Sodexho, Superglue & Satellites
Tuesday 31st July
Tuesday was an early start as I was working a breakfast shift in the Island Hub restaurant, helping serve breakfast for over 10,000 hungry IST members. Registration was at 5:00, where we signed in and received our Sodexho events polo shirts to change into, a cap to keep our hair out of the way (more important for some than others!) and for those doing the “running” like I did usually, an apron and some tea towels to protect your hands. All of these items were handed back in at the end of each shift ready to be washed for the following day, and one small corner of the kitchen area was partitioned off and had a bank of washing machines & tumble dryers that seemed to be constantly running.
A few feet away from this end were the large boiling cookers, where the vegetables & potatoes were cooked, followed by similar units used for soup, although these had a large tap on the front for pouring the soup out into containers for carrying. Level with these, next to a set of food preparation tables, were a series of more recognisable stoves which were used solely to prepare the more one-off vegetarian and special diet meals.
Further along the kitchen against the wall were the steam regenerators, used to keep food piping hot, such as the fried rice once it had finished cooking, and particular care had to be taken with these as the contents were a noticeable 20°C hotter than the normal storage oven which were normally kept at around 80-85°C. Next along were similar looking dry ovens used for items like pies & pasties. In the middle of the kitchen level with the steamers and ovens were two rows of cookers back to back, effectively like large fixed saucepans. These were used for cooking dishes like rice, and the various stews and main dishes that were offered. Finally, past another set of food prep tables, was the frying area where the chips, fish, hash browns and other fried food was cooked.
Along the opposite side of the kitchen were two rows of walk in fridges & freezers, each bigger than most people’s bedroom, and each marked on the door with the specific food it contained, e.g. meat, dairy, etc. They were a very good place to savour a refreshing few seconds when the sun was beating down on the roof and the temperature inside the kitchen was even hotter than normal, and you’d be grateful that something from the chilled area needed replenishing.
In between the two large rows of fridges, as well as the main walkway from the kitchen out to the two restaurants, was a large floor area used to store large stackable, bulky items, like boxes of fruit and catering packs of cereals, crisps etc. Either side of this walkway, backed up against the side of the fridges, were rows of ovens used to keep the food at a safe temperature, ready to re-stock the ovens out in the restaurant behind each of the serving counters. My role, usually as a kitchen runner, was to take the food from the kitchen out to the serving counter ovens, and to keep these stocked as necessary, according to demand. In each restaurant there would also be a number of restaurant runners who would then look after a group of serving counters and make sure that the front counters were stocked, so that those on each counter could focus on serving food without holding up the queue. Each restaurant would server 5,000 people twice a day, so the planning that went into making sure the queue stayed as short as possible was considerable, and although the people waiting were hungry from their day’s activities, I think they could see we were working well as a team to keep them fed.
Today I had been helping out on the “Cold Buffet” table, making sure we had stocks of bread rolls, butter, fruit and cold meats etc for the breakfast. I had been on slightly lighter duties since yesterday, when I’d slipped whilst pushing a food trolley and sliced through part of my hand below the thumb. After a dressing applied by one of the chefs, I’d made my way across to the first aid post outside the restaurant area where I’d been assessed as needing further treatment. I was sat in one of the ambulances and driven to the on-site medical centre. After initial assessment by an A&E nurse, it was agreed by the doctor that although no long term damage had been done, I needed something to hold the wound together, although instead of stitches they used a form of superglue. This seemed to work really well, although I was aware I wouldn’t be able to carry heavy food trays around the kitchen for a few days. A huge personal thanks to everyone who looked after me, I was really made to feel at ease and in capable hands.
After finishing the breakfast shift around midday, I spent most of the rest of the day in the Media Centre on site, working to get hold of the video footage of the daily news broadcasts, to be posted in a later blog entry. By now, I’d managed to get hold of the first two days of coverage, although using a professional quality image resolution, the file sizes were massive. I already had a WiFi access card for the Jamboree site, but there was no way the wireless network would support this amount of data being transmitted, and the only way to get the video posted was to upload it onto a website in North America. The team in the Media Centre were fantastic, and went out of their way to help explore all the possible ways to transport these files, even speaking to the satellite broadcast team based in the SatLink van outside, although unfortunately they could only connect directly to TV stations worldwide, and couldn’t access the Internet. In the end I was given the two news bulletins on DVD and decided to travel off site to the nearest Nortel location, Harlow 20 miles away, so that I could send the files over the internal network. It was going to be a late night…