My Race Weekend: The chef

• First race with the team: 2011 Australian Grand Prix
• Previously worked for: Caterham, Brawn, Honda, Jordan, Tyrrell, and Minardi

Race build-up

For European races I take the first flight out on a Monday morning, which usually means a 5am check-in and a very long day. When we land it's straight to the circuit for a few hours to begin setting up, unpack the freezers, but the early part of the week is shorter days, and in the evenings my team and I will go out for dinner, relax a bit. There are eight of us at European races in the kitchen and front of house, and at fly-aways I have a crew of six.

On Tuesday we start cooking meals for the team, and there's a lot of prep work to do for the weekend ahead. We do a lot of our cooking sous vide, so we have to prepare and vacuum-pack the food, which can take a lot of time. But by Tuesday I have more of my crew at the circuit, so they can help with that. We also feed the set-up crew, and as more of the team arrive there are more meals to be cooked.

Fly-aways are more challenging, as you're not allowed to bring food into a lot of the countries we visit, so we go out to markets to buy supplies before the team arrives. That's everything from grains of salt to herbs and spices, as well as the staples and fresh produce. Before a new race I will generally fly out early on reconnaissance, establish where to buy the things we'll need. Much of the set-up is the same, but there will be fewer guests and VIPs to look after and cater for.

For a fly-away I generally arrive on the Sunday before the race, so depending on where we're racing that can mean leaving on Saturday. By the time I get to the track my sea freight has arrived, and I unpack and start setting up as I would in Europe. The kitchen facilities are permanent, but they vary from circuit to circuit - in Brazil we work with six rings and one table!

Thursday and Friday

By Thursday the whole team has arrived - marketing, drivers, and so on. We get to the circuit around 6.15, and our focus is to feed the team. But Force India has a very social motorhome, and with Kingfisher, Vijay's vineyards, and our Smirnoff sponsorship there are always journalists popping in and out for a drink, a cup of tea, or a slice of cake.

Fridays are the longest day of the weekend. We've got three meals to prepare and serve to the team and any guests, so the catering staff are at the circuit by 5.15 to begin breakfast. It's a very long day. If there's a rebuild to be done or another reason for the garage crew to stay late, we'll stay late with them and bring them food to the garage. It's all part of the job, and we're all in it together. You don't want too many late nights like that, but they are a bonding experience!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturdays are particularly challenging, because breakfast is an hour later while lunch is at the same time. It's a compressed day, but a tough one - we have to split the catering staff so that half of the team are clearing breakfast while the other half are already on lunch prep. I'd prefer to have breakfast an hour earlier, to be honest, even if it would lose me an hour's sleep.

Saturday is also when the VIPs and guests arrive in bigger numbers, so we're looking after forty or fifty guests downstairs in the motorhome and around 70 team members upstairs. We offer our guests a tasting menu with an amuse bouche, a starter, and a choice of four options for the main course, plus a dessert. I used to cook a lot of Japanese food when I worked for Honda, so I like to have a Japanese option on the menu. As an Indian team, we always have 'A Taste of India' for the guests, and there will be British food too. We do all this with two chefs in a kitchen about three metres square!

Sundays are less compressed, but we're still feeding the team and all the guests. By the time the race has finished pack-up has begun, although we still have to look after the team and make sure they're fed. When everyone's eaten and the catering equipment has been packed onto the trucks or into the freight containers then it's on to the next race.

Dave Freeman was talking to Kate Walker