Personnel Spotlight: Site-19, F&B Director - SCP Foundation

JayKillbam

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PERSONNEL SPOTLIGHT

F&B Dir. Luc-Gaston Reinold

When you think of the SCP Foundation, you think “Researcher”, “Scientist”, “MTF Agent”, “O5 Council”, “D-Class”, “Ethics Committee”, etc. What you rarely think of is “Food Service Member”. With countless sites, operational centers, and designated areas to contain anomalies, there is a clear need to feed the tens of thousands of staff under the employ of the Foundation, not to mention to provide some form of nutrition supplement to the D-Class population and the thousands of notable living anomalies in Foundation custody.

This is Gaston Reinold, Food & Beverage Director of Site-19; the largest site maintained by the Foundation. We reached out to Gaston to ask him what an average day looks like for him.

Gaston, thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. First, can you tell us a little about yourself?

Absolutely! Name’s Luc-Gaston Reinold, or just simply “Gaston”. I am the Food and Beverage Director for Site-19. I have a Masters of Hotel Management from Cornell, a Triple A1 from Cordon Bleu, and 20 plus years of restaurant and hotel experience, working from host, all the way to executive leadership.

An impressive resume to be sure. How did you end up at the Foundation?

Like a lot of staff, I was recruited covertly. I didn’t really understand how big the rabbit hole was until I was already deep in it. I guess I was kept at arms length for sometime. For a while, I thought I was doing catering logistics and consulting for a large scale energy conglomerate. But things soon started falling into place, and I assume I asked the right questions at the right time in the right way. Then one day site leadership told me what the Foundation was, and by then, I was like, ‘The pay is great and my life is pretty much the same’. So, I accepted the Director position.

So the lifting of your personal Veil wasn’t too world shattering?

Not particularly, no, I had some previous experience with Ambrose Restaurants. So I was already pretty familiar with the idea of strange and abnormal things. I just figured it was some real magic stuff, and I had always believed in magic.

That’s fantastic!

I know, it’s like I was meant to do this. I find doing what I have always done as a career rewarding. The addition of the anomalous provides a prefect addition. A little garnish, if you will.

Love the food wordplay. So, Gaston, how do you start your day?

Well, there is a lot to do around site, food-wise. So, I get up around 6:30am, do the daily routine and then drive to 19. Commute is about 45 minutes and I try to be on site by about 8:00am. From there, I head to my office and start looking at emails, taking note of the Anomaly Arrivals, Daily Containment Services, Site Staffing Reports, and Delivery Invoices.

Can you elaborate on what each of those is?

Oh, sure! Anomaly Arrivals is a short spreadsheet of incoming anomalies for that day. It goes over possible nutritional needs for some of the living ones. Most of the time it’s just a bunch of things that needs to eat raw meat. But every now and then you get something that needs a bit more finesse.

So, you must have pretty high access if clearance seeing all the anomalies that come through the door, no?

Well, I have a level 4 clearance, but it’s not as exciting as most people think. RAISA is the department that curates my paperwork, so I only get to know about the anomalies that they want me to know about… usually only the living/metabolizing ones. They don’t let me know about the mind-melting eldritch meta-concept ones. If it doesn’t need to eat, I don’t need to know about it. Honestly, I’m okay with that.

That is a fair point.

Keeps me grounded for sure. On to the Daily Containment Services. This is a… again, RAISA-curated, list that details the nutrition needs of all anomalies currently on site and any changes made to their nutritional needs. Then there is the Site Staffing Reports. The SSR lets me know how many staff are currently on site and also arriving. This includes MTFs coming and going, researchers, clerical staff, auxiliary departments, basically anyone who will be coming through the six cafeterias at 19. It also includes the amount of D-class as well, whom we count separately.

What is the reasoning for that?

Well, my passion for providing a pleasant and remarkable culinary experience has not dwindled here at the Foundation. I like to see to it that the staff, from level 1 to 4, class A to C get a delicious and rewarding meal while on site. Some of these staff work for weeks on end with little sleep, facing horrors and traumas beyond reproach. The best thing I can do is work with Lao Prashta, our Executive Chef, to provide some semblance of comfort and normalcy in the food we provide. However, all that being said, the D-Class is separate from that philosophy, we try not to waste resources on what could be seen as expendable and temporary staff. For D-Class we typically run more of a prison style food program to minimize cost.

