4th Week

Well this exciting week started on Sunday morning being at work at 6:30 AM I worked the breakfast shift and the lunch appetizers. I think I like working mornings other than waking up so early and not seeing the sun rise, but I don't loose my whole day. I got off at 4 from work and came home changed clothes, then walked to my recently found paradise a little lake across the road where they have white sand and hammocks! I spent a few hours reading a book while laying in a hammock soaking up some sun, it was nice. Monday I worked PM again and was on the fryer station we were really busy, but I kept up, yay! Tuesday I had the day off and I found

a marathon of law and order svu on tv that made me happy and I made pasta salad yum. Then me and my roommate went out to eat and went to walmart along with a million other people. Today I worked PM shift and apparently there was a tornado watch while I was at work and I was up in a castle good thing there was not a tornado, but it was raining alot. I worked on the fryer station again and did really really good all day long until the last turn of the night I ran out of roasted chicken and had to cook one at the last minute so that ticket was a little late, oops. So far I love it here and I really enjoy working in the kitchen and getting to meet new people. Oh and one of my many dreams came true, I got to meet pooh bear!

My day off, their senior trip

Today I had a day off from work, and I got to meet up with a group of the seniors, Mr. Manning and Mrs. Avery and hang out with them all day, that was fun. We went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot and then they went to pack at their hotel and I went to find my car, which I got a little lost but I did find it after about 20 minutes or more of walking in the 95 degree sun, good thing I had on sunscreen(yes mom I really did listen to you). Then I found a new grocery store and got my food for the week. But now I am getting a little homesick and missing everyone, seeing all them made me miss home more but at the same time it gave me a taste of home enough to hold me over until mom and dad and everyone gets here, which is only a few weeks away! It's a little weird and scary to talk to the seniors about them starting college and giving them advice on things cause I still think of them as sophomores and I thought it was just yesterday when I was a senior. But at the same time it's neat to see where I have been and how far I have come. They all were talking about being scared of leaving home and meeting new people and having to live with them and I just think about how I felt the same way but now it's different I've already done that like three times now. I can really see how much I have grown from that little freshman and how I have matured and become more independent. It seems like now that I have gotten out of my comfort box I have more dreams and goals that I want to reach, like this adventure in Disney! All my family and friends that have been in my life forever have helped me become who I am and who I am becoming but I know for a fact that if certain things hadn't happened or certain people hadn't been put in my path I would not be here and I would not be the same person. So back to my original thought, I am so glad I got to see the seniors and spend time with them and talk to them about things they were concerned about.They are currently getting on the train right now and I pray their trip home is safe and enjoyable. Good luck class of 2011
Well I am going to go rest and watch a movie and make greeting cards!! Oh I never gave you all my address, I forgot here it is: 13501 Meadow Creek Drive Apt. #3905 Orlando, FL 32821

They let me off the leash, and on my own!

So for seven days now I have worked the PM shift from 2-11:30 I graduated from training and passed my assessment and for my reward I got to go see the castle suite! I first day on my own I did appetizers and helped with desserts. For apps we serve shrimp cocktail over roasted corn, cheese trio plate, or fresh mixed salad with pumpkin seeds and cranberries. I did good serving apps I had to work with the servers and people told me that they can be impatient, but none of them had to wait on me! Then the next couple days I have worked on middle or fryer. I am in charge of frying the cornish hens for the roasted plate, and frying the chicken tenders for the kid's plate and getting the pizza, mash potatoes, corn, and mac and cheese which they make in the back. So almost everyone who eats at the castle has a kid and I am in charge of all the kid dishes. So that station is VERY busy! The chicken roasted dish has mac and cheese that is baked in a ramekin and is really good, its like alfredo and noodles, then steamed brocolini and the cornish hen. My first day on this station I did really good at keeping up with all the orders but I had to get used to watching how much I had left so I could tell the chef in the back to make more or not. The second and third day I did much better at that! One of the college program students asked me how long I have been on my own and I said 4 or 5 days now, she said I must be doing really good cause they put me on a hot station and now just salad or dessert everyday, she told me one of the students has been on desserts everyday since she has been here. So that is encouraging! It's fun meeting all the different people who work there, some of the people I met are now leaving though. three college program students are leaving this week and I am the only one coming in to take their spot, and they don't like when people leave. One night the chef was called out into the dinning room because there was a little boy hiding under the table and he wouldn't come out because he said he was allergic to princesses, it was hilarious! This week we had our menu change and the big executive chef who is not there very often was there alot to make sure that went smoothly. We now have a pulled pork dish with a gravy like sauce and spoon bread, tastes like cornbread just smoother made with polenta, and topped with sauteed swiss char greens and bacon diced. We changed the duck to rack of lamb served with cous cous. And we changed the sauce for the beef tenderloin to a demi glace based sauce. The desserts also changed to a trio with a fruit tart, small cheesecake, and chocolate mousse in a glass. Then they took away the creme caramel and replaced with a large cheesecake. The menu change went pretty well we had to get through a few bumps with the plating of the new dishes, but they definitely sold well. Our apartment had our first cleaning inspection, and we almost got the white glove award for being extra clean but there was one thing they wanted a little cleaner, but we did pass the inspection! I did have a surprise this week, the seniors from ACS came for their senior trip on Tuesday and I got to meet up with them on Wednesday at Hollywood Studios before I went to work and then today Thursday they were in Magic Kingdom and I got to see them while I was on break. It was so good to see someone from home! Tomorrow I get to spend the whole day with them and I just finished making sugar cookies for their train ride back home. That is all the excitement for this week now I get two days off YAY!

