Taste: My Life through Food(37)
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When an actor arrives on set in the morning, which can sometimes be between four thirty and seven o’clock, depending on the complexity of the makeup, wardrobe, or scene to be shot that day, a hot breakfast will be ready. The first people on set are the assistant directors, the runners, wardrobe, and hair and makeup. They will have already eaten or will be in the middle of their breakfast when the actor arrives. On a big-budget film, breakfast will be laid out on tables underneath a huge marquee. There will be steam trays of pre-fried eggs; scrambled eggs; pork, turkey, or vegetarian sausages; bacon; hash browns; platters of smoked salmon; fruit; industrial toasters for toasting bagels; white bread; butter; jam; honey; yogurt; fruit juices; and urns of coffee and tea. If the budget is substantial and the producer appreciates their crew and how hard they work, there will also be an omelet station and then some. These are the kind of producers who also always employ a great craft service caterer who provides a table of savory and sweet treats, and/or a truck making little sandwiches, smoothies, espresso, etc. to keep people well sated during potentially fifteen-hour days. Again, this is only on very large-budget films.
On most films there is one truck with a few beleaguered caterers doing their best with minimal funds to keep a cast and crew well fed and vaguely happy. The caterers, who are actually the first to arrive, at some ungodly hour, begin cooking two meals for a minimum of about fifty people every day. The quality of ingredients isn’t usually of the highest caliber, and their resources (and unfortunately often their talents) are stretched to the limit attempting to provide a variety of dishes every day for what could be up to an eight-week shoot.
In an effort to satisfy so many people, every lunch consists of a meat or chicken dish, a fish dish, two starches, two vegetables, a vegetarian dish, a salad or two, and dessert. This is not easy to do even on a healthy budget, and I don’t envy their task. Unfortunately most caterers are not up to this task, which means that by the end of a film many people have stopped eating their food. Certain members of the cast and crew will end up bringing their own food if they have time to shop and prepare it, which isn’t easy given the long and erratic working hours.
Usually when an actor arrives on set, they put in their breakfast order with the second AD (who runs the base camp where all the trailers are set up) and is then sent into hair and makeup to get ready. Many an actor in many a makeup chair has gobbled down many a breakfast as a poor makeup artist tries to daub foundation on a masticating jaw and bobbing Adam’s apple while politely ignoring the sulfurous stench of the actor’s hard-boiled eggs. It is also in the makeup trailer, an oasis of sorts for actors, where one can be assured of getting the best cup of coffee on set, because most makeup artists outfit them with good coffeemakers. However, just in case, I always bring at least two Nespresso machines the first day I start a job: one for the makeup trailer as a communal font of caffeine, and one for my own trailer, as I will often be trapped in there for hours on end and I want a good coffee when I want one.
As each country has its own cuisine, each film caterer in any given country will serve versions of its traditional dishes. Here are a few examples:
A Very English Breakfast: The UK
In my newly adopted home, fried eggs (often cooked in lard), sausages, bacon, baked or stewed or fried or steamed or whatever tomatoes (yuck), baked beans, and porridge are a staple of every film set breakfast. Sausage “baps” are also always on offer. These are sliced brown or white buns layered with sausages (usually Cumberland) and sometimes an egg. The “bap,” meaning the bread, is usually rather dry and not very tasty, but if the sausage is of good quality this heart-stopping breakfast is hard to resist. I actually had to make a concerted effort not to eat one every morning working in England years ago because the project was to last almost five months and I thought if I continued wolfing them down, I might not live to complete the film.
There is not a great deal of importance put on craft services in England, unless the budget is substantial and/or an American studio is producing the film. Otherwise all that is available is a “tea table,” tucked away in a corner of the set with an urn of hot water, a box or two of tea bags, milk, sugar, some paper cups, and a few packages of digestive biscuits. Wonderfully understated, almost quaint, and very British.
Anomalous Lunches: Italy
The first time I filmed in Italy, I was very excited because, well, as I have made abundantly clear, I love Italy. The film was based in Rome, where I was able to eat great meals every night and on my days off. However, the catering on set was more than disappointing. For a nation that prioritizes food over just about everything and has informed the world’s palate with its cuisine perhaps more than any other country, it puts no importance whatsoever on catered meals for films. I guess the reason for this is that, depending on location, whenever the cast and crew are able, they simply go out for lunch. Catering is always available for those crew members with limited time or an actor whose costume or makeup prohibits them from dining in public, but otherwise anyone who can eat elsewhere does so.
The only thing that makes Italian set catering bearable is that wine is always served. When one of the assistant directors asks an actor what they would like to eat for lunch, they simply say, “White or red?” If the response is “White,” the actor will receive an entrée of chicken or fish. If it is “Red,” then red meat is served. These meals will be brought in a Styrofoam container with four compartments, one for the entrée; one for a starch, which is usually a pasta; and two for vegetables or possibly a salad, along with a small bottle of wine, the size you get on airplanes. To be fair, a lot of these meals are passable, but they’re hardly inspiring, especially when one knows that close by, a plethora of brilliant restaurants are serving up some of the best food in the world. Yet, as disappointing as these lunches are, the on-set breakfasts are even worse.