Theme park meals comprised of scratch.
That’s the brand new idea behind the renovated eating area at Sangerfest Halle, the biggest indoor meals venue at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.
Right here, you’ll discover chuck roast spinning in a vertical rotisserie and German pork loin being sliced at a carving station.
Within the kitchen, hen tenders are hand-breaded and brined. All of it contemporary. None of it thawed or prepackaged. The whole lot is ready underneath the route of the park’s first government chef Rudy Martinez.
“We’re going away from all of the frozen patties,” stated Martinez, who arrived at Fiesta Texas in August. “We’re going away from all of the frozen, pre-packaged meals.”
The one merchandise not comprised of scratch is pizza dough.
“However we’ve got a very good artisanal stone-baked pizza,” Martinez stated, “that we high off with all our contemporary components.”
Sangerfest Halle reopened on Could 9 following a multi-million greenback renovation, the biggest restaurant refit since Fiesta Texas opened again in 1992.
The renovated area consists of an expanded menu, a redesigned ordering space and a completely reworked kitchen.
“Our new scratch kitchen is full of all new gear and two state-of-the-art rotisserie machines,” stated Martinez, who beforehand served as government chef for the San Antonio Spurs. “Together with a number of ovens and a triple decker pizza oven, we’ve got flat grills and charbroil grills, together with six fryers to assist sustain with our hand-breaded hen tenders. It’s big and retains us within the kitchen excited.”
Fiesta Texas additionally has up to date Pete’s Eats in Rockville, which reopened earlier this yr with a contemporary menu and an up to date inside. Moreover, smooth drink stations have been upgraded all through the park.
The Sangerfest Halle meals courtroom is situated in Spassburg, a park area celebrating German heritage. Along with chuck roast and pork loin, the scratch menu consists of grilled brats, steak fries, backyard salads, fried brussel sprouts, pretzel rolls, fried apples, parfaits and cinnamon streusel.
Renovations started three years in the past. Development occurred in levels. To maintain the eating area open, a building kitchen was constructed together with a short lived meals service line.
Earlier than renovations, Sangerfest Halle had completely different serving stations for pizza, German meals and Tex-Mex. Now patrons transfer by a single line for all meals choices.
“As a household, you doubtlessly may have been ready in a number of strains, which made for a really lengthy expertise,” stated Jeffrey Siebert, Six Flags regional normal supervisor. “After which, after you bought your meals, you’d have to face and look forward to the remainder of your loved ones to affix you earlier than you could possibly go and pay. So we removed that mannequin.”
New furnishings in a reworked eating area will improve seating capability by 300.
“We wished to construct a facility that had a a lot bigger capability,” Siebert stated. “This has all the time been a German-themed expertise. Fiesta Texas was initially designed to pay tribute to the tradition and other people of San Antonio. Town was closely German settled, in order that’s why we’ve got Spassburg. However we even have a complete Mexican tree village that pays tribute to all of the completely different cultures which have referred to as San Antonio dwelling for generations.”
The arrival of Martinez in 2024 displays a brand new development. An growing variety of theme parks are hiring government cooks. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida has one. So does Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Martinez brings 14 years of expertise. He cooked for the Spurs after they referred to as the AT&T Heart dwelling. He’s labored for St. Mary’s College, his alma mater, making ready meals for the band, athletic occasions and Oyster Bake.
“It’s been a very huge dream of mine to work in a theme park,” Martinez stated. “What I’d like our visitors to know is that we’re bringing in the next commonplace of service and we’re bringing a greater high quality ingredient. We’re slicing contemporary fruit day by day. We’re making contemporary fruit cups day by day.
“We now have to maintain up with at this time’s tendencies. It’s not all ‘order a deep fry’ and put it on a plate. We’re marinating our pork loins. We’re marinating our chuck roast in order that we get the tenderness we want.”
Martinez is on the transfer. Checking on employees within the kitchen. Refilling trays of veggies within the meals line. Greeting new clients within the eating area. Attempting to not break a sweat.
“Being that we’re in the course of Spassburg,” he stated, “it’s Oktoberfest on a regular basis.”