That makes perfect sense. So you and Chef Lao work closely then?

Absolutely, she handles the execution of all food across site. Under her there are 8 sous chefs, one for each cafeteria, and 2 for anomaly catering, as well as 78 line cooks. It’s quite an impressive operation. She is the one who really keeps the wheels turning. I just oversee the larger picture and administrative portion.

That is certainly a lot.

Sure is. Budget wise, we stack up against some of the larger hotels and cruise lines in the world. We go through about 40 million dollars in food cost annually. And that can certainly fluctuate wildly when you get an anomaly that eats some expensive, esoteric thing. Drives me nuts sometimes, but Chef loves it, she gets to be the creative one and I get to foot the bill. HA!

Earlier you stated that you like to see staff from all levels and classes get the best experience, however you didn’t mention the O5s. Why?

Well, the Council certainly gets a meal when they do, on the rare occasion, decide to all meet here. Typically if they are all on-site physically, it usually means something bad is happening and they rarely have the time nor the need for a meal. However, we have had a few instances where they have requested food. In those few cases it was of course last minute, leaving me and Chef to scramble to put together something worthy of the Council.

That must have been stressful!

I have done dinners for some of the most elite members of global society. None of that can even compare to the stress and expectation of attempting to serve the very people holding the chaos of the world in check. It is mind boggling anxiety. Especially because some of their dietary preferences are a bit out there. Each time the meal plan included cat food, no clue why.

Ever mysterious those O5.

Certainly strange, but each time Chef Lao was able to craft some last minute 6-course culinary wizardry and always have the Council supposedly leaving happy. I’d swear she was anomalous based on how many times she’s saved the day.

Sounds like a great working relationship. Does she put in the same effort into the food for the anomalies?

Well, for the ones who do eat, we like to stick to a kind philosophy. If an SCP is sapient and non-threatening, we understand that containment and the isolation implicit in that containment can be soul shattering. We will typically work with them and curate a weekly meal plan. Some have in-containment fridges and their own food supplies that we order for them. Ultimately, we really try to do something for them that can brighten their day and make them feel not so alone. It’s good for the site as well. Meta-analysis has shown that happier anomalies leads to less breaches.

What do the threatening ones get?

For the dangerous sapient SCPs we typically feed them the same as D-Class. Minimal effort and minimal contact is the game there.

How about non-sapient anomalies and creatures?

We let the research teams do their thing, research. Once they decide on an adequate diet for the creature, we will ensure a consistent delivery and preparation schedule is set up.

Efficiency is key I guess then? So how does the rest of your day go then?

Like a well oiled machine. Well, like I said after reviewing all my paperwork, I ensure that all deliveries are made on time, I check in with Chef, pop my head in each cafeteria, do quality checks. I like to meet with some staff and researchers just to see how they are enjoying things. Just getting around site to do all that takes up most of my day. By around 8pm, I start closing up shop, send out a Daily Report to all Culinary Team members on the days numbers and what needs to be done to be prepared for tomorrow. Another 45 minute drive home to sleep and do it all again the next day.

How many days do you work?

I try to stick to five, but sometimes duty calls and I need to go in. Especially after containment breaches, that’s when it’s all hands on deck, sometimes cooks and sous chefs are dead, there's like multiple add-on MTFs on location, soldiers are always hungry, and manpower is usually short. Sometimes a ravenous SCP will get into the food supplies and Chef and I have to figure out the loss product and get the pars back up. It’s safe to say, the job can get really interesting at times.

Phenomenal dedication I see.

If you love what you do, it’s easy.

Is there anything else people should know about you and what you do as F&B Director of Site-19?

No, that’s pretty much it. Always be kind to your cafeteria cooks! I hope this helps people on site understand how big of an operation just getting food in front of them can be. Thank you so much for having me and letting me speak!

The pleasure is all ours. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to let people know a bit more about the behind the scenes at 19.

Footnotes

1. Advanced Academic Accreditation