No clowning around for circus chef
SHOWTIME | Feeding giant Ringling Bros. family no small task
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
Here is a partial grocery list for Michael Vaughn that covers one week's worth of meals:
36 pounds of salted butter
80 pounds of ground beef
30 pounds of sliced roast beef
25 pounds of flour
40 pounds of elbow pasta
3 cases of sliced ham
120 pounds of granulated sugar
10 pounds of green leaf lettuce
50 cases of Mountain Dew
Dave Hoekstra
The 300 people who travel with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus say they live in a city without a ZIP code.
Michael Vaughn makes sure the goods are signed, sealed and delivered.
He runs the local diner for the circus Blue Unit (there is another traveling Red Unit). It is called the Pie Car, an 18- foot-long club car that rides the rails along with the troupe. The Pie Car detaches from the milelong train and is transported to the circus site.
Spinning plates are no circus trick for Vaughn, 39.
"We have to be prepared to feed all of them at all times," he said before a morning show at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, where the circus resides through Sunday. (The circus shifts to the United Center Nov. 18-30.)
Vaughn also manages a dining car on the 61-car train. When the circus moves between cities, the dining car train is open 24 hours. It has a bigger kitchen than the Pie Car, which is only 9 feet wide. Only in the offbeat circus world would you find a pie car that does not serve pie.
"Years ago, the clowns used to cook pies and sell them to the public," he said. "We can't get away from using that name. People on the show tease us, 'You don't have any pies on the pie car.' Some relate it to when clowns 'pie' people. But that's not the real story."
Challenges of diversity on the Pie Car are similar to running a diner in Manhattan. There are at least 10 ethnic groups in the circus troupe.
"Russians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Latinos being from Brazil and Mexico," Vaughn counted off. "We have Chinese people as well."
The performers, technicians and support staff generally agree on a common meal. Macadamia-crusted mahi-mahi with pineapple and ginger can be served to everyone.
Vaughn, who supervises a five-person staff, stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 350 pounds. This is why the residents of circus city call him "chef, food director and international mediator, all rolled into one." He also manages the Blue Unit nursery, consisting of 14 kids between the ages of 6 months and 6 years.
Eating onsite is not mandatory for the troupe. "We're responsible to feed them if they choose to eat here," he said. "But they do venture out. I go out with my staff. I ike everything about Avec [615 W. Randolph] in Chicago. I love Naha [500 N. Clark]."
The strangest request Vaughn has had in 15 years as Pie Car Manager sounds like a comedy act: mayonnaise and chili.
"I don't know where that comes from," Vaughn said. "Somebody would get a cup of chili and squeeze mayonnaise into it. It was very interesting. That's the word I would use. But I didn't sample it."
Vaughn has sampled the circus's 7-Up Cake made with butter, flour and ?253-222? cup of 7-Up.
"It's a pound cake but not as dry," he said. "I cook that periodically, but for the amount of people we serve we don't cook that on a big scale. Its something we have on the train on a dark day [when there are no shows]."
What about Mountain Dew Cake?
Vaughn smiled and said, "I'll tell ya, they all love Mountain Dew here. You can't keep enough of it. It would possibly work."
Vaughn joined Ringling Bros. in classic fashion. He ran away when the circus came to his town of Baton Rouge, La., in 1993. He was hired as a temporary chef.
"They kept asking me to come on the road, but I wasn't sure," he said. "I ended up going on a trial period and I've been here since."
Vaughn is now on the road 48 weeks a year. He is married to Danette, a Ringling Bros. circus vocalist who travels with him. They have 2-year-old daughter.
Vaughn's grandmother was a chef at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. She also was a personal chef for late actor Anthony Quinn. His grandfather cooked on ships for the Seafarers Union.
"I learned from my grandparents," he said. "I did not attend culinary arts schools."
Main circus purveyors are Sysco and U.S. Foodservice, but during off days Vaughn likes to peruse local farmers markets and buy ingredients from regional vendors.
"When we're in Seattle we try to go to Pike Place Market," he said. "In Chicago one of the Polish guys in the show takes me to this market to get Polish sausage. We try to make the food as personable as possible because people are working very hard all day every day."
There's no clowning around in Vaughn's circus kitchen.