Last-Minute Lunch

Every culture has its own traditions. Most are deeply rooted and change very slowly. For example, at trade shows and events in Chile, business professionals are used to being served a hot, hearty lunch. So when a shortage of food at a marketing event in Chile forced me to change the socially accepted dining habits of my country's people, I had to not only find some food fast, but serve it in a way that kept attendees happy.

As the new business manager for Fisa S.A. in Santiago, Chile, one of my duties was to properly estimate the number of attendees who would need lunch each day at the 2005 Instituto Chileno de Administracion Racional de Empresas (ICARE) marketing conference in the Chilean capital. Since each attendee turned in his or her RSVP for lunch by about 10:30 a.m. each day, I usually received a pre-
liminary count for the meal a few hours before hungry guests made their way to the dining hall.

Business professionals in Chile view lunch as an appropriate time to discuss, well, business. Thus, the socially acceptable meal is a hot entrée, a side dish, and a salad, often paired with wine or soft drinks. Lunch is typically followed by an assortment of desserts. The full meal offers diners plenty of time to converse, and, in fact, not serving a hot meal could be seen as a food faux pas.

During each of the first two days of the event, we had approximately 1,000 individuals purchase the optional lunch. Since there was always some attrition as people made last-minute plans to eat at nearby restaurants, I figured I could count on an estimated 800 people actually sticking around to dine.

But at 10:30 a.m. on the third day of the conference, I received word from my staff that the event had drawn more than 1,600 attendees for the day - way up from the usual 1,000. What's worse, nearly all of those 1,600 people purchased the optional lunch. After docking my usual figure of 200 people due to attrition, I quickly realized that the 800 meals I had ordered from the catering service would never serve the 1,400 people I estimated would be dining at our event.

So with about three hours until lunch was to be served, I sought the help of the venue's caterers. Down in the kitchens, I explained my problem to the head of catering. Unfortunately, he indicated he did not have enough ingredients to add another 600 portions to my lunch order, and getting more delivered in time to serve the extra attendees would be impossible.

As I left the kitchens, I checked in with my boss to see if he had any brilliant ideas. However, he was less than sympathetic. In fact, he told me that if we turned away hungry attendees or angered them with a substandard lunch, the blame would fall squarely on my shoulders.

With a shortage of sustenance and a boss ready to blame me for any resulting snafu, I looked at the clock and knew I needed to find food for those 600 additional attendees. And I needed to do so quickly, or my goose would be cooked faster than you can say "fricassee."

The meeting with my boss, however, hadn't been all doom and gloom. Since the attendees already paid for the lunches, he said I had roughly $5 per person to spend on the 600 extra meals I needed to deliver. Of course, if I spent more than $5, I would take the blame for that as well.

My biggest problem, I realized, was time. Finding someone to make another 600 meals wasn't too hard. The difficult task was finding someone who could make them in less than two hours. Oh, and it had to be something people would want to eat.

Gathering some of my staff to help me, I explained the problem we faced and asked them to brainstorm possible solutions. One of my staffers mentioned the name of a popular lunch spot in Santiago - a café called Tavelli - which the rest of the group greeted with unanimous approval. The café is famous for its triangle-shaped sandwiches, and is one of my favorite lunch spots.

I immediately called the eatery and asked the manager if his kitchen could make a rush order for 600 sandwiches. I wanted 200 each of Tavelli's most popular varieties: chicken and avocado, chicken and red pepper, and ham and cheese.

The manager said his staff could fill the order in time, but he needed payment in advance before his kitchen would start making the sandwiches. As soon as he quoted me a price, I wrote a check and handed it to a pair of my colleagues. I told them to get to the restaurant and pay for the order, then be back before 1:30 p.m. Since the restaurant was halfway across the city, there was nary a moment to lose.

While one set of staffers headed to Tavelli, I sent another team to get bottles of soda at a nearby grocery store. Meanwhile, the rest of my team and I went back to the kitchen to get trays for the sandwiches, cups and ice for the drinks, and napkins.

Next, we gathered a few tables on which to put our soon-to-be-acquired menu items. We then draped the tables with white linens. This may have been a last-minute solution, but I certainly didn't want it to look haphazard to our guests.

By 1 p.m., we had the bottles of soda and set them on the tables. Soon thereafter, the Tavelli sandwiches arrived, and we arranged them on the trays. While it all looked appetizing, I was still worried that the attendees who had paid for a hot entrée might not be satisfied with the cold triangle-shaped sandwiches.

When lunchtime came, I stood upon a podium in the dining room facing the 1,400 starving attendees. Taking the microphone, I informed them that we planned to serve the usual hearty fare most of them had come to expect. But for those who wanted a lighter meal - and these days, who wasn't watching their weight a bit - we also offered some delicious sandwiches and soft drinks.

As the group made its way toward the food, I was amazed to watch the hungry horde divide into two parts. If I was lucky, there would be more than enough food for everyone.

By the time lunch service ended, I was thrilled to see a bit of everything left over, meaning nothing had actually run out. Even better, not a single attendee complained, so my little line about enjoying a lighter meal had soothed any ruffled feathers. What's more, we managed to feed the extra crowd at just under $5 per person.

While I hope to never have to scramble to feed 600 people on the fly again, I'm glad I was able to find a solution that satisfied everyone's hunger and kept me out of the hot seat.

- Sergio López, new business manager, Fisa S.A., Santiago, Chile