Oliver Day One!

Today I started my first day at City Pantry, a unique catering business located south of the center of London. The office itself is located in Brixton Market, a diverse collection of international cuisines and vendors that has a rather distinct smell due to the hundreds of dead fish for sale on the street. The company is located above one of these fish markets allowing the pungent odor of rotting fish carcasses to waft throughout the one room-office throughout the day. However, once I started working the smell disappeared as I was caught up in the busy life of entrepreneurial workplace. All 8 people at the company (yes, this is the entire workforce, including myself), are located around one wooden table. At first, I was given readings to learn about the company and familiarize myself with the art of street vendor catering. Through these readings I learned that the goal of the company is to serve as a platform for food vendors in London. City Pantry provides customers for the vendors, as well as organizing food service for events in the London area. The company seeks to diversify lunch options for workplaces by organizing menus designed by the vendors themselves. After lunch, I was given an excel sheet that listed all of their vendors that work with City Pantry and had to organize the 800 vendor list into interested, not interested, or not contacted. The task was rather mundane, but it was rewarding to finish my first real job in a workplace. I am looking forward to continue working with City Pantry for the next two weeks while in London and hope to learn the many skills necessary for success in the workplace.