Life Tastes Good in Paddock Club™

1 October 2009

'Life Tastes Good' in Paddock Club™' gives you a behind-the-scenes tour of the organisation behind Formula One's VIP global catering and dips into the world of LG kitchen appliances and the LG hosted 'Life Tastes Good' competition. While the F1 Paddock Club™ chefs are experienced professionals, the LG ‘Life Tastes Good Championship’ offers amateurs the chance to shine and prove that, with the help of LG’s home appliances, non-professional cooks can produce cordon bleu cuisine. Held on five continents, 15 final teams from 12 countries are currently battling it out to discover who will become the the best home chef in the world. The competition final will be held in Bangkok in November, just as the FIA Formula One World Championship™ is decided in Abu Dhabi.

It is some trick to hold a champagne flute and cover your ears at the same time. This I discovered while in Paddock Club™ - the Formula One group’s VIP hospitality area - which sits directly over the pit lane. The Paddock Club™ travels around the world to all 15 Grand Prix™ venues, feeding and entertaining tens of thousands of guests while on the track below the world’s best drivers do battle. We’re at the Nürburgring in Germany and Fernando Alonso has just sped away from a practice pitstop. I’m not alone – there are hundreds of us hunched over the guardrail up here in the open-plan suite.

It was here that I met Isabelle Kaufmann, head of the Paddock Club™. Isabelle oversees everything. While observing all that’s happening on-site and being in touch with every manager by radio, she’ll also be on the phone to the promoter of an upcoming race to ensure every detail is covered there too. She reports directly to Allsport Management’s CEO Paddy McNally – an astute businessman who is also in charge of the sport’s trackside advertising.

There are some 70 chefs working in the Paddock Club™ here in Germany, in a space of about 100 square metres. With shiny steel and aluminium benches and industrial appliances filling much of the volume, this canvas-roofed space is busy. Add to this the heat which is inevitably generated by ovens and hobs, and the result is a working environment which would make the uninitiated wilt well before the 14-hour day is complete.

Most of the catering staff in here are Swiss or Austrian, but staff are flown in from all over Europe. They appear quieter and more polite than the aggressive characters you might find in a TV kitchen and it all seems to be running like clockwork today.

In fact the Paddock Club™ is a 24-hour operation. It starts at around 5am when the chefs arrive to prepare breakfast. Baking fresh bread in the quantities demanded by this number of guests - often over 2,000 - requires an early start. But it’s worth it as the croissants and pain au chocolat prepared by pastry chef de partie Olivier Csapo are every bit as good as those you would find at La Durée, the legendary Parisian patisserie. Early birds will also be greeted by the wafting smell of frying bacon, as the Paddock Club™ serves a great bacon sandwich for its elite clientele.

The focus of culinary activity each day, however, is lunch. As well as the main dining area, there are up to ten private suites for teams and sponsors. Some elect for a buffet, others a silver service. The menu remains the same, but the presentation can be adapted to suit.

The Paddock Club™ is more than just an area of culinary enjoyment. Isabelle and I were having our conversation in the Paddock Club™ garden area. This is a communal area where VIP pass-holders – most of whom are corporate sponsors - can network, relax with a drink, watch the action on dozens of LG flat-screens that paper the walls, and have a breathtaking view of the start-finish straight. Or alternatively focus on the movements of the paddock below where the teams are at work. There’s even an area within the Paddock Club™ devoted to LG’s other products. Walking in, one is greeted by the unusual sight at a race track of a state-of-the-art LG washing machine, and I can assure you as you learn about the style and sophistication of the machines you quickly realize that they are really not out of place in this premium environment.

“Mr. McNally launched the Paddock Club™ at the 1984 French Grand Prix™ and back then he was very hands-on. He organized everything. I think he may have stirred the pasta himself,” jokes Isabelle. “Now it’s a real platform for business.”

Indeed, while the mood in the Paddock Club™ is relaxed – there is even a mini-spa – the fact is that many guests are here for more than sport and spectacle. There are deals to be done. A lot of the guests are corporate VIP’s who are wined and dined to investigate business opportunities.

Back in the old days the height of paddock gastronomic sophistication was a burger van and a battered tea urn. Now you get fois gras and five-star service. A dedication to quality is one of the things which brings sponsors and their guests to Formula One™ and the Paddock Club™, and the format works because by entertaining clients at the race the sponsors can grow their own business and their brands.

Away from the main salle and partner dining rooms, teams have suites decorated in their own corporate image, not dissimilar to the garages that sit a floor below. Goody-bags sit in a corner, full of Formula One™ mementos. The drivers themselves make daily trips up here, to speak with guests and answer questions. “They have been known to down a dessert at the same time,” confides Isabelle. “They’re not really meant to. They are on very strict diets, but if their physio is looking away… an extra crème brûlée probably wouldn’t have caused much concern 20 years ago, but now they take these things very seriously.”

Paddock Club™ and LG Products After learning much about the Paddock Club™ from Isabelle, I turned my attention to finding the similarities between this premium culinary and hospitality environment to the premium appliances that LG had set-up in its display in the Paddock Club™ garden area. I quickly discovered that the similarities are numerous.

