Behind the scenes of MotoGP’s ‘hospitalities’

Hospitalities are understood as structures built in some sports competitions to welcome and meet the needs of members and VIPs of the organization of the event, of the participating teams or of the sponsors involved in that event or activity . A purpose so well defined in the Spanish equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon term ‘hospitality’: management of hospitality.

In MotoGP, depending on the purpose sought in this hospitality service, the offer is generally divided into two types. On the one hand, it is contracted for meet the needs of managing a teamwhile the second option is intended for serve VIPs, sponsors and guests.

In the World Cup ‘paddock’ these two approaches are, for example, well represented in the ‘hospitalities’ of Team Repsol Honda and Repsol. Two companies that work together but the philosophy about how ‘hospitality’ works is, how can it be different, very different.

At HRC, the food service is 95% aimed at meeting the needs of the team – around 80 are served every weekend- and only 5% is for guests. On the other hand, activity continues in the reserved spaces of ‘hospitalities’ as there are press conferences, interviews and private meetings. That is why in the case of Honda having a good physical space is very important.

It is not so much in the ‘hospitality’ that Repsol mounts in the GGPP held in Spain. The Repsol personal/guest ratio is 1 to 9 in favor, so the philosophy is to provide a gastronomic offer where guests are as comfortable as possible.

The tip of the iceberg

Restoration on wheels, which is what the ‘hospitalities’ of the World Championship are, has some special characteristics that come directly from its roaming. The planning must be complete at all levels, which is why it is a service that teams hire from highly specialized catering companies. The work behind the service provided by these companies on GP weekends is unknown. What you see is just the tip of the iceberg.

“One week before starting to set up ‘hospitality’ on a circuit, the entire operation is already underway at the company’s base,” explained Javier Garcia, owner of the company that provides hospitality services to the Repsol Honda Team, Repsol and the International Motorcycling Federation. “It’s not about ‘come on, I’ll get in the truck and go’… You have to prepare the legal issues, the toll systems, etc. because, although we are in the European Economic Community, each country has its own rules. In other words, the administrative side prepares everything so that the trip has no administrative problems.”

Meanwhile, those responsible for catering are doing their part of the job. An inventory is made of all the food that will travel on the trucks. There are different ways to manage food. There are those that are usually provided in the area where the events are held, and there are those that prefer to limit this local supply to highly perishable products and ship some items from the country of origin.

“We receive the raw materials at our headquarters in Granollers,” he told us. javier garcia. “Both fresh and any other kind of raw material. Especially that’s how we control the quality. A lot of times when you go to a place where you don’t know the market and you don’t know the suppliers it can be very complicated .When we buy directly we know the fruit we want and so on.

“Yes, it is true that there is a list, prepared by the head chef or the ‘hospitality’ chef, with the purchases made ‘in situ’. Especially in terms of fruits and vegetables which are highly perishable. We, for example, can buy oranges, melons and watermelons in Spain; but then there are very delicate things that we buy at the destination, such as herbs and seasonal fruits”, he added.

The meeting of ‘hospitality in circuits

Once the trucks are loaded with material, they leave for the circuit they touched. When they are authorized to enter them, the meeting of ‘hospitality’ begins. The times depend on its size and complexity, but in general terms the structure is built on Monday and Tuesday, finished on Wednesday and becomes operational on Thursday, which is when the equipment arrives.

The assembly and disassembly of ‘hospitalities’ always correspond to members of the contracted company, never to the sports team. Depending on its size, there may be one group dedicated solely to assembly and disassembly and another dedicated solely to providing weekend catering services.

As you can see, the logistics of a hospitality service are complex and involve many people. An organization on which the proper functioning of all World Cup teams depends, all of them, and the margins of maneuver are very tight when the championship celebrates the linked GGPP. That is when they work under maximum pressure.

The gastronomic offer

In the ‘hospitality’ of MotoGP, the gastronomic offer is marked by Italian cuisine. Not only because most of the cooks in the paddock are of that nationality, but also because, in general, transalpine cuisine is quite simple. Simple but successful… and almost everyone likes it. From there you can do whatever you want, as long as you have the tools for it and the level of cook in charge of the kitchen.

“The type of food depends on each hospitality”, explains Javier Gracía. “Each one will have its own style and particularity. Cooking everything 100% ‘in situ’ requires a lot of time if you want to maintain a certain quality and variety. If you throw away soups or precooked dishes, you can move forward. We have a central kitchen in our facilities, where we prepare what the culinary world calls bases , like broths, stocks and some sauces and so on; but that’s where we stay. With this we go to GGPP and finish everything at GGPP. It’s important, because if you bring everything pre-cooked and frozen and so on yet, we will move to a different type of cuisine.”

Regarding the catering service in the circuits, the level of sophistication depends on the agreement between the hospitality company and its client. The catering service proposes a menu based on the guidelines provided by the client.

Hospitality and catering, two different concepts

Hospitality and catering are two concepts that can lead to confusion. The first includes the second, but the second need not be related to the first. In fact, in the ‘paddock’ of the World Cup there is a restaurant of sorts that serves food to all the teams that have hired their services. Not with MotoGP teams, but with many in Moto2 and Moto3.

MotoGP teams, whether factory or private, have a personalized hospitality service. The cost is calculated based on three items:

– The rental of the facilitywhich includes the ‘hospitality building’, the office vehicles, the meeting rooms and private rooms, the tractor trucks…

– logisticswhich is the transfer and assembly of this infrastructure in each GP

– the catererwhere there is no price per guest but a basic item, where a supplement per guest will be added if the number of contracted menus is transferred.

The number of cooks, as well as room staff, depends on the ‘hospitality’ contracted and the level of sophistication of the gastronomic offer. There are also differences in the size and equipment of kitchens, from minimal space to large kitchens with ‘dry land’ kitchen spaces.

Of course, chefs working in the MotoGP paddock must meet certain characteristics… “Tolerance and capacity for coexistence!” Javier García joked midway through. “Imagine they were groups spending up to ten days away from home working under pressure in smaller spaces than usual. We had great chefs, great cooks, but they couldn’t handle the specials working conditions required by a catering service like the one we provide at the World Cup.”