The perils of catering might seem to involve only a predictable list of problems – food allergies and intolerances, oddball demands by finicky cast or crew, kitchen fires, running short of vittles, that sort of thing. But it turns out that caterers, though mostly receiving high grades from clients across the country, can sometimes find themselves in quirky and uneasy situations.

George Chapman, a veteran production manager based in Vancouver, has a long list of terrific catering companies with a long list of terrific accomplishments. He rhymes off Reel Appetites, hired to do the pilot of Wolf Lake, a U.S. service production which is now going to series, as well as Trapped, a movie for TV headed for U.S.A. net. He mentions Edible Planet, which fed the masses on the original shoot of Antitrust, the Fox feature Lake Placid and the MFT Behind the Mask, starring Donald Sutherland, for CBS. All of these jobs went down without a hiccup.

He even recalls one occasion long ago when the caterer had been told he’d be serving 700 people at a West Van ‘goodbye’ for Panorama Studios, which was to be torn down in favor of a condo complex.

‘On the big stage we had two bands playing, and half a dozen bars, dancing and partying…and on the other stage they’d set up a retrospective of the industry, and there were slides up of the crew,’ Chapman says. The caterer ‘had set up a garden environment’ and had given Chapman a reasonable price, for the 700 expected. ‘He ended up feeding 1,200 people, maybe more. People were coming in through the woods in the back to get free food. He just went out and got more food!’

But sometimes, it’s all about where and how the food is prepared. Chapman recounts one case in which an excellent catering company was feeding the gang on a shoot at the Vancouver airport. ‘We were right at the gate – we were allowed to put our whole unit right where the airplanes come in….I got a call on the radio to come to see the fire chief on the tarmac. I came, and there was the fire chief and the whole fire crew.’ It seems the caterers were barbequing salmon, right there on the tarmac. ‘It turned out to be one of the safest places to have a barbeque, unless there’s a plane refueling right there.’ Needless to say, the fire crew joined in the feast…

Caterers from Canada’s major markets are not complaining much about declining margins. But they are concerned about an increasing number of food allergies, and recognize that several items must be monitored carefully, and say no-nut service is de rigeur. The passion for thin is still in, and most buffets emphasize low- or no-fat items.

At least, most actors eat low-fat when there’s an audience. Rocco Venditto, proprietor of Rocco de Montreal catering, says some big stars have been known to be finicky until they get to their trailers and send their drivers for McDonald’s.

There are other odd habits. Venditto says Paul Newman, generally easy to serve, likes his popcorn dried in the oven on a cookie sheet at 200-250 degrees, then popped in an air popper. Katie Holmes (Dawson’s Creek), who was in Montreal on the feature Abandon, ‘likes hummus and vegetable dips, crispy, al dente, with some lemon and herbs, and that’s it.’

By contrast, he says, muscled Sly Stallone ‘could eat New York strip [steak] every day. He was very friendly,’ says Venditto, recalling the set of Driven.

‘Every time they make a movie, they’re on special diets,’ says Venditto of actors in general. ‘Denzel Washington, after he made The Bone Collector in Montreal (with Eddie Murphy and Queen Latifah, both picky eaters on set), was going to make The Hurricane (about boxer Rubin Carter) – so he had to be healthy.’

Budgets vary by project, of course, but Venditto says prices usually run in the $15-$16 range, per person, for lunch. Buffets generally offer four or five hot choices, with one vegetarian dish. There’s also fish, four or five times a week, with such selections as Chilean sea bass, salmon, or tilapia, which is great on the grill after it’s been marinated with parsley, lemon, garlic, olive oil and white wine.

Sometimes there’s higher-end seafood, such as mussels or oysters in the fall. But none of that definitively Quebec junk food, a mix of fries, gravy and cheese curds. ‘If I ever see poutine on my buffet, I’ll do something else. I’ll go to work nine-to-five,’ says Venditto grimly.

On the Shaftesbury Films set in Toronto, the production team is shooting two Joanne Kilbourn mystery MOWs – A Killing Spring and Verdict in Blood – concurrently for CTV. Word on the set is that the catering choices in town are stand-out, with such names as By Davids’, Studio Catering and Capers Catering coming up often.

Again, the focus is on the need for dietary choices that meet American and Canadian actors’ health requirements. ‘The cast, especially Americans,’ says one veteran crew member, ‘their requirements are ‘no fat.’ In Canada we do ‘low fat.’ The caterers do a lot of vegetarian foods anyway, or grilled chicken.

‘A lot of Americans, she adds, are ‘just wonderful to deal with – Bill Macy, and Rhea Perlman, too. They’re very low-maintenance. The young actors in their early 20s, including the Canadian ones, are the neediest. They’re more concerned with their look and their appearance rather than the depth of their performance. The older ones have worked through that.’

Pointing to some of the larger issues impinging on the production business in Toronto, the crew member says, ‘budgets on the whole are being squeezed. The city is getting more expensive. The locations have basically doubled – in the downtown core – but catering budgets are pretty much the same.

‘Plus you have to add in that there’s no major soundstage in Toronto, and no big incentive for big-budget features to come here, those which can afford the higher location costs,’ – it’s something to look at for the future.

For now, catering requires long hours and much diplomacy. Andre Alarie, caterer on the set of the third season of Montreal-based drama series Fortier, says each day begins at 4 a.m. ‘By 10:30 I have 20 to 25 buffets ready to go. Every day.’

Like his peers, Alarie, who runs A la petite campagne catering out of Laval, QC, has noted the ban on nuts, and even sunflower oil, on the set. ‘If a client ever gets sick, that’s the end of the business. You have to be perfect, always to be surveying the scene. I have 37 employees in the kitchen.’

After 30 years in the business, he still likes the craft, the craziness and especially the people on the feature film and TV sets, and the business lunches as well. The devil is in the details. Lucie Bouliane, line producer and production manager on Fortier, says a good caterer is one who ‘remembers all the little things that people like, to establish some communication with the crew and remember what the director likes, and so on. So people think we are taking care of them.’ *