Although Liz Samatis has been traveling with the circus for the past year and a half, it isn’t a talent for acrobatics or feats of strength that got her there. It was a culinary degree and the allure of life on the road. Samatis, 29, feeds an international cast and crew of 100 daily as head chef for “Varekai,” a Cirque du Soleil production that celebrates the nomadic spirit. The Reading native found her way to “Varekai” (which coincidentally means “wherever” in the Romani language) after hearing about touring life from a chef for a rock ’n’ roll show. “It sounded like a cool thing,” she says on the phone from Baltimore, where the troupe was performing.
“It’s been a long ride but I’ve really grown to love it,” says Samatis, a Johnson & Wales University graduate, who began her career in Providence and the Boston area. She returns to Boston this week when “Varekai” begins a run at Agganis Arena at Boston University. But nowadays she considers her home to be the road. “I don’t have an apartment anymore. I love to see my family and travel on my time off. But this lifestyle makes things easier for me. It doesn’t require worrying about paying bills and a lot of other things,” Samatis says. Her main concern these days? “Finding somewhere to do laundry.”
Q. Is cooking for the circus what you expected?
A. I didn’t have a lot of expectations. Before, I would be cooking for a different client every night and now I’m cooking for the same client every day, which is a bigger challenge. You have to keep people enticed. Catering has to be a place where they feel like they’re eating at home.
Q. Describe what it’s like to cook on the road.
A. We’re in a location for one week. We’re [in Baltimore] until Monday morning and start setting up in Boston on Tuesday. I have a completely mobile kitchen that’s on the truck. When they load in the stage, I load in my kitchen, set up all my equipment, and set up our dining room. Every week we pretty much start from scratch and adapt to the arena where we’ll be working. That can be anywhere from a loading dock to outside in a tent to a conference room. We are completely self-sufficient. I have everything that can be rolled off the truck: two ovens, two flat-top grills, six induction burners. I carry all my own spices. I have a refrigerator on the truck so I can keep food fresh and bring it from city to city.
Q. What’s your everyday schedule like?
A. We feed about 100 people on the staff. That’s 50 performers, and then technicians, management. We cook a hot lunch and a hot dinner daily, except for Sunday, when we do a nice big Sunday brunch for everybody. The menus are based on seasonal ingredients, as well as keeping things diverse with ethnic foods representing all the countries on the tour. We provide a lot of variety. There’s a deli bar, a juice bar, and a salad bar. We make sure to always have lean protein for the acrobats and we like to provide a lot of accompaniments.
Q. Since the show moves so frequently, how do you handle buying groceries for that many people?
A. I have one global provider that will deliver standard items to any city in North America. Aside from that, I count on my manager, who has been touring for a while. We research ahead of time where we’re going and who the vendors are. We try to use local products. That’s the fun of it: developing networks of people all over the country. I really, really enjoy using local products and supporting local vendors in town, then using the global provider for other things.
Q. How has cooking for an international cast influenced your approach in the kitchen?
A. When you have to cook for the same people every day you have to start researching. We have a lot of [performers] from Russia and Ukraine, so I started researching what they eat there and use some of those same ingredients. Before I used to stick to more of an American style. Now I do a lot more Middle Eastern food, Asian ingredients, Russian techniques.
Q. What are you looking forward to in Boston?
A. It’s such a great season to be cooking. Probably my favorite season is summer. Getting some seasonal produce and heirloom tomatoes are all things we look forward to. New England clam chowder is a must. We try to do one day where we serve something local. So we’ll be having lobsters, clam chowder, clams.
Q. What restaurant tips will you be giving others on the staff?
A. I will probably just tell people to get a cup of clam chowder, fried clams, and steamers on the waterfront. Those are special things you can only really get in this part of the country.
{ SOURCE: Boston Globe | http://goo.gl/2VdxhM }