LG also has a long history, in fact close to 50 years, and its brand has evolved just as dramatically as the Formula One Paddock Club™ has over that time. Originally marketing its Goldstar brand in many countries, it re-launched its brand as ‘LG’ with a whole new level of premium products where the utmost quality levels became the focus. From what I learned in my visit to the LG product display in the Paddock Club™, these products are definitely the ‘F1™’ in their class.

To serve the premium clients of the FIA Formula One World Championship™ around the world the Paddock Club™ staff must adapt to each venue, catering for local attitudes and palettes just as the cars are set-up for individual race tracks. LG does this a similar thing as the design and attributes of LG’s home appliances are changed to suit the needs and preferences of individual markets.

Quality is always consistent, but the kitchen will often devise its menu around the location, the preferences of international guests, and the produce available. “Every country has its own trends and customs that we try to acknowledge and incorporate where we can,” explains Isabelle Kaufmann . For example, we will often serve dishes or accompaniments unique to that country. I always look forward to Silverstone because in Britain everyone loves lamb, and we’ll serve it with mint sauce. In Japan people prefer beef, but in the UK lamb makes perfect sense.”

It is interesting how the most normal, traditional thing to one culture can seem incomprehensible to another. Andrew Barrett, LG’s Vice President of Marketing and Global Sponsorship, has encountered this before. “Let me tell you about the microwave toaster,” he beams. “In Asian environments where you have very small apartments, to have a microwave with a toaster built on the side is very appealing because it enables the owner to save valuable counter space. But if you were to try and introduce this product to another market people would think you were absolutely mad!”

For the Paddock Club™ there is also etiquette, protocol and other codes to consider. We always try to respect religious customs,” continues Isabelle. “For example, in Malaysia we would not serve Crêpe Suzette because alcohol is an ingredient. They may take alcohol, but we cannot assume they will. Similarly, in Bahrain they may want wine on their table, or not. We have to ask in advance. We need to talk to the promoters to understand all of these things.”

Understanding the local market is key to almost any enterprise – food and hospitality are no different. And neither are home appliances. The way Formula One™ approaches its hospitality operation is similar to the way LG designs its fridges.

Andrew Barrett is the man in charge of LG’s Global Partnership with Formula One™. “This year, at the Bahrain Grand Prix™, I went on a tour with our appliance sales force and I noticed that many of the fridges we were selling there had a lock on the door. I had never seen anything like this before. They explained to me that children in the Middle East don’t necessarily have the best eating habits, and left to their own devices they will go into the fridge and help themselves to chocolate, pop and other sugary things. So parents will actually lock their fridges up like a safe.”

“In America people like to drink their beverages with a lot of ice,” Andrew Barrett reliably informs me. “Therefore, in America our refrigerators have large ice makers that dispense ice from the door without having to open the refrigerator doors.”

In India, LG took its global refrigerator platform and redesigned the inside to give predominantly vegetarian based consumers more vegetable storage crispers then you would find in an LG refrigerator in the United Kingdom.

Andrew explained to me the other synergies LG products have with Formula One™. Many are the heating, cooling and power technologies that drive a Formula One™ car just as they do, say a washing machine or oven. But what might not be as obvious is the need for Formula One™ to understand local customs in order to get the most out of its business, and also the way that appliances are essential to feeding its crews and guests and keeping the place clean.

Paddock Club™ and LG “Life Tastes Good Championship” LG’s parallels to the Paddock Club™ go beyond just similarities in the LG products - it also has similarities to a global LG cooking competition. The Paddock Club™ travels around the world to Grand Prix™ venues, feeding and entertaining tens of thousands of guests while on the track below the world’s best drivers do battle.

In LG’s ‘Life Tastes Good’ championship amateur chefs from 12 different countries converge into a kitchen environment to compete for global accolades. “It’s similar to a Formula One™ race where all the competitors converge in one place with the single aim - to win. And each place where Formula One™ races, and where LG’s competition visits, can be very different culturally,” explains, Mr. Dan Koh, Vice President, Marketing Strategy Team , Home Appliance Company, LG Electronics.

While the Paddock Club™ chefs are experienced professionals, the LG ‘Life Tastes Good Championship’ offers amateurs the chance to shine and prove that with the help of LG’s home appliances, non-professional cooks can produce cordon bleu cuisine. Held on five continents, about 15 final teams from 12 countries battle it out to discover the best home chef in the world. The competition final will be held in Bangkok in November, just as the FIA Formula One World Championship™ is decided in Abu Dhabi.

There are some 40 Paddock Club™ hostesses swooping around the tables right now, serving canapés and champagne. They are multilingual, speaking English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. In addition, when traveling outside Europe, hostesses with local language skills may be drafted in.

And it’s the same in the kitchen; outside the traditional European venues specialist chefs will be hired. “In exotic places it’s important,” advises Isabelle. “If you want a local Turkish dish you need an experienced local chef to do it.”