Cinderella's Secret Suite

See the pictures at

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=652796&id=815970120&l=5a54dd7d38

 

More training

Sorry the Internet went down in our apartment, but we fixed it and I'm back! So Tuesday the 15 I trained with the AM again. I got to make the cream cheese french toast fried in pancake batter, then I helped make the eggs and hash browns. When the tickets started coming threw I plated the french toast, the yogurt and fruit bowls. When service was almost done I got to go stand out in the dining room and watch as people got our food. Every princess gets a wand and every prince gets a sword when they come to eat there. The little girls where all twirling in the isle with their princess dress and wand in the air. It was neat to see the faces of the guests as their food was brought out to them. I saw a server make a proposal platter with rose petals and a glass slipper and the ring inside the slipper, it was gorgeous! I met Ariel on Tuesday that was exciting! Then we got set up for lunch and I worked the saute station. I braised two pans of cobia fish with fennel, olives, and tomato sauce. I sauteed vegetables for the beef domo to use for their plate. I was in charge of plating the cobia and the cassollet. For the cobia I put a ladle of pomadora sauce in the bowl and I heat my noodles hot water, while heating basil oil in a pan, then I throw the noodles in the basil oil and saute that. I twirl the noodles and place it on the plate and then put the fish on top with some of the vegetables from the braise pan. To plate the cassollet, which is a chick pea soup, I put two ladles on soup in a bowl a sprinkle the top with bread crumbs while sauteing mushrooms, onions, shallots, olives and tomatoes, then the vegetables go on top of the soup. It's not too hard when you are doing them one at a time, but I had 5 cobia and 3 cassollet orders coming all at one time. After the first rush of orders I got the hang out it and the expediter said I did really good he didn't have to wait on me for an order. Then I got to work some with desserts plating it and giving it to the server. For desserts we have creme caramel, chocolate mousse. raspberry sorbet, and for the kids create your own with either a cup cake or ice cream and they get chocolate chips, marshmallows, and sprinkles to decorate with. For birthdays they get either a little cake with their name on it or a chocolate slipper on an angle cake pillow with their name written in chocolate. That was most of Tuesday.
I had two days off and I got to rest which was much needed!
Yesterday Friday the 18th I worked in the PM I made a huge batch of hollandaise and a batch of choron sauce by hand. The hollandaise went with my beef tenderloin and the choron with the duck confit. I worked the beef station. Which involved carving the tenderloin to order and plating it with potato crockets and asparagus, but the hard part was getting the order right, if they wanted medium rare or well done. The first turn on the night I plated and my trainer cut then we switched and then the last two turns she let me do it on my own so I had to plate, then cut then put the meat on the plate without making a mess then set it up in the window. I did pretty good, it was hard to keep up with the orders though. While we were setting up for dinner we could hear the fireworks go off above us, that was cool. Then after dinner was done we cleaned and that was pretty much it. Tomorrow I get to work appetizers and desserts. Maybe I'll have pictures

Training and My First Day!

