OPERATIONS
At FSD's 2024 Big Ten Chefs Immersion conference, chefs from universities across the country ended their immersion experience with a chilly-but-fascinating tour of host university MSU’s Meat Lab
grown up on her family farm in Mich- igan, Dominguez has that “4H kid” point of view and understanding that meat is for harvesting. She acknowl- edges that not everyone shares that sensibility and there can be a learning curve for student employees. “Some of the kids do come from a farm background, so they may take those skills back with them, but mostly we’re taking in kids that don’t have a lot of animal experience and didn’t grow up on a farm, but we’re teaching them how to show up for a job, skills to take them to their next job and into their life, like project management.” Student employees at the Meat Lab get hands-on training. There’s re- ally no other way to learn this stuff, Dominguez says. “They work beside us to learn good job skills to take with them when they graduate. Some people say, ‘Don’t look at me while I’m doing something,’ but they have to get over that really fast.” Being the type of facility it is, food safety is the first priority when training any employee, Dominguez says. “Ev- erybody learns how to clean. It doesn’t
learning that goes into each section of the process. And also, the dining team gets a very good, fresh product.” In one collaboration, the Meat Lab worked with MSU’s allergen-safe din- ing hall, Thrive, to create a gluten-free chicken strip. In another, blended burg- er patties added a plant-forward-but- meat-inclusive option in the dining halls. When the Meat Lab began working with grad students on a fundraising project, “we struggled finding a good fundraiser that wasn’t going to be a safety concern, so we decided to make MSU soap from pig fat," Dominguez says. "Artisan soap that’s made the real way with melted fat and lye. They came up with six different soaps, and they sold out.” CARVING A CAREER PATH Dominguez followed her older sisters’ footsteps in coming to work at the Meat Lab when she started college at MSU. After that, she went on to work in the big meat industry for five years and for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for another five years. Having
matter if you’re a undergrad or a PhD; if you don’t start out clean in the morn- ing, we can’t start the day. They are also responsible for sanitation and working with USDA inspectors on a daily basis.” Learning to break down carcasses begins with a pig, rather than a steer, since it’s a smaller (and cheaper) ani- mal. “And we are not under time con- straints, so high-speed is taken out of the equation,” Dominguez adds. “We don’t let our student employees get into any dangerous situations. They’re given safety gear to use with knives and we remind them to cut away from themselves and always pay attention to their surroundings.” It's not a boring job, that’s for sure. “Every day is different and every car- cass is different,” Dominguez says. “It’s never boring but it’s hard work; you saw those chucks.Those can be 200 pounds and it’s freezing cold, usually between 37 and 39 degrees, with the fan on. We bundle up when we go in. 40 degrees is not too cold if you’re moving. And there’s nothing better than some pulled pork out of the smokehouse at the end of the day.”
Q2 2024
FSD QUARTERLY
17
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