In Stockholm, it was the cookies — the black sesame, wasabi and white chocolate, or possibly the gluten-free coconut almond darkish chocolate — that signaled to Beyoncé’s dancers, crew and roadies that Grant Hen was again.

Mr. Hen is an English pastry chef and one among 14 culinary professionals on Beyoncé’s present Renaissance World Tour, which has additionally employed a vegan chef and three private cooks only for Queen B and her interior circle.

After getting Covid throughout rehearsals in Paris, Mr. Hen needed to take a weeklong break, leaving the dessert duties for the 400 to 600 crew members to 2 substitute cooks. By then, the crew had gotten used to his lavish desserts, which regularly featured a dozen totally different choices at each lunch and dinner. A pared-down sweets menu spoke to his absence.

So when the crew as soon as once more noticed his signature unfold of a whole lot of cookies in a number of varieties, they knew he had returned. “That was lunch, and the entire eating room applauded,” stated Mr. Hen, who has additionally cooked for Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber and Mötley Crüe. “They only thought, ‘He’s received to be again. As a result of they simply knew from the type.’”

Sure, Beyoncé is without doubt one of the world’s greatest stars, however touring with a cadre of cooks isn’t only a flex. Many touring artists now take a number of skilled cooks, to not point out complete cell kitchens, on the highway with them for effectivity, well being and morale.

Whereas idiosyncrasies like Van Halen’s ban on brown M&Ms have turn out to be acquainted lore, the suspension of concert events in the course of the Covid years has prompted an industrywide reset, with a deal with wellness. Many excursions now embrace a vegan chef, for example, and place a precedence on bodily and psychological well-being in addition to lessening environmental affect.

“Earlier than, again within the early ’80s and ’90s, it was extra of a celebration — cocaine and no matter they wished. And now it’s only a enterprise,” stated Grey Rollin, Linkin Park’s longtime chef, who has additionally cooked on excursions for Prince, Madonna and Tori Amos. “We’ve got one job to do, and that job is to place that expertise onstage. Be sure that the present goes flawlessly. After which do it once more the subsequent day.”

Joking concerning the 2014 tour by Linkin Park and Thirty Seconds to Mars, he added, “It was referred to as the Carnivores Tour, however 14 of the 16 guys we cooked for have been vegan.”

James Digby, a veteran tour supervisor who had simply completed working the European leg of Avril Lavigne’s tour, is accustomed to such calls for.

“You can not get a nonvegetarian meal in catering on a Paul McCartney tour. That’s a problem. As a result of most roadies I do know are carnivores,” Mr. Digby stated. “If the artist is attempting to vary the world, one tour at a time, by saying all people’s a vegetarian, my job is to echo that.”

Whatever the delicacies, the manufacturing calls for are vital. The business normal for a large tour requires 4 meals on setup and present days: breakfast, lunch, dinner and an after-concert meal, typically eaten on a bus.

“A military marches on its abdomen, so that you’ve received to feed the troops,” Mr. Digby stated. By troops, he meant the band, the backup singers and dancers, stage builders, the pyrotechnics crew, safety guards, managers, bus drivers and all the opposite folks concerned within the high-stakes enterprise of reside leisure.

At a latest Lizzo present at Acrisure Area in Palm Desert, Calif., lunch featured a juicing station with a blender-ready basket of greens. There have been corn canine, fried rooster sandwiches and plant-based Inconceivable sliders, in addition to couscous, squash, carrots and cookies.

It was all ready within the area’s kitchen. Usually, although, Latitude 45, the corporate accountable for culinary operations for the vegan artist’s Particular tour, cooks in an elaborate cell kitchen that packs into specialised flight instances and is reassembled in every new metropolis.

The custom-built kitchens, together with cupboards, cabinets, ovens and workstations have been constructed to maximise house and effectivity, and supply an elusive sense of “sameness” on the highway, stated Chris Mitchell, the corporate’s proprietor.

“Every little thing has a spot, and it goes again to that very same place each single day,” he stated. “If someone within the kitchen wants a chrome steel bowl — and with out trying more often than not — they’ll simply level and say, “Would you please give me the third bowl in that stack over there?’”

HSG Catering, the Chicago-based firm at present engaged on the Eric Church tour, makes use of a 53-foot cell kitchencontaining a walk-in freezer, a walk-in cooler and an 80-gallon water heater. The unit can also be geared up with a meat smoker, a wood-fired grill, convection ovens and a machine that may “sous vide 300 steaks directly,” stated Bob Schneeberger, HSG’s president.

Whereas the cooks generally accompany artists on non-public jets or in armored automobiles, with police escorts, cooking and baking on the highway can even put them in generator-powered makeshift kitchens in fields or parking heaps.

Mr. Mitchell says the job requires a selected kind of one who enjoys troubleshooting and being continually on the transfer, and who can endure sleeping on tour buses for months at a time. The circumstances domesticate a fraternity of kinds — many cooks proudly put on T-shirts from earlier excursions.

There’s additionally a royal-food-tester side to the gig.

“One case of meals poisoning, and also you’re canceling reveals for at the least 48 hours,” Mr. Digby stated. As reveals turn out to be larger spectacles and ticket costs soar ever greater, an incident like that may put tens of millions of {dollars} in danger.

One factor that won’t have modified a lot over time is the pickiness of the artists, who actually have their idiosyncratic likes and dislikes.

“Gene Simmons used to love a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and pickles on the facet,” stated Mr. Rollin, who cooked for the Kiss bassist in 2008 and 2009. “However then he would by no means contact the lettuce, pickles and tomatoes, ever.” Jared Leto would need natural purple popcorn with each meal.

Journey can even make the specified meals exhausting to come back by. Within the Nineties, Marilyn Manson insisted on Kraft Mac & Cheese, so containers have been shipped to England, Mr. Digby stated. “Guess what? Kraft manufactures a unique number of Kraft macaroni and cheese for English customers.”

Mr. Hen, who cooked for the Okay-pop group Blackpink in Chicago final summer time, stated the band introduced a separate truck simply to move its favored manufacturers of on the spot ramen noodles. Like another caterers who’ve labored Okay-pop excursions, Mr. Hen was impressed with the emphasis placed on the culinary operations, which at all times included a Korean buffet. “They’ve so many alternative meals stations and stuff. I’ve by no means seen that earlier than,” he stated.

As for Beyoncé, Mr. Hen despatched fruit platters and cookies to her dressing room. And whereas he couldn’t say for certain what the pop star’s favorites are, he did word: “So far as I’m conscious, those which might be significantly eaten are the Reese’s cups cookies” — a specialty of Mr. Hen’s which have a vanilla base with Belgian milk chocolate and bits of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups folded all through.

Along with having his confections in excessive demand, Mr. Hen was touched to see his title within the on-line credit for the Renaissance tour.

“On the finish of the present, they usually give recognition to the lighting, the staging and other people rather a lot nearer to them,” stated Mr. Hen, who’s at present touring with the nation singer Sam Hunt. “However they by no means point out that they journey with us catering.”

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