Peninsula Foodnews: Special Events Coordination, Concours d'Elegance Pebble Beach

By Brian Isaeff, Editor PFN

Although preparations begin a year in advance,

US Foodservice Trucks Set Up At The Chalet Tent At The Pebble Beach Concours

the actual physical set up for an event like the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours is limited to a couple weeks before the actual event. Parking lots and horse property become complete kitchens, banquet facilities, and amphitheaters. Portions of the preparations are delayed as other events take place. For instance the area used for Centralized purchasing located near the Equestrian Center could not be set up until after the Horse Show ended one week before Concours.

Trailers are set in place, steps built, tents erected, and

Parc du Concours Kitchen At The 57th Annual Pebble Beach Concours

Commercial kitchens complete with fryers, stoves, ovens, refers, and diswashers appear and are stocked up.

As a food distributor it is crucial to be prepared with usage forcasts at least 6 weeks before a large event in order to bring par levels up on products. Not only is it important to have enough product for special events, but also to cover the week to week customers that use certain products. Constant communication between customer, sales consultant, and distributor purchasing agents make large events run smooth. Nothing is worse than having an items like, for instance a 6-in-1 coarse ground tomato in puree that the distributor sells 14 cases per week on a regular basis. The special event orders 60 cases, the 49 in stock are shipped, shorting the event 11 cases, and eliminating all stock for the regular customers..with a three week gap before more product can be brought into stock! (This is what we call a lose-lose-lose situation)

Having an onsite distributor representative during the event eliminates much stress for the customer.

Executive Chef Rod Uncango With His FedEx'd Alaskan King Crab

Having made that statement, let me qualify it by saying that during the recent events I have been at I have witnessed distributors who are onsite in order to get tickets and perks that only succeed in irritating and further

confusing busy customers. What the onsite person needs to do is assist the customer with last minute requests, runs on products that exhaust back stock, and extra attention to delivery

instructions.

Bruce Raymond And Owen Appelt At The Lodge At Pebble Beach And Some Face Time With Executive Chef Benjamin Brown At The Beach Club

At this most recent event I was able to find 4 Alaskan King Crabs (they were running around in Alaska on Monday and were on the buffet table on Thursday), 900 slider burgers from Colorado, sliced green olives from Musco Olive Company in Tracy CA (Thank You Too Steve and Jean Tarbell For Going Above And Beyond!), Il D France Brie (from Livermore), and a Smokeroma pressure smoker from the other Bay

Area. In the past District Manager Bruce Raymond was spotted sliding under the rolling doors of various Costco

Bruce Raymond And Rommel Esteybar During "Breakdown" After The Concours

warehouses in order to deplete their hoagie buns to get event cash concessions started for a new day of sales.

Rommel Esteybar, Special Events Coordinator at Pebble Beach has a large staff of people to keep his events running smoothly.

Rommel Esteybar On The Grill With A Line Up Of Admirers

In order to keep them moving he often has to jump on the food line himself to get them fed.

His reputation for feeding his people well has spread and now at every event folks storm

Pat Bohan, Linda Falling, and Dina Selak Lend Their Support To Rommel

his tent from various departments to sample his fare.

Although not new to the Purchasing department, but a new recruit for the Commissary Kitchen,

Adrian's sirloin steak breakfast burritos were a huge hit!

After all is said and done, there is clean-up. All hands are on deck to wrap up, clean up, and close down the event.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures from the Concours and Historic Races Below.