Chefs Speak Out: How to Serve 110,000 Lunches Around the World without Getting a Headache: Featuring Bayer PittsburghCafé Meeting Place
Chefs Speak Out: How to Serve 110,000 Lunches around the World without Getting a Headache
Pittsburgh’s Jeff Sinciline helps Bayer Corporation develop a menu for employees worldwide to enjoy a celebratory lunch marking the company’s 150th anniversary.
Photo: Jeff Sinciline’scouscous salad with cinnamon almonds, part of Bayer Corporation’s Employee Celebration Day menu.
As Bayer Corporation marks the 150th anniversary of its founding this year, the company will hold an Employee Celebration Day luncheon for all 110,000-plus employees around the world on June 18, serving one international upscale menu to every employee on the same day. The anniversary menu was created using the expertise of five global Bayer “Celebration Chefs,” including the executive chef at Bayer’s Pittsburgh campus dining facility, Jeff Sinciline.
In preparation for the Celebration Day anniversary meal, Sinciline and a team of chefs from Germany, China, France and Mexico worked for months to develop recipes with high-quality, fresh ingredients that are available worldwide, taking employees on a culinary trip around the globe while preparing the meals onsite at Bayer locations.
What does it take to prepare a meal for more than 110,000 people? Sinciline estimates that Bayer chefs worldwide will use the following to prepare the menu:
- 24,000 pounds of cooked couscous
- 34,400 pounds (about 2,400) whole salmon
- 41,500 pounds of fresh chicken
- 51,000 pounds of fresh pineapple, melon and berries for fruit skewers, which if laid end to end, would stretch for more than 21 miles
- 55,600 pounds of produce
- 10,300 gallons of lemonade, or enough to fill a 12x24-ft. pool that is 5 ft. deep
The anniversary menu includes items such as kung-pao chicken, orange salmon with ratatouille, and fresh fruit with raspberry coulis and dark chocolate. Employees at Bayer’s Pittsburgh site and around the world will enjoy the customized recipes Sinciline contributed to the menu, such as couscous salad with cinnamon almonds and mint-kissed strawberry lemonade. Sinciline will be preparing more than 3,000 lunches for Bayer employees on June 18, with 25% of ingredients sourced from growers and producers of food from the Pittsburgh region.
“Around the globe, celebrations are traditionally marked by communities, families and friends joining together for meals,” says Sinciline, who is a team member of Parkhurst Dining, a member of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group. “As Bayer’s employees in the Pittsburgh region join their colleagues from around the globe in celebration, the anniversary menu offers globally influenced recipes for a truly unique dining experience.”
With more than 25 years of culinary and operations experience, Sinciline is the general manager and executive chef for Parkhurst Dining at Bayer Corporation in Pittsburgh. A Pittsburgh native, Sinciline graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and is trained in several areas of hospitality including restaurants, country clubs, hotels and contract dining throughout the United States. Sinciline’s culinary style combines classic techniques with a creative, food-friendly approach that adds to his strengths in menu and production planning for Bayer’s 150th anniversary celebration.
In addition to the Celebration Day luncheon, Bayer’s yearlong anniversary celebration includes numerous global and U.S. events focused on the company’s employees, neighbors, customers, partners and the scientific community. For more information, visit www.150.bayer.com.