweet.

AND NOT FORGETTING THE MOST IMPORTANT THING AT SONDELA CUSTOMER SERVICE. FROM THE MINUTE THE GUEST ARRIVES THROUGH THE MAIN GATE YOU SAY TO THEM WELCOME TO SONDELA.

5 star guest house

Working in a guest house is an experience that only most people can imagine. i have been working in our country house for the past few weekeneds now and in that time i have learned so many different things. The basic of working in the guest house i would say is you need to know how do guest serving and basic food service.

• I have learnt how to welcome guests and explain to them on arrival what they can be expecting.
• I have learnt how to give a guests a hand massage to make them feel relaxed and comfortable so that they can talk to you.
  
• I have learnt how to serve welcoming drinks.
• I Learnt how to do turndowns, how to make the guests room to look nice.
  
• And setting up for the wine cellar things like coffee's and tea's with the chef preparing the cheese platter.
  

The way that i could use this in the industry is that by gaining this experience i could apply it to any other hotel establishments and country houses through out the world and still gain more experience from that as well.

Conference at the resuarant.

Setting up a conference for 50 people form Anglo platium. I learned how to prepare a tea and coffee station with 50 cups and saucers, 50 side plates, 50 teaspoons and about 30 butter knifes. I then brought out 2 flasks of coffee, 2 flasks of hot water and 1 flask of hot milk as well as 1 flask of cold milk. And then bringing chocolate brownies and flap jacks out which they would eat with jam or butter.

• I can use it in the future in the sense of i will know what equipment to use and how to set it up.
• I will know what time limit to do it in.
• But in general i will know how to set up a conference.
  

It fits into the industry in the sense that companies across South Africa now that there are certain nature reserves and bush lodges that can accomodate companies and give them an experience in the bush that they wont forget.

Pre- service procedures

I learnt how to make different types of serviettes. The subject was pre-service procedures basically meaning what you need to get right before you open up our restuarant/guest house.

What i learnt most was how to fold seviettes,how to clean equipment and how the policy and procedures work. I will be able to use it in the future when i work in hotels and guesthouses not to mention restuarants. I could also use my knowledge on how to handle different situations.

It fits in the industry very well because you become more prepared for service.And if you work in a guest house you could preasent a five star and you can set up the table yourself.

Menu knowledge

What i learnt about menu knowledge is that a menu is not just a book with a bunch of pages in where you are offered a whole alot of different choices. It is information that complements different types of taste buds.

As i went deeper into the subject i found that preparing a menu is not as easy as it seems. There is so much procedures that you need to follow:

• You need to see what type of food you are willing to put on the menu and how much it is going to cost you as a manager or supervisor.
  
• You need to work out prices based on the portion you are willing to give the guests.
• You have to make sure that you have stock of these items at all times.
• And last but not least you need to sell these items on the menu.

What i found interesting about menu knowledge is that the more you now about the products that is on your menu the more knowledge you can for yourself. And with that you are able to teach other staff members and inlighten guests on what they need to know.

I can use this in the future in the sense that when i work in a different hotel or game reserve i know what to exspect from the restuarant. It also benefit me in the means of i will be learning new knowledge from them and they will be learning somthing from me to.

Fauwlty Towers

For the past few weeks in the beginning of course myself and my fellow students watched Fauwlty Towers.The reason for watching this was that we could see what not to do in a hotel. For example:

• Was not to argue infront of guests. Instead to be friendly at all times even if you are having a bad day.
  
• To leave maintence work for after hours and not to do it infront of guests.
• Not to be rude to your fellow employees.Instead to be respectable and friendly.
  
• To not be verbally abusive to your employees. Speak to them nicely when they do something wrong but make sure the point still comes across.
  

While watching this we also took down notes of what we thought they did good and what they did bad. You can use this in future in the sense that if you open up your new restuarants or evevn hotels you as a manager or a supervisor will know how to treat your staff members with respect and desenscy.

Hotel establishments overall

What we learnt today was how each establishment in the hotel industry is linked.
For example:

• How Reception and Accomodation communicate with eachother in the sense of Accomodation needs to tell Reception how many rooms they have available and how many rooms are clean.
• How Reception and Food&Beverage communicate with eachother in the sense of Food&Beverage needs to inform Reception of how many vouchers were used in the restuarant by the guests on the weekened.
  

The subject that we talked about was hotels and how they function all together as one big picture. How each one of them compliment eachother.

What i learned and found most interesting was that although every hotel basically sticks to the same policies and procedures, they all have there own unique style and way of doing things.

I can use this in the future because it gives me a better insight on hotels overall and it gives me a border view on different aspects in general. It will also give me enough information and knowledge to use in the future.
All of this fits in the industry because you can fully understand what is expected of you as an indiviual and as an employee in your company.