Phillip Weingarten, owner of Smashbox's on-site catering company GoodFood Catering, is on eof the studio's not-so-secret weapons. A Culinary Institute graduate, he orchestrates gourmet meals for all studio and location shoots, mixing northern Italian Moroccan, Indian and Japanese fare. Some stars - Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Roseanne and Michelle Pfeiffer, to name a few - are so enamored of Weingarten's cooking that they have requested him for their private parties, spawning an off-site catering division.
"Phillip is a truly spectacular individual," says Stone, who entrusted to Weingarten the food and decor for her secret wedding. "It Was just an astonishing thing he did - a seven-course meal that went off without a hitch."
Weingarten's biggest challenge is to keep special requests in his mental Rolodex. Photographer Sirota orders Casear salad (she traded a Gary Oldman photo for the dressing recipe), Stone doesn't eat bell peppers and rasberries, John Travolta likes Royal burgers (with ground sirloin), Michael Bolton wants Pringles and peanut M&Ms, Demi Moore takes five packets of Equal with her oatmeal and Pace picante chunky salsa with her turkey burgers.
Despite Weingarten's planning, there are always last-minute surprises, such as the time Janet Jackson showed up with her own chef, who prepared his special sloppy joes, or when Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro decided to get into character with four cases of Corona and two bottles of Tanqueray at the poster shoot for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. During a Rolling Stones photo session, Charlie Watts asked for a proper English tea, Mick Jagger wanted grilled vegetables, and Keith Richards ordered four packs of Winston reds, two fifths of Stolichnaya and - most important - 16 ounce red plastic cups. Each had his own name-tagged cooler in his private dressing room.
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