Cooking crew fuels BSMF bands for 2 decades

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - The bands at Beale Street Music Festival are ready to hit the stage and energize fans, but what does it take to fuel those on stage?

For Friday's musician menu: Smoked chicken, ribs, and salmon. Sounds delicious...right?

The Winfrey's Custom Cooking crew will dish out thousands of meals to feed the bands throughout the festival. For the last 20 years the crew has served up meals to the stars.

"We fuel the whole show," Randy Wright, Winfrey's Custom Cooking, said. "Everybody eats pretty much off this trailer. So, all the music you're hearing is powered by us."

The menu wouldn't be complete without...you guessed it....Memphis style barbecue. Over the last 20 years, the crew said a lot has changed, including the amount of food.

The crew serves up six times more meals than it did 20 years ago. It's all cooked fresh in the park, including custom specialty orders coming into the kitchen from the singers and crew.

"This is typical of a special diet - plain burger," Wright said.

No salt, no pepper, just meat and a bun is all the Widespread Panic crew member wanted. It's long days and nights cooking for singers they rarely meet.

"We deliver the food. It goes out to the various feeding areas and we don't see a lot of people," Wright said.

But sometimes, the crew gets a visit from a musician they have fed.

"When Little Richard drives by and sticks his head out the bus and says 'hey, I love the food' that's a pretty cool thing," Wright said. "We've had Bob Dylan in the trailer."

But there's one thing that keeps the hard working crew coming back for the past two decades.

"Twenty years into this, I like making people smile. That's really what it is," Wright said.

The crew's job isn't done when dinner is served. Just because the food is out and the kitchen is closed, that doesn't stop the late night munchies requests.

Copyright 2017 WMC Action News 5. All rights reserved.