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Caterers fuel bodies and spirits on a movie set

The Plain Dealer . Joanna Connors . Saturday May 5, 2001

It's not for nothing that Hollywood is called the dream factory...Making the dream is another story. That's where the word 'factory' comes in. The work isn't magical, or glamorous or easy...Working on a film set involves heavy lifting, standing for hours at a time, and working in whatever weather comes along...The days start early in the morning and go late into the night, 14, 15 hours at a crack.

There are perks, of course...and then there's the food. Lots and lots of food, meals fit for kings, or farmhands. Steak and eggs, burritos, waffles and pancakes, cereal and muffins and sausage and bacon for breakfast. Crab legs, roast beef, chicken kiev, a salad bar, fresh fruit, four vegetables and two kinds of pasta at lunch. Cakes, pudding and cookies the size of plates for dessert. In between, a craft service table filled with candy and cookies, bagels, granola bars, fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee, pop, you name it….

On the set of 'Welcome to Collinwood', the food is so good it could bring Calista Flockhart, Lara Flynn Boyle and the whole cast of 'Friends' back from the dark side. The Hanna Brothers are on the premises...A line forms outside the Hanna Brother's extreme motion picture catering truck. It is 8 AM and Joe and his brother, Jim, have been here since 4 AM. They're inside their 24-foot truck...Joe handles breakfast orders, throwing sausages and eggs on the grill, while Jim preps lunch. He takes tray after tray of cookies from the ovens, M&M and chocolate-chunk, oozing seductively... Outside, two members of the local crew they've hired are making pasta salad and cutting vegetables.

Joe used to own a restaurant in Palm Beach, FL where the Hanna Brothers grew up. One day, the caterer from the set of Burt Reynolds TV show 'B.L. Stryker came in. He liked what he ate. "He coaxed Joe away from the restaurant" Jim says. Meanwhile, Jim played professional football...When that was over, Joe coaxed him into catering, three years ago, they started their own business. Joe, who studied at a culinary school in FL is the chef. Jim, who studied business…crunches the numbers…

They serve breakfast for three hours, then prop a 'Closed' sign in the truck's window and go into lunch prep full steam. The day's shoot includes extras, so they'll be serving 400 today. A crew member comes up to the truck, looking hungry. Jim looks at her over the 'Closed' sign, "What can I get you baby?, I'll fix you whatever you want." he says. That kind of service is the reason line producer Scott Shifffman has hired them for three productions. "Catering is extremely important, morale-wise and attitude-wise", Shiffman says. "A good caterer can spread a lot of good will on a set." "Yeah" says Ben Cosgrove, the executive producer, "Whenever something goes wrong on the set, we say, well at least the food's good!"

They do breakfast and lunch on day shoots, lunch and dinner nights, and if the shoot goes late, they might be asked to do a third meal…After a day of cooking and cleaning , the Hannas sit down to eat and go over the next day's menu….Why do they do it? "It's something different every day," Joe says. "You get to travel and you get to work with the neatest people in the world." Home base is Louisville, but they're on the road most of the time. Before 'Collinwood' they were in Miami. Next week Los Angeles...

Cooking al fresco, Hollywood style

The Herald Mail . Kevin Clappp . October 10, 2001

Joe Hanna's team of professionals hustles to prepare a mid-day meal…their kitchen: three trucks, a trailer and a 4-foot grill. Under the big top, 11 tables are ready to welcome hungry men and women …as diners grab trays and silverware and begin assaulting the salad bar, Hanna pulls plastic wrap off piping hot chafing dishes containing a feast befitting 'Gods and Generals'. Welcome to Chez Hanna, where ...Joe Hanna and his staff of six prepare two meals a day for between 200 and 400 members of the cast and crew of the prequel to 'Gettysburg'. Another crew, led by brother Jim Hanna, works to feed Civil War re-enactors and movie extras three times daily at a camp on the far side of the set.

This mess tent might not look like a swank dining establishment, but the food tastes like it might have been made in one…"It's all about speed. It feels like a contact sport, especially in the morning…." Joe Hanna says of staying fresh on days that begin at 2 AM and don't usually end until after nightfall….He adds that survival relies on remaining detail oriented. "We specialize in speed scratch cooking, which just dictates organization. Everything's in the same spot every day, otherwise the day will get away from you."…

After a year of catering for the series 'B.L. Stryker', Hanna sold his restaurant and began a decade of work as a showbiz catering company….Hanna Brothers was born in 1998. Partnering with Jim Hanna, a former pro football player in New Orleans and Atlanta, the catering firm can service up to three productions at once. 'Gods and Generals' is so large...they can feed up to 1,500 in a day….Everyday, Hanna and his crew are on-site by 2 or 3 AM to begin preparing a breakfast buffet open from 6 to 9 that contains 14 hot items daily, including biscuits and gravy, omelets, eggs any style, turkey bacon and sausage (and their more fattening porcine counterparts), and quesadillas. Simultaneously, they are readying lunch, which begins four hours after the first meal concludes. Lunch is at 1 PM by 12:55 the first wave...is winding through the buffet, starting at a fully stocked salad bar before moving onto side dishes, glazed carrots, steamed baby green beans, grilled onions, pinto beans, steamed rice and oven roasted potatoes. Then its on to the main fare: spaghetti, chicken asada, roasted pork loin and broiled orange roughy. "I've got to be able to please vegans, vegetarians, steak and potato people, people who have to gain weight and people who have to lose weight" Hanna says, "offering that kind of variety is what can get tough"….

As a job progresses, the brothers are able to gauge which meals work and which are best left off their shopping list. Using local and national vendors, Joe was here four weeks prior to filming readying his crew… the key is to keep the menus fresh…"you've got to be crafty"…. Joe Hanna says film catering has allowed him to venture beyond FL 's borders and required him to do things he never would have done. From winterizing equipment for 40 below in Minnesota to packing gear onto barges in Panama, this gig has expanded more than just his palate. …"You never get bored. Every 10 weeks your in another state or country with different people". Larry Donahue...reuniting with Joe for 'G & G' says restaurant chefs come out and are surprised by the scope of their culinary production. "That's the best part of this job. When your in the kitchen your faceless. Here every day everybody tells you it's great." says Joe.

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