Page 28 - gfs0717_Magazine

NRA MILITARY TRAINING

goes beyond the conventional and better competes against schedules, the dining facility has a 24-hour grab-and-go sec-
alternatives. tion, as well as the added convenience of midnight meals
Customers get an array of choices spread over five spe- accommodating personnel on a late-night schedule to give
cialty stations: one for salads, soups and fruit; a second this group a better alternative to sandwiches or prepared items.
with pizza and sandwiches; the third “Hot off the Grill;” In all, the floor plan was organized in a four-step logi-
the fourth with Mongolian, pasta and vegetables; and the cal sequence from delivery through dining room. Supplies
fifth for a Chipotle-style serving station. arriving at the loading dock flowed into coolers, freezers
Specialty days add further excitement to the menu, and dry storage that provided easy access from the kitchen/
including surf and turf on Sunday and healthy Wednesday preparation area before reaching the serving and dining area.
for fish and seafood. There were also plans for a training lab/test kitchen fur-
Additional serving stations have ice cream and smoothies. nished with its own equipment to keep from disrupting regular
Recognizing that personnel on base follow irregular work meal production, a classroom and a taste-test area. Training
would be available two days per week
with Tuesday and Thursday set aside
for culinary lab days to improve skills.
Above the main floor was an
upstairs dining area, or balcony,
equipped with high-top tables, meet-
ing rooms and restrooms. It looks
down onto the first-floor dining area
and is conceived as a bright environ-
ment with a view outside through
a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
It would be used to manage over-
flow from the first floor, but also for
VIPs to access its meeting rooms.
“There’s a lot of innovation going
on,” a team member said.
Plans for the dining facility cen-
tered on a five-station food court
layout: salads, fruit, smoothies and
soups made up one station; hot off
the grill, a second; pizza and sand-
wiches, a third; the fourth featured
Mongolian, rice and pasta; and the
fifth was for specialty items.
The kitchen equipment to be
used and its placement were care-
fully mapped out into three complete
and versatile stations. On the wish
list were four ovens, multiple steam
jackets, tilt skillets, fryers, a dry-stor-
age area, two freezers, a cooler and
a blast chiller to help cut down on
foodborne illness.
Accommodating the digital age,
the dining facility is equipped with
Wi-Fi internet access, letting customers
instantly share their experience with
friends. It also becomes a channel for
the dining facility to receive customer
feedback. In response to a judge’s panel
question from Glenn Brady, Silver
Gulch Brewery, the team planned to
receive feedback that customers type
into iPads and send by email, as well
as interactive customer evaluations.
—GFS
28 GOVERNMENT FOOD SERVICE • JULY 2017