With vast experience at venues such as the American Airlines Arena (in Miami), the Kentucky Derby, and Super Bowls, Chef John Nicely now also plans huge culinary events at Orlando's Amway Center, home of the Orlando Magic basketball team. With his unique talent and exceptional operations skills, Nicely serves tens of thousands of cheering fans at some of the world's largest events.

And when more than 18,500 basketball fans show up for a game, expecting great food and great basketball, he puts his creative as well as operations talent to work. Chef John must be prepared. This means determining not only a total demand for all 18,500 fans, but also translating that demand into specific menu items and beverages.

He prepares a forecast from current ticket sales, history of similar events at other venues, and his own records, which reflect the demand with this particular opponent, night of week, time of year, and even time of day. He then breaks the demand for specific menu items and quantities into items to be available at each of the 22 concession stands, 7 restaurants, and 68 suites. He must also be prepared to accommodate individual requests from players on both teams. Chef John frequently changes the menu to keep it interesting for the fans who attend many of the 41 regular season home games each season. Even the culinary preference of the opponent's fans who may be attending influences the menu.

Additionally, when entertainment other than the Magic is using the Amway Center, the demographic mix is likely to be different, requiring additional tweaking of the menu. The size of the wait staff and the kitchen staff change to reflect the size of the crowd; Chef John may be supervising as many as 90 people working in the kitchen. Similarly, the concessions stands, 40% of which have their own grills and fryers, present another challenge, as they are managed by volunteers from nonprofit organizations. The use of these volunteers adds the need for special training and extra enforcement of strict quality standards.

Once deciding on the overall demand and the menu, Chef John must prepare the production specifications (a bill of material) for each item. For the evening game with the Celtics, Chef John is preparing his unique Cheeto Crusted Mac & Cheese dish. The ingredients, quantity, costs, and labor requirements are shown below:

The yield on this dish is 6 portions, and labor cost is $15 per hour, with fringes. The entire quantity required for the evening is prepared prior to the game and kept in warming ovens until needed. Demand for each basketball game is divided into 5 periods: prior to the game, first quarter, second quarter, half-time, and second half. At the Magic vs. Celtics game next week, the demand (number of portions) in each period is 60, 36, 48, 60, and 12 for the Cheeto Crusted Mac & Cheese dish, respectively.

Discussion Questions *
1. Prepare a bill of material explosion and total cost for the 216 portions of Cheeto Crusted Mac & Cheese.

2. What is the cost per portion? How much less expensive is the Cheeto Crusted Mac & Cheese than Chef John's alternative creation, the Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese, shown in Figure 14.9 of this chapter?

3. Assuming that there is no beginning inventory of the Cheeto Crusted Mac & Cheese and cooking time for the entire 216 portions is 0.6 hours, when must preparation begin?