These past few days have been magical and its just getting started. On Saturday March 12 I went to an all day orientation called Once Upon A Time is Now just for people working at Magic Kingdom. We toured the tunnel, which by the way is NOT underground because we are in Florida and underground is water so it is actually the first floor and the park is the second floor. Oh and I found out that guests can tour some of it too, you have to sign up for the Keys to the Kingdom tour and it is about $70. We went through the park and talked about why some things were set up that way and the reasons behind little things. We went to the front gate and watched as people waited for us to open the park. They all stood behind the rope with anticipation and when we opened the rope they came running in smiling and jumping and cheering. One dad really wanted to be the first one to see the castle, he had his daughter in one arm like holding a football and he ran and grabbed a map with the other hand and then just kept on running. It was so neat to stand on the inside and wave to the people coming into the park, some for the first time ever. Most people associate Disney with the castle because that's what's at the beginning of all the movies and that is the first thing they expect to see, but no when you get off the monorail and go to the gate all you see is the train station. You have to walk all the way down Main St. USA and over the hill until you see it, I learned that they designed that on purpose to build up your anticipation. As you walk down Main St. have you ever looked at the names on the windows they are credits for some of the many people, imagineers, casts member, and others, who contributed in some way to the creation and start of Disneyworld. Some of the names are fictional businesses (gyms, realtors, dentists), and they often refer to a hobby or interest that the person honored. Some also are fake realtor names that Walt and his brother used to secretly buy the land in Florida for the future Disneyworld, like for example M. T. Lott Realators-if you say it out loud it is empty lot. We learned about the history of each land in the Magic Kingdom and how detailed they are decorated even down to the fence and light post. We got to ride Buzz Lightyear and the Haunted Manson!! So that tour was to tell us background and give us a since of pride about working at Magic Kingdom, becuase every guest that comes to Disney must and always do see Magic Kingdom. My tour guide said take pride in what you do, you don't have a job you have a role to play, you don't wear uniforms you wear costumes, you don't serve cutomers you serve guests, it's a different kind of place to work but it's fun. The rest of the day we split up into the department we would be working in so culinary we went and got our scheduals for training and got fitted for our costumes. Sunday I had more training but it was on the computer, learning how to clock in and how to request days off and stuff like that.

Today Monday March 14 I had my first day of on the job training. I met my trainer this morning at 6 am and she showed me around the kitchen. We entered from the tunnel onto the loading dock into the first kitchen, which is prep and storage mainly. Then we went up the elevator and the second floor is the break room and the third floor is the main kitchen and the dining room. The kitchen is pretty small but it's workable. The dining room is gorgious, it is all decorated like a palace and the staircase from the dining room to the lobby is neat. The lobby is where Cinderella meets and greets, and this morning her friends Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Bell, and Jasmin came to visit. Outside the lobby a royal steward takes your reservation and rings the chime when your table is ready. This mornig when we walked outside it was still dark and the castle was all lit up and there was a bride and groom taking pictures in front of the castle. So today in the kitchen after I met all my chefs I got to work on the line plating breakfast. First I plated the french toast, which is a cream cheese danish dipped in pancake batter and deep fryed served with fruit compote, whipped cream, and bacon. It's so good! Then I plated the adult plate with hashbrowns, eggs, sausage, bacon. and the child with egg, bacon, french toast sticks. I got to try everything later on my break, I ate friut bowl, granola and yougurt with banana slices and sugar on top then brulade, crosant and chocolate crosant, the french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage. It was a lot of food but it was very good! Then we set up for lunch (oh and I could hear the fireworks going off right above me) and I worked the grill station, I cooked the pork chop, which has been in a brown sugar brine for at least 2 days, seared off tuna for the mixed green salad, cooked mahi mahi to order. I was incharge of plating beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes for a child plate. Pork chop with butternut squash, blanched greens, onion marmalade, herb butter. I worked that station all the way untill 20 minutes before lunch ended. Then I got to taste one of the desserts, I got the chocolate mousse it was good! Tomorrow I train in the AM again and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday I train in the PM. So far I love it

Disney History and Traditions

Walt Disney said "You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world. . but it requires people to make the dream a reality." Yesterday March 10 I went to orientation or what Disney calls Traditions, the class that every single cast member at Disney goes through. We learned about how we are expected to work at Disney and the values we have to uphold. As cast members our common goal is that we create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages everywhere. We got to take a tour of Magic Kingdom and pick out other cast members that were demonstrating that goal, but the neat thing was how we got to Magic Kingdom. We rode a bus that took us to the back of Disney property, past where they keep the Christmas decorations, and we went through the underground tunnels. It's like a whole other world down there and you can get to any of the parks. We stood in the middle of the tunnel system and we were under the castle. I saw the entrance to Cinderella's Royal Table, where I will be working. We went out a secret door and ended up on Main Street in front of the castle and walked through the rain on a tour. Then when we went back to the orientation room Mickey came and welcomed us to the Disney family, he brought our name tags for us, and when he was leaving he was shaking people's hands and he came up and kissed my hand! Then we talked about the history of Disney, I won't go into all that but I will say some of the important ones. Mickey Mouse was born Nov. 18, 1928; Disneyland Park was opened July 17, 1955; Walt Disney World Resort was opened Oct. 1, 1971; Epcot Oct. 1, 1982; Tokyo Disneyland April 15, 1983; Disney Hollywood Studios May 1, 1998; Animal Kingdom April 22, 1998; Disney Cruise Line July 30, 1998; Hong Kong Disneyland Sep. 12, 2005.
That was interesting to hear all about that. I got my training schedule for Saturday I train 8 hours and Sunday I train 4 hours. I'm excited!

