School kitchen service manager: Muhis is a multi-skilled ray of sunshine in the Westendinpuiston koulu primary school dining room
Mohamad Vakili, aka Muhis, works as a service manager for Espoo Catering at the Westendinpuiston koulu primary school.
Little over 300 clients have lunch daily at the Westendipuiston koulu primary school. Sometimes groups may have their lunch in classrooms due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation, and Muhis prepares a food trolley for them in the same way as at day-care centres. In addition, Muhis prepares and serves breakfast and snacks to pre-schoolers.
Lunch preparations progress with speed: Muhis prepares the salad and high-energy side dish in the kitchen, and heats or finishes the lunch of the day.
When preparing lunch, it is especially important to ensure that people who follow a special diet receive food that is suitable for their diet in a safe manner.
The morning routines include preparing the dining room for lunch. There is plenty to do also after lunch: it is important to clean the buffet, and Muhis wipes down the dining room tables so that the space is clean and ready for the next morning.
One of the best moments of Muhis’ day is the lunch service, as he can also focus on customer service: there are plenty of good opportunities to chat with clients when restocking the buffet and keeping things clean and organised.
In addition to casual daily chatting, Muhis keeps regular contact with the customer: a school meeting is held on a weekly basis, and also packed lunch orders require interactions.
During the lunch hour, a dishwasher comes to help out, but Muhis also likes to participate in dishwashing.
His job involves many things, in addition to preparing food, that are not visible to lunch clients. These include the reception of bulk shipments, storage organisation and ensuring the rotation of goods – all very important duties in the work of a service manager.
The self-control programme also steers work: Muhis monitors and records temperatures and takes food samples on a regular basis. It is important to ensure cleanliness and tidiness, both in the kitchen and in the dining room.
Office work is also part of the daily work: bulk orders, meal orders, acceptance of delivery notes, monitoring meal quantities, maintenance of the work shift list, taking care of personal HR matters with the HR programme, attending meetings via Teams, reading email and intranet at least twice a day and much more!