Any chef will inform you it’s a particularly irritating job, so think about catering for a few of the largest names in sport and taking your kitchen to a special nation almost each week.
For about 20 years, that was the lifetime of Dave Freeman, an ex-Method 1 chef who now owns a golf course in Norfolk.
Throughout his distinguished profession, he taken care of the culinary wants of a few of the world’s prime drivers, working for Tyrrell, Jordan, BAR, Drive India, Brawn, McLaren, Crimson Bull and Toro Rosso.
Dave, 59, served for 13 years within the Military – good coaching, he says, “as a result of you have to assume in your toes”.
However promotion took him away from his job as a basic chef, and by round 1997 he was now not having fun with Military life.
“My brother’s pal catered for the Williams-Renault manufacturing facility so he wanted cooks to return and assist,” he remembers.
That catering firm ended up working with Honda and noticed Dave plying his commerce in Japan for a yr.
“It was plenty of enjoyable and the Japanese individuals have been fabulous to work with,” says Dave, who was born in Harlow, Essex, however grew up in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
“There’s an important little story. We have been leaving the Suzuka Grand Prix. In these days, we would give away our group package and one of many mechanics threw his jacket out of the window and this fan was so completely happy and put this jacket on.
“As we have been edging out of the circuit, this man ran around the entrance and was stopping the bus, leaping and screaming, and he would not transfer.
“Ultimately the bus driver opened up the bus and in he got here and gave the mechanic his Rolex watch which had been left in his jacket pocket. I am not so certain that may occur in different nations.”
Like most features of the game, the hospitality a part of F1 has come on leaps and bounds since Dave began within the late Nineteen Nineties.
“We have gone from cooking within the storage to £20m motorhomes,” he says.
“After I first began… you’d take slightly cooker, some cutlery, you’d have to rent chairs, tables and all the things… it was like tenting, actually.
“Brake mud at all times appears like pepper and the scent of the brakes was such as you have been burning stuff.”
Dave remembers an precise hearth in Brazil, however F1 catering was altering.
“It grew to become much more company: extra professional-looking, correct counters, bannering and correct gear.”
Having frolicked in Japan, Dave’s speciality of sushi made him fashionable with a few of the grid’s largest names.
“Lots of them fairly preferred Japanese meals: Juan Pablo Montoya – he had California rolls – Jenson [Button], Rubens [Barrichello]. I bear in mind doing it for seven drivers and also you’re principally taking slightly little bit of a threat on the legal responsibility aspect.
“Think about the headline: ‘Honda chef poisons entrance 5 on the grid’.”
One driver particularly took a liking to Dave and his sushi: seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.
“Regardless that he was nothing to do with Honda, he preferred Japanese meals, so his physio, Balbir Singh, used to return down and get him a plate of sushi after qualifying, and this used to occur in all places,” he remembers.
“I purchased this very nice black Japanese plate only for Michael to make it further particular. This one time, unfortunately when his mother died, we have been in San Marino.
“He had the meals on the Saturday and he flew again to be along with her, after which he got here again the subsequent day and received the race.
“I by no means received my plate again, so the next race I stated to Balbir, ‘The place’s my plate?’
“He stated, ‘Oh, Michael took it on the airplane – he is received it in his home now’ and I stated jokingly ‘Oh, that is good, it price me 100 quid!’ 5 minutes later, a advertising and marketing man comes operating up with a chequebook.
“Some time after, I noticed Michael in Monaco and I stated ‘The place’s my plate, you thief!’ and we had a very good snort over it.”
Dave has fond reminiscences of Schumacher, who suffered extreme head accidents in a snowboarding accident in December 2013 and has not been seen in public since.
“Michael was actually, actually nice. In Japan, it was the final race, it was the yr it was all the way down to Williams towards Ferrari and whoever received, received the championship, so it was actually tense,” he says.
“Balbir got here to the motorhome and stated ‘Michael desires an image’ – that is ‘Michael Schumacher desires an image’, not the opposite means round!
“I went into the Ferrari storage wearing my Williams gear and Michael came to visit and stated, ‘Dave, I simply needed to say thanks very a lot. I might like an image.’ I’ve received it framed, clearly, and received him to signal it ‘To my sushi.'”
Cooking was not the one function Dave was tasked with throughout his time in F1.
With groups working skeleton crews to maintain prices low, he was generally be entrusted to carry the pit boards delivering data to the drivers.
“I used to do the pit board with Brawn as a result of they did not have anybody to do it. I used to do a few sneaky messages and finally I requested ‘Will you marry me?’ to my spouse on the pit board, however Rubens and Jenson did not win so I ran over to the pit wall at Crimson Bull.
“They noticed what I used to be doing and allowed me on their wall. It was in entrance of two billion individuals so she was pressured into it!”
Lately, Dave is now not misusing pit boards or feeding maki rolls to the quickest drivers on the planet.
Final yr, alongside along with his spouse, Fatna, he purchased Middleton Corridor Golf Membership in Norfolk, and didn’t miss the chance to drop in some F1 references.
“Due to my background, we renamed all of the holes after drivers, so we have got Alonso, Schumacher, Verstappen, Hill – the place we have truly received a hill on the course – Fittipaldi. Midway home is now the Pit-Cease; the primary tee is Lights Out.”
One seemingly evident omission is George Russell, the Mercedes driver, born simply 4 miles away in King’s Lynn. However there’s a good cause, based on Dave: “He is not a world champion but!”
So if Russell does want any further motivation to kick on and overthrow the seemingly unbeatable Max Verstappen, a gap named after him on a golf course in his dwelling county is on the road.
Dave was chatting with BBC Radio Norfolk’s Racing Torque present.
Comply with East of England information on Facebook, Instagram and X. Acquired a narrative? Electronic mail eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 169 1830