And while Paddock Club™ guests will have over 400 courses to choose from across the whole season, LG appliances will whip up a staggering 700 different courses throughout the ‘Life Tastes Good’ competition. Mind you, both kitchens – LG and the Paddock Club™ – are responsible for some truly fantastic world cuisine.

“We want to use the ‘Life Tastes Good’ championship to project that we are a global company, but also that our products are customized for local markets and able to produce world cuisine,” says Dan Koh, noting how Formula One™ also adapts itself to different regions.

Formula One Paddock Club™ and LG’s Distribution System I also learned a lot about the logistics of the Paddock Club™ to find similarities with LG’s product distribution system.

Far from being the work of a single weekend, each Paddock Club™ takes three weeks to set-up and this is repeated at all of the races this season. Allsport Management, which owns and runs the operation, employ different contractors for different tasks – rigging and construction; power; lighting; catering; cleaning; security; and hospitality. There are three different sets of interiors and furniture, so there are always three Paddock Clubs™ moving around the world at one time. Transporting the gear is similar to the way the teams send their kit. In Europe, truck drivers will travel tens of thousands of kms per season. For the long haul destinations, teams dispatch 30 tonnes of equipment, as will the Paddock Club™.

The Paddock Club™ tends to bring its own food, simply because the quantities it needs are massive. Also it’s true that bulk buying from a single source and then flying food can work out less expensive than using different suppliers for different races. “In somewhere like Spain, though, we might take vegetables, but we’d send a catering manager in advance to test quality and availability,” says Isabelle. “Meat is complicated. In the past they’ve been to Uruguay to order meat. We’ll take produce from the best source – lobster from Canada, salmon from Scotland or Norway. But we must also consider budgets, for we have margins.

The way Formula One™ logistics work is different to how LG ships its products. Mobile phones are small and lightweight and can be flown cheaply, whereas most of the gear an F1™ team or the Paddock Club™ needs is big and comparatively heavy – even if it is made from carbon fibre. Refrigerators, on the other hand, are heavy and have a lot of volume. They are therefore rather expensive and cumbersome to transport. This is why, unlike the mobile phone division, the LG home appliances division have factories all over the world making fridges and microwaves, particularly in large markets like China, India and Russia. Formula One™ teams have just one factory, so this is a luxury they don’t have.

After serving afternoon tea at track, the Paddock Club™ chefs are able to leave the track. But there’s no sense of winding down. Cleaners come in to do the dishes, sort the laundry; they’ll even change the carpet if necessary. Laundry is sent out to local services that can cope with the quantity. Then it all starts up the next day for race day, and this goes on again and again around the world.

It’s true, back in the olden days – when drivers raced without seatbelts and regularly smoked cigars in the pits – little thought was given to nutrition. Gilles Villeneuve was fuelled by burgers and milk shakes. You could argue Ligier came up with the Paddock Club™ concept – each lunchtime lasted a couple of hours as the French team’s drivers washed Beef Bourguignon down with vintage claret. And one year in the Targa Florio, I recall, Tazio Nouvalari drove through a butcher’s shop window. He pushed his car back through the rubble and broken glass and continued the race. But not before he’d helped himself to a giant ham!

Motor racing has changed and drivers are forced to adhere to strict regimes. I sense the drivers look up to the Paddock Club™ from their motorhomes, salivating uncontrollably. So no wonder the occasional cake goes missing. And as the drivers learn more about LG products’ the people from LG better keep their eyes on their products or they just might go missing as well.

IN NUMBERS FORMULA ONE PADDOCK CLUB™:
Guests: tens of thousands over the season
Chefs: 70-180
Waiting staff: 40
Glasses: 275,000 (across three Paddock Club™ kits)
Plates: 350,000 (across three Paddock Club™ kits)
Cutlery: 400,000 (across three Paddock Club™ kits)
Champagne: 5,500 magnums per season
Red wine: 10,000 bottles per season
White wine: 12,500 bottles per season
Lobsters: 30,000 per season
Prawns: 100,000 per season
Smoked salmon: 2,000kg per season
Fresh fish: 23,000kg per season
Prime beef and spring lamb: 25,000kg per season
Vegetables: 60,000 tons per season
Potatoes: 30,000 tons per season
Fruit: 15,000 tons per season
Fresh strawberries: 150,000 per season
Chocolate: 3,500kg per season
Fresh cream: 8,000 litres per season
Ice cream balls: 80,000 per season
Croissants and pain au chocolate: 75,000 per season
Ice cubes: 130,000kg per season

LG Life Tastes Good Championship
Guests: 3,000
Chefs: 30
Glasses: 6,000
Plates: 20,000
Cutlery: 50,000

Journalist biography: Adam Hay-Nicholls joined the F1 circus in 2005 as a founder and senior writer of The Red Bulletin - an irreverent and innovative magazine that was printed at the race track four times every grand prix weekend, and which achieved cult status. An insider privy to behind-the-scenes happenings and a regular guest at the drivers’ poker table, in 2009 he is the F1 correspondent for Metro UK and Metro International – the world’s largest circulation newspaper. This year he’s written two official books about the sport - F1: The Definitive Visual Guide (Dorling Kindersley), and F1: Fuel-Injected Fact Book (Ladybird).