As vice president of food and beverage for Americrown, Rishi Nigam oversees food service at the 13 tracks owned and operated by International Speedway Corp., including Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR’s signature facility recently entered the final phase of a three-year, $400 million renovation, including major upgrades to the food operation that bring the track’s amenities up to speed with traditional stadiums. Previously, Nigam worked for Aramark at Turner Field and spent five years in Indianapolis, where he was responsible for Aramark’s operations across several venues.
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Food and beverage has quickly become the attraction at a lot of venues, second in promotional value to ticket sales. The outcome of the event is really the only thing that’s a bigger emotional driver.”
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Photo by: MICHAEL PAPPAS / AMERICROWN
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On the Daytona project setting a new food-service standard at racetracks: It elevates expectations for a motorsports venue. The way we built these kitchens is focused toward culinary and the way equipment and flow is laid out. There’s a grab-and-go aspect to foods that don’t require customization, but we can also serve premium items and regionalized dishes, customize it, and still turn it around faster. By breaking the stands out and by developing them with a culinary mind, we’re able to maintain speed of service and still offer variety.
On doing the little things to stand out: As far as I know, there’s no [other] venue out there that fresh-grinds and brews its own coffee. We bought these mega-machines to make a three-gallon carafe in six minutes. For 105,000 people to be able to get fresh-ground coffee is awesome. Typically, [vendors serve] instant coffee or already ground.
On the operational differences in motorsports: Our gates open six to eight hours before the race, and two hours before the green flag is when [concessions] really starts getting hammered. Our challenge and the bigger variance comes during the event. Most sports have a built-in intermission, so you know when you’re going to be busy. In NASCAR, you never know when a caution or a red flag is going to occur, so you always have to be on edge to make sure that you have a full stock of food ready to go.
On the role of food service in the race-day experience: It’s important that we continue to drive that experience, especially when you get into the hospitality and catering areas. Those people are not so much race fans but clients to be entertained, and a lot of times [for them] food is more important than the event.
