Concert tour cooking goes healthy

After contracting COVID during rehearsals Paris, Bird had to take a week’s break, leaving dessert duties for a crew of 400 to 600 to two replacement chefs. By then the crew had become accustomed to his lavish desserts, which often had dozens of different offerings at both lunch and dinner.

The diluted dessert menu spoke of his absence. So when the crew again saw his signature spread of hundreds of cookies in several varieties, they knew he was back.

“It was brunch, and the whole dining room applauded,” said Bird, who has also cooked for Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber, and Mötley Crüe. “They just thought, ‘He should come back.'” Because they only know of method.”

Yes, Beyoncé is one of the biggest stars in the world, but traveling with a cadre of chefs just isn’t a flexible person. Many traveling artists now take several professional chefs, not to mention entire mobile kitchens, on the road with them for the sake of efficiency, health, and morale.

While idiosyncrasies such as Van Halen’s ban on M&M’S Ms. Brown has become a familiar tradition, suspending concerts during the COVID years has reset the industry, with an emphasis on wellness. Many tours now include a vegan chef, for example, and prioritize physical and mental well-being as well as reducing environmental impact.

“Before, in the early ’80s and ’90s, it was a party thing—cocaine and whatever they wanted. Now it’s just a business,” said Gray Rollin, longtime chef at Linkin Park who has also cooked on tours for Prince, Madonna, and Tori Amos. “We have one job to do, and that job is to put that talent on stage. Ensure that the presentation goes flawlessly. Then do it again the next day.”

The mobile kitchen at the Jones Beach Theater was set up for the artists and crew of Sam Hunt’s Summer on the Outskirts tour, on Long Island. Tour chefs often have to adjust to a new cooking setting in each new setting. (Pat O’Malley/The New York Times)

Joking about Linkin Park’s 2014 tour and Thirty Seconds to Mars, he added, “It was called The Carnivores Tour, but 14 of the 16 guys we cooked for were vegan.”

James Digby, a veteran tour director who just finished working on the European leg of Avril Lavigne’s tour, is familiar with these demands.

“You can’t get Non-vegetarian meal Catering on Paul McCartney’s tour. This is a challenge. “Because most of the ways I know are carnivores,” said Digby. “If an artist is trying to change the world, one tour at a time, by saying everyone is vegan, my job is to echo that.”

No matter the kitchen, the production requirements are great. The industry standard for a major tour requires four meals on set-up and show-days: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a post-concert meal, often eaten on the bus.

“An army walks on its stomach, so you have to feed the troops,” Digby said. By troop, he meant the band, backup singers, dancers, stage builders, pyrotechnics crew, security guards, managers, bus drivers, and all the other people involved in the high-stakes business of live entertainment.

At Lizzo’s recent show at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California, lunch featured a smoothie station with a basket of vegetables ready for the blender. There were corn dogs, fried chicken sandwiches, and vegan impossible chips, plus couscous, squash, carrots, and crackers.

All prepared in the arena kitchen. However, Latitude 45, the company responsible for the culinary operations of the vegan artist’s private tour, usually cooks in a high-end mobile kitchen that is packed into specialized flight bags and reassembled in each new city.

Bespoke kitchens, including cabinetry, shelves, ovens and workstations, are constructed to maximize space and efficiency, said Chris Mitchell, owner of the company, and provide an elusive sense of “sameness” on the road.

Boxes of supplies used by Lizzo’s touring chefs, in Palm Desert, California. Good organization is essential to a successful catering operation. (Michael Groscoff / The New York Times)

He said, “Everything has a place, and it returns to the same place every day.” “If someone in the kitchen needs a stainless steel pot—and without looking most of the time—they can just point and say, ‘Could you please give me the third pot in that set over there?'”

HSG Catering, the Chicago-based company currently on Eric Church’s tour, uses a 53-foot mobile kitchen that has a large freezer, large cooler, and an 80-gallon water heater. The unit is also equipped with a meat smoker, wood-fired grill, convection ovens and a machine that can “send 300 steaks in one go,” HSG president Bob Schneberger said.

while chefs Sometimes escorting artists on private planes or in armored cars, with a police escort, cooking and baking on the road could also put them in makeshift generator-powered kitchens in fields or parking lots.

The job requires a certain kind of person who enjoys troubleshooting and is constantly on the move, Mitchell says, and can afford to sleep on tour buses for months at a time. The conditions cultivate a sort of brotherhood—many of the chefs proudly wear T-shirts from previous tours.

There is also a royal side to food testing at the party.

“One case of food poisoning, and you’ve been canceling shows for at least 48 hours,” Digby said. With shows getting bigger and ticket prices ever higher, an incident like this can put millions of dollars at risk.

One thing that probably hasn’t changed much over time is the eclecticism of the artists, who definitely have their likes and dislikes.

Grant Bird prepares the food for the Sam Hunt concert at Jones Beach on Long Island. Today’s artists, such as Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, and Lizzo, travel with an elaborate entourage of culinary professionals who create increasingly healthy meals. (Pat O’Malley/The New York Times)

“Gene Simmons used to like his turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and pickles on the side,” said Rollin, who cooked for bassist Case in 2008 and 2009. “But then he never touched lettuce, pickles And tomatoes, absolutely.” Jared Leto wants organic purple popcorn with every meal.

Travel can also make it difficult to obtain desired foods. In the 1990s, Marilyn Manson insisted on Kraft Mac & amp; Cheese, Digby said, so the boxes were shipped to England. “Guess what? Kraft manufactures different types of Kraft macaroni and cheese for English consumers.”

Byrd, who cooked for K-pop group Blackpink in Chicago Last summer, the band said the band brought in a separate truck just to transport their favorite brands of instant noodles. Like some other caterers who have worked on K-pop tours, Bird was impressed by the focus on the cooking operations, which always included a Korean buffet. “They have a lot of food stations and different things. I’ve never seen that before.”

As for Beyoncé, Bird sent bowls of fruit and cookies to her dressing room. And though he can’t say for sure which are the pop star’s favorites, he noted: “As far as I know, the ones that are especially eaten are Reese’s cupcakes” — a Byrd’s specialty that has a vanilla base with Belgian milk chocolate and pieces of peanut butter Reese’s Cups folded throughout.

In addition to the high demand for his desserts, Bird was stoked to see his name in the online credits for the Renaissance tour.

“At the end of the show, they usually acknowledge the lighting, the stage, and the people who are very close to them,” said Byrd, who is currently on tour with country singer Sam Hunt. “But they never mentioned that they were traveling with us to deliver food.”

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