To My Supporters

I just want to say that I know I have a lot of support and prayers behind me. I have a wonderful mom and dad who encouraged me from the beginning to reach for the stars, and I have a great sister who is my best friend and a great little brother. My ma maw got to come down and help me move in and we had a great time here in Florida, I'm very thankful for that. All my family is excited for me and a few of them might be coming to visit me soon! I have a wonderful church family from back home, and a great group of ladies supporting me from my bible study in Charlotte. I have several friends from back home who have always been encouraging. I have some wonderful "second parents"(you know who you are) who have been there for me from the beginning! And last but not least my friends and teachers from Charlotte have been there for me, and encouraged me to apply and do the interview, I am very thankful for them. My wonderful boyfriend really encouraged me to reach for my dreams and helped me practice for the interview and was there when I got the acceptance letter, and helped me pack and move here, he has been the best! I just wanted to say thanks to everyone, I am a little scared to get started but knowing that I have all this support behind me I know I can do it and I know I am loved and I will have a great time.

The begining of my journey

About Me:
My name is Meredith I am a sophomore at Johnson & Wales University working on my Associate Degree in Culinary Arts. I have a wonderful family who supports me in everything I do and I love all my friends from back home, Graham, NC. So far in my college journey I have completed all academics and culinary labs. I have finished the Honor's Program. What I was involved in at school: Nutrition Club, Co-Op(garden), Honors, Math Tutor, RUF, volunteering, and babysitting for the ladies in my bible study. I have met some wonderful people that will be my best friends for life, like my roommates Zee, Amelia, and Sam, Drew, Tim and my friend Kaitlyn, Katy, and Pastor Dirks and his wife Carrie, Chef McCall and several others, but those are the important ones! For the past two years I have lived in Charlotte and made many memories, but that's a different story.
What is Happening Now:
I am about to start my internship which will be 11 weeks(the last term of my sophomore year). I am currently in Orlando, Florida and I am in the Disney College Program. I will be working at Cinderella's Royal Table which is in the castle at Magic Kingdom. So many people are supporting me and I know they all want to know what I am doing and they all want to hear the exciting stories. So I have decided to start this blog as I start this journey. Hopefully we will learn some new and exciting things and maybe even some secrets!
How did I get Here:
Back in October and November I applied to several places to maybe work at for my internship including the Biltmore Estates. I had an interview and everything with them and I was so excited that I might get that as my intern site, but then I found out that they already filled the spots and I didn't get it. I was really disappointed and I wanted to give up and just find some place near home to work at. But that same week I got an email that said Disney was not filled up yet and they were coming back to do interviews. They had already came earlier in the semester and I missed them, so this was an open door from God and I took it. So I signed up for an interview which was going to be over the phone, I had never done one over the phone before. Someone told me to make sure I smiled while I talked so I sounded excited the the person on the other end, that was the weirdest thing I had ever heard. So I got an appointment for 3:30 on Tuesday. Normally on Tuesday I go to class and then tutor in the library until 3:30 or 4, so this Tuesday I was still going to tutor just end it early. Well that didn't work as planned, I was helping a student and lost track of time and didn't quite know how to politely tell them I had to leave, because I was supposed to be in a quiet place where I would not be disturbed. So I finally left the library at 3:25 and I am literally running down the sidewalk to get to my apartment before Disney called. I pass the Little Village Restaurant and my phone rings. I answer it out of breath and you can hear the cars and buses riding by, the man on the other end says hi this is Chef Pauly from Disney, wait are you outside somewhere? I said yes chef I am on my way to my apartment, Do you want me to call back in 3 minutes? Oh yes that would be wonderful I said. So I have 3 minutes to run the rest of the way and get up to the 7th floor and in my room. I made it  with 1 minute left to spare. The interview I thought went great, and I did try the smile thing, I think it worked even though it felt awkward. He asked me several questions like if he gave me this what would I make or what would I put on a menu? He asked me if I was hired if I would be interested in working over the summer too, I said yes I would be interested, so he said he would write that down and I could decided later. The interview was finished and he said I would find something out by January. So I had to wait till I got back from Christmas break to check my mailbox and find out. My roommate got back from Christmas break before I did so she checked the mailbox for me and said I had a big folder from Disney! I got back to school and opened it up and there was an acceptance letter in it! So now it is Spring Break and I had to move out of my apartment in Charlotte and pack things to bring to Florida. This past Thursday Drew and I drove down to Cocoa Beach and met Amelia and Tim and had a mini vacation. Then my mom and ma maw drove my car down on Saturday to Orlando and we went to Universal and Islands of Adventure and saw the new Harry Potter Theme park and saw Lynard Skynard in a free concert. Drew and Amelia drove back to Charlotte on Monday night and my mom, ma maw, and me had a girls night. Then Tuesday I checked in at my apartment and moved in to a 3 bedroom apartment. And then went to a meeting to set up payroll and do a background check. The next few days will be training and orientations but it will be fun.