THE BALLOON MAN

Think your family dinners are a circus?

Try feeding 300 performersPie Car requires work, provides ring of family

Michael Vaughn, director of food and facility services for the Blue Unit of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, will proudly oversee meals in the state-of-the-art Pie Car when the circus plays this week at Scottrade Center.

By Janice DenhamTuesday, October 12, 2010

Michael Vaughn, who joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey more than 13 years ago, feeds 300 hungry performers and crew, 36 at a time, from a state-of-the-art Pie Car. The director of food services has learned a lot from the clowns who emerge in great number from a tiny car, waving and happily enjoying each other's company. His small crew of six serves 2,500 to 3,500 meals a week.
While the Greatest Show on Earth plays here from Thursday to Sunday, you might spot Vaughn shopping for salsiccia on the Italian Hill or kielbasa at Piekutowski's European Style to satisfy a homegrown yearning of someone in the international troupe. He called last week from Denver, just after celebrating the fourth birthday of Bree, his daughter, on an unusual day off.
"A lot of the work is done while we are traveling. At any given point, I have $20,000 to $30,000 in inventory. But there is the legwork of finding the mom-and-pop produce stand where we perform, the best fish in Seattle, Polish meats and sausages in Chicago," he said.
Each person in his "big family" appreciates the effort.
"They love it 10 times more than if you got it from Sysco (national food provider)," 39-year-old Vaughn said.
read more at:http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2010/10/12/stclair/life/1013food-homeplate000002.txt