The Flavour of Formula1

 
Formula 1 expects maximum performance from its drivers and teams. But what particular demands are put on the catering team in the drivers’ paddock? We have had a look behind the scenes at BMW. This is the seventh year that event-caterer Joschi Walch, an Austrian from the Voralberg region, has been catering for the racing team. Bahrain, Melbourne, Monza, São Paulo: in 2006, Walch and his staff were at 16 out of a total of 18 Formula 1 races worldwide. This is both a culinary and a logistical challenge.
 

 
Joschi Walch has a job that would be envied by many motor-sport fans; in the Formula 1 paddock opposite a seemingly endless line of gigantic trucks, is the BMW Sauber F1-Team’s motor-home. Up to 80 people can be served at tables and at the long bar in the glamorous, two-storey hospitality area; what is more, 20 team members work here. Guests hardly notice that they are in a restaurant that is re-assembled at every race meeting out of three trucks put together; in the fourth truck is the fully equipped kitchen. Only racing drivers, team members and selected guests are allowed in; the area is not open to the public. The smartly furnished restaurant is a temporary home from home for the racing team. On race days, the team can come and eat here round the clock – or simply unwind for a few moments. Bahrain, Malaysia, Australia, Italy, China, Japan and Brazil were among the Formula 1 venues in 2006. For the BMW team officialcaterer, who owns the ‘Rote Wand’ Hotel in Lech by the Arlberg, this means that from March until October he travels the world. “With the exception of the races in Indianapolis and Istanbul, we went to 16 of the total 18 races this year,” says Walch. The team comprises just under 90 people altogether and the caterer is present at the racetrack for each event with up to 15 staff. Head chef, Peter Denk is always one of the team; in the winter season he cooks in the Hotel ‘Rote Wand’ by the Arlberg. This congenial Austrian’s cooking skills have already been recognised with the award of two ‘toques’. It is not only for the sporting aspects of Formula 1 that the bar is raised to a high level. “We have to produce cooking of the highest standard in the smallest of spaces,” says Walch, explaining the particular demands made on team-catering. “Almost every two weeks we’re in a different place. But, we always have to offer the same quality.” At the same time, it is essential to take account of quite different customer requirements. “The mechanics are, for the most part, very hungry and want decent-sized portions; the racing drivers, on the other hand, tend to eat lighter food. And the team guests make the same sort of demands on us as they would on a restaurant with Gault Millau toques to its name.”
 

 
Walch and his team meet these challenges in a professional manner and with great creativity. “There is one limited menu available for all guests. We prepare everything fresh.” Anyone who has glimpsed behind the automatic door, which separates the restaurant area from the kitchen, will confidently call this a sporting achievement. The empire of head chef Denk and his two staff measures some 6 by 2 sq m. Space and surfaces are extremely limited. It takes special talents to prepare, in a kitchen truck, dishes like saddle of lamb on a bed of artichokes with tomato and basil sauce and paprika polenta, or gilthead seabream royal with truffle sauce on vegetable rice, and to present them attractively on the plate. Especially, when it is very busy in the restaurant,which is invariably the case on Saturdays and Sundays. On both these main Grand Prix days the restaurant serves up to 160 guests at lunchtime and some 100 people in the evening. “If the sponsors are there as well, numbers can quickly rise to 150 guests.” Then skill and perfect organisation are all important.
 

 
| 24 April 2007 |