Ringling chef serious about feeding circus performers, crew

Between meetings for work, getting kids to swim practice, texting your spouse about pickup times, pulling dinner from the freezer and making sure homework gets done and bedtime stories read, you say your life is a three-ring circus. You've got nothing on Michael Vaughn.

For more than a dozen years, Vaughn has cooked for the circus. Really. As head chef - "pie man" in circus lingo - for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, he's prepared to make breakfast, lunch and dinner for some 350 performers and crew. He'll be the one cooking pierogies and flipping hamburgers for everyone - from the guys that clean up after the elephants to the ladies on the trapeze - when the circus opens Thursday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

"The biggest challenge is variety; not having a redundant menu," Vaughn says.

That and coming up with menus that appeal to palates of the international troupe.

"We have a wide, wide variety of people: Bulgarians, Russians, Hungarians, Brazilians, Argentines, Americans, Chinese. Lots of different ethnicities," he says. "I cook everything from grilled cheese to lamb chops to yellow fin tuna medallions."

While his menu includes recipes from across the globe, he says cheeseburgers, barbecue ribs and smoked chicken are among his most-requested dishes.

"I recently did a day of Brazilian and Mexican meals; now the Russians want to know when they're going to have a day," Vaughn says. "I need to find something that they can find at home and make it."

Vaughn learned to cook in an international stew of a place: Louisiana, where Southern, European and Caribbean cuisines mingle in the pot. His grandmother and grandfather were private chefs (actor Anthony Quinn was a client) and they passed along their skills and passion for food.

It was in Louisiana that the California-born chef joined the circus.

"I absolutely never thought I'd be with the circus; it just happened," he says. He was hired as a cook in 1993 when the circus train rolled into Baton Rouge and was asked to stay as it moved to New Orleans, then to Houston, then to Dallas.

"It was for two months. I said I'd give it a try," recalls Vaughn, now 39. Circus life tasted sweeter than freshly spun cotton candy.

"When you're working for the circus, you're working for an actual corporation. It's not a week-to-week job; we have benefits, vacation. I get to travel, to see the country for free."

He left for two years, only to find himself with too much time on his hands.

"When you're with the circus you dream of time off," he says. "I left to cook offshore, and I was bored silly."

These days Vaughn doesn't have time to be bored.

When the circus train is traveling between stops, Vaughn and his crew of five cook in a rail car, "the pie cart," equipped with a full kitchen. The dining car seats about 30 and "serves a constant stream of people."

"When the train is moving, we're open 24 hours a day. We work 60, 70 hours a week; it's part of the life."

Once on the circus grounds, food service operations move to a trailer with meal times coordinated with show hours. Some of the high-profile performers have kitchens in their trailers and will cook meals themselves, others will head out to area restaurants. Vaughn says he likes to visit Naha and Avec in Chicago when he gets a night off.

He said he looks forward to his Chicago-area stops because he's learned over the years where to get good sausages and meats and has a strong relationship with the food distributors,

"I have to coordinate the grocery orders and deliveries at all the different stops. It's hard because I have a limited amount of (storage) space," he says. "After you play a city a few times you get to know the vendors. In Chicago, as soon as the train rolls in, he's there to meet with me."

For Thanksgiving, when the show performs at the United Center, Vaughn said he'll rent a 40-by-60-foot tent and prepare turkey dinner with all the trimmings for his circus family.

His family will be there, too.

Four years ago Vaughn married Danette Sheppard, a singer with the circus. They have a 2-year-old daughter, Bree, and a home in New York.

"I met her here at the show; she's not singing with the circus anymore," he says. "I've been blessed to have them traveling with me for a year."

Talk about a juggling act.

Tom Dougherty

• Clown Eccentric

• United States

Has a nose for chef Vaughn's pesto chicken over fettuccini

Chuck Wagner

• Ringmaster

• United States

Stops the action for chef Vaughn's seared salmon fillet with pomegranate vinaigrette Olivia Lehrman

Carmen Torres

• Torres Family Motorcyle Daredevils

• Paraguay

Slows down for chef Vaughn's carne asada with black beans and rice

Pecan Rice

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

¼ cup finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup uncooked converted long grain rice

2 cups chicken broth

¼ cup dry sherry

¼ teaspoon sage

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ cup chopped pecans

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, 4 minutes, or until onion is soft. Add rice and cook, stirring, until lightly browned.

Add broth, sherry, sage, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20-25 minutes, until rice is tender. Stir in pecans and parsley, cook 3-5 minutes and serve.

Serves four.

Chef Michael Vaughn, director of food and facility services, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

Brazilian Chicken and Mushrooms

¼ cup butter

1½ cups sliced button mushrooms

1 large green pepper, for 1 cup diced

¼ cup flour

¾ cup chicken broth

1 cup milk or heavy cream

2-2½ pounds grilled or roasted boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin slices

1 large red pepper, for 1 cup diced

1½ teaspoons lemon juice

Salt and pepper, to taste

Melt butter, add mushrooms and diced green pepper and saute about 5 minutes over a low heat. Add flour and seasonings, mix well. Slowly add chicken broth and milk. Allow to simmer until creamy; set aside.

In a separate pan, add chicken, red pepper and lemon juice and cook until hot. Add mushroom sauce and stir to combine. Serve over a bed of bow-tie pasta or egg noodles.

Serves six to eight.

Chef Michael Vaughn, director of food and facility services, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

7-Up Cake

3 sticks butter, softened

3 cups sugar

5 jumbo eggs

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons lemon extract

¾ cup 7-Up

Lightly grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar for 2 minutes or until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until light and fluffy. Add lemon extract. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing until combined. Add 7-Up and beat until creamy, about 1 minute.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 60-80 minutes, until golden brown.

Serves 16 to 20.

Chef Michael Vaughn, director of food and facility services, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey