Thyme and Change
This shadowing opportunity took place on 10/12/16. It was pierogi day. The main areas of concern that the manager of the food truck thought were worth mentioning are listed below:
1. Replacing the 100lb tanks of propane every time. No gauge is present on their propane tank as well, which he told us limits his ability to predict interruptions during the day when he will need to switch tanks.
2. Not enough storage areas. Food must be stored under truck in bins when not in the food warmer below
3. Dish sinks are mandatory by law but are not used because they generally do their dishes in a commissary. He suggested minimizing the sinks so they meet standards but do not take up space.
4. Delivery of food to customer is often difficult because the server must reach down. having a step stool or a ramp is dangerous and cannot be done.
5. For shelving, they desire to have a shelf space organizer/divider that is adjustable depending on what they want to keep on the shelf.
6. Water bottles and anything that the mouth touches must be stored outside of the cooking area of the truck, and are often stuck on top of the propane storage areas on the back of the truck.
7. There is a 3 step cleaning process for every surface of the inside of the truck which takes about 30 minutes. The 3 solutions are visible on the left in the picture below.
8. Every truck seems to have their own portable music player that they plug into an outlet.
9. The large storage spaces under the fryer and the stove are basically useless to them, because the temperature gets too high there.
10. Gloves must be changed very frequently, and at a minimum, every 20 minutes. This is a time consuming practice.
11. A litmus test must be done on every single dish washed in the truck to make sure that the cleaning solution was thoroughly rinsed out. This is one reason why they tend to wash the dishes when they return to the commissary. The only time they wash dishes on the truck is if there is only one of those items and it falls on the floor, otherwise they just grab a new one.
12. There must be at least 3 workers in the truck at once, since the server cannot be the one making the food or accepting currency
13. Trash is stored under the truck because space in the truck is limited
14. A cooler filled with ice is used in front of the cashier in order to store drinks. They believe it would be better if it were a refrigerator because filling it up with ice every day gives them one more task to complete.
15. They wished that there was an adjustable top shelf in the fridge in order to accommodate taller items when needed. The mustard and ketchup bottles also required being thrown out at the end of every day because of all of the people who would touch them.
16. Employees were forced to reach to the top of a very high stack of items in order to grab them off of the shelves.
17. The metal food containers that were in the fridge did not have a place, and they instead just leave them sitting out on the counter.
18. A window was in the ceiling for ventilation.
19. In order to conserve space, the card reader machine was mounted to the wall sideways.
20. A cutting board is over the sinks when not in use.
21. The fryers look essentially identical to those that you would find in any fast food restaraunt.
Tatoheads
This shadowing occurred on 10/21 during the diner service. The truck is located outside of and is hooked into the power supply of the bar “Bossy Grrl PinUp Joint.”
Pictures:
1. Storage spaces on top of sink and in a bin for transport. Third picture shows utensils being unpacked before food prep.
2. Accessing utensils on storage shelf/storing wet cleaning supplies.
3. Bottles being held stationary with a bungee cord/paper towels hanging from bungee cord.
4. Accessing bowls on shelf/non-ergonomic reach into cooler/storage of utensils and napkins.
5. Bin to hold customer cutlery/employee servicing customer/table for holding ingredients
6. Magnets are used to put up menu outside the food truck.
7. Trash cans on the outside and inside of the food truck.
8. Accessing Freezer/Getting ingredients from fridge/grabbing sauces from fridge
9. Opening food to be used in the fryer.
10. Grabbing utensils for customer and servicing them their food.
11. Food Truck Evolution! (Created by Tatoheads)
Key Observations:
- cutting board covers sink
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- Lots of heat from generator and cooking processes
- Very uncomfortable
- Do as much preparation of the food beforehand that they can
- Plastic bins are main cold food storage method
- Loose within refrigerator
- Cleaning process:
- Initial sweep, then mop
- Trash collected in can by the window
- Not recycled
- Water stored underneath sink
- Can fit 6 people max
- Braces the steam table with other items during driving
- Other items occasionally fall during transit
- Elaborate system of securing kitchen items
- Storage is problem area
- Shelf isn’t secure
- Not enough of it
- Flys inside the truck is a problem
- Dirty dishes kept in plastic bin
- Lots of heat from generator and cooking processes
Ray Ray’s Hog Pit
This shadowing experience occurred on 10/27/2016 during the lunch service. The truck is located outside of the bar “Ace of Cups”
Pictures:
1.Using a cup to pour cheese onto the mac and cheese
2.Cleaning supplies hanging outside/inside the truck
3.Scooping sauce into cups before the lunch service
4.Restocking on food from fridge supply in neighboring bar
5.Cutting meats on the cutting board for lunch preparation
6.Storage rack and shelf for containers
7.Preparing food on the smoker and the grill
8.Non-ergonomic reach for cooking supplies/food in the fridge
