Special Skills
Beyond being a "marvelous chef," Hanna credits his success to the fact
that he enjoys eating and cooking food, is very clean, and takes great
pride in his presentation of food. Catering people must be very service-
oriented. "My day is always changing: `Set up here, be ready at this time;
no, we have to move, now you have to be ready at this time; now you
need to do a dinner, or we have an extra 100 people to feed.' It's always
changing. You have to take that well. I'm a very take-charge guy and I
like to coordinate. I'm very good with my client, very local."
Expanded Job Description
On a shooting day, Joe Hanna typically begins work around 3 A.M.
for a 6 A.M. call time. "I have to be ready to feed 175 people breakfast at
6 A.M. Breakfast is usually a walking meal. They come up to the truck
where I'm cooking a made-to-order breakfast." Crew members may order
items off of a menu like omelets, burritos, pancakes, French toast,
rancheros, eggs, steak, bacon, and so forth. While Hanna cooks up their
requests, the crew helps themselves to coffee, juice, and other beverages
from the truck. Hanna will have already set up a buffet table filled with
an array of fresh baked muffins, pastries, croissants, bagels, Danish, fruits
("whatever is fresh at the time in that region"), hot and cold cereals,
smoked fish, and other items. He must have everything organized so that
the crew can finish eating and be ready for shooting to begin by 7 A.M.
Lunch is served six hours after shooting begins, with the transporta-
tion department eating one half hour earlier. "Lunch is a magnificent
spread. It's about 30 feet of fresh salad bars, fruits, grains, and breads.
Then you have your entrees each day, whether it is a barbecued filet
mignon or a grilled lamb chop. You have a seafood item every day that is
generally regional. Then you have a poultry item each day, which can be
anything from free-range turkeys to chicken breast prepared any way you
like it. Then you have baked potato bars, rice; and pasta bars are very
common. And light and healthy desserts, and some real fattening ones
too." Catering must be very organized so that everyone can be fed and
get back to work in one hour.
Many times the catering truck will have to move location during the
day. "It is extremely vigorous work. Half of my day is just making sure
everything is clean and handled properly and stored at the right tempera-
ture: hot food served hot and cold food served crisp and cold. You may
have a whole kitchen to move once a day, serving 175 people. That means
you're setting up everything from tables and chairs, beverage stations,
buffets; sometimes you're setting up an outside kitchen for barbecue and
saute stations, sundae bars, pasta bars, and so forth."
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