Colts Cooks – the Best in Corps
What’s a cook’s typical daily schedule?
Wake – Two hours before breakfast. Usually 6 to 6:30 a.m. The corps is up around 8 a.m. and has 45 minutes to eat. Cook (or finish cooking) breakfast and begin lunch.
After breakfast – The corps members are out on the field for morning rehearsal. Finish lunch. Depending upon the menu, we get a head start on dinner. Complete grocery runs, re-supply the cook trailer, and clean up.
Around noon – Serve lunch. Members have 45 minutes to eat.
After lunch – More clean up. Members head back to the field. Cooks, usually one at a time, may get a shower.
Dinner – On a rehearsal day, dinner is around 5:30. The corps rehearses again in the evening. Following rehearsal, there’s snack (more like a fourth meal, actually) and the corps members head off to bed. When there’s no travel, we sleep at the same location where we had the rehearsal. The cooks turn in following final clean up and any pre-breakfast preparations that are necessary. On a show day, the corps may eat dinner at the rehearsal site or the show site, depending upon our position in the lineup. We typically serve snack following the performance or retreat. On performance nights, we leave that site and travel to the next one while sleeping.
What is the kitchen like?
We have a semi trailer outfitted as a commercial kitchen on wheels. This includes a walk-in freezer and refrigerator (a Thermo-King unit on the front of the trailer powers them). For cooking, we have burners, a griddle, and convection ovens; those are powered by propane gas. There are also restaurant- size sinks with a propane-powered water heater.
Double “moving van” doors on one side of the trailer open to create a serving area. Next to the serving area are spigots where we serve cooled beverages. We have the tanks in the refrigerator portion and mix and fill everything from the truck.
We store most supplies in the trailer; however, we have some additional storage space in the equipment truck. The electricity and water supply come from the schools that house us. We use an in-line filter system on the water line. We also have a back-up generator and small water supply for needs at shows.
It’s pretty cool, really.
What kinds of foods are served and how much preparation is required?
We serve very few prepared entrees due to the cost and sometimes poor quality. Our menu is varied to meet the likes of all different kinds of appetites. Once you’re on tour you’ll find that everything we serve is someone’s favorite.
A lot of our meats are frozen with many of them pre-cooked to cut our overall preparation time. We do a lot of baking, prepared fresh from box mixes. Fruits and vegetables are a combination of canned items and fresh items. Desserts and salads are typically made fresh. We have sandwiches on occasion, but they do not dominate our menus as they do other corps.
Breakfast includes cereal and oatmeal every morning along with some type of hot item. Our overall goals – serve it fast (under 45 minutes), fill them up, and have them enjoy the meal. We want to make sure we cover basic nutrition, and – every once in a while – surprise them! (Ask someone about (virgin) Margarita Day in 2003 or German-Polka Day in 2004. Or the water gun shootout in 2005)
What about dishwashing, cleaning, and trash?
There is a lot of clean up. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of time washing and drying dishes. Plates, cups, bowls, napkins, forks, knives, and spoons are disposable. Most everything we cook with is not. We limit the amount of trash we generate as much as possible, but we fill a lot of trash bags. Garbage is left at our housing sites. The food trailer must be kept clean for sanitary reasons.
Are menus prepared in advance? If not, who decides what will be served?
There is a head cook on the food trailer at all times. This is the person responsible for determining each day’s menu. Approximately every two weeks, we receive a large “food drop” from our bulk food supplier. We supplement these new items (plus whatever we have left from previous drops) with fresh grocery items, in particular, bread and milk. Sometimes we get a big delivery of fresh fruit. Sometimes we get donations from parents. Common items donated: cookies. If you’re going to bring cookies, plan to bring at least 320 – two for everyone.
The goal is to serve corps members 4,000 calories a day. When leftovers get the best of us, we hold what we call a “must go night” where we serve all leftovers in an all-you-can eat-buffet style for snack. Anything the members do not eat is pitched at the end of the night. These are favorite snack nights for corps members.
What happens if someone gets sick or injured?
There is a cabinet near the cooktruck door that holds medical supplies. You can give corps members anything out of that cabinet that they say it’s OK for them to take. It mostly holds analgesics (like Tylenol, Advil, or generic equivalents), sunburn treatments, pressure wraps for sprains, over-the-counter cold medicines, bug bite sprays, etc. There should be an aluminum pan in the freezer with ice bags for ice packs. Please make new ones if the supply is running low. Ice bags are always in demand.
For something more serious, find the head cook who has a medical form for each Colt on tour. Staff decides when someone needs to see a doctor. Members (and volunteers) are taken for medical attention when it is called for. Medical forms must go with members who are taken to see a doctor.
