Grove workers bring a Thanksgiving feast to the masses

Greg Campbell, the executive chef and director of operations for the Grove in Lakewood Ranch, hears the ultimate compliment often.

A customer has picked up the Grove's take-out thanksgiving feast and turns to head back to the car.

"Don't tell my (significant other) that I didn't make this," the customer will say.

Campbell laughs at the thought.

"They actually will transfer everything to their own (pots and pans)," Campbell said before returning to the annual frenzy that is Thanksgiving prep.

When all is said and eaten, the Grove will have prepared Thanksgiving dinner — turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie — for approximately 7,000 people.

Everything — and Campbell emphasizes "everything" — is made from scratch.

Since 2006, when the Grove's sister restaurant, Pier 22 in Bradenton, began offering Thanksgiving dinner, the process of feeding the masses has turned into an operation that is executed with military-style precision.

That first year, Campbell said Pier 22 served about 200 people and cooked about 25 turkeys.

"The first year was like cooking chicken," said Grove Executive Sous Chef Juan Sarmiento, who has been with the company for 17 years and has worked every Thanksgiving. "I did it myself."

Now with the two restaurants, takeouts, and increased demand, things have changed.

With its 11,000-square-foot kitchen, the Grove now handles Thanksgiving preparation for both restaurants, but even a kitchen of that size isn't enough when cooking 1,300 turkeys.

"We rent 10 additional ovens (five in the parking lot)," Campbell said. "Performance Food Groups brings two tractor trailers here so we can store food."

Photo by Jay Heater

Ninety workers descend on the restaurant on Thanksgiving Day to finish preparing the food.

"Everybody works," Campbell said.

The planning period actually begins months before the big day.

"We bid out the produce to find the best quality and prices," Campbell said. "We basically buy a whole farm of turkeys. We buy them in August and they are delivered the Friday before Thanksgiving. We started making croutons two weeks ago. We have a bakery, so we make dinner rools. We toast them and then freeze them for the stuffing. We use 20,000 rolls just for the stuffing, and then another 7,000 to 8,000 Thanksgiving Day."

How does it all get accomplished? Campbell said experience is the key.

Like Sarmiento and his 17 years, most of the kitchen's other key personnel have been loyal for years. Campbell said among 40 key kitchen personnel is 350 years of experience.

"The trust is there," he said.

Those experienced workers are put in charge of specific items.

"Each year, I like to do the stuffing," Sarmiento said. "Another guy has been making the gravy for 10 years."

Campbell said the chefs have to "earn their stripes" over the years.

"You come here (as a chef) and you think you are bad ass, well, you're not until you get through a Thanksgiving," Campbell said. "I mean, we have two people just mincing celery for 12 hours who have calluses on their hands. We are doing something very difficult and we are doing it with intent."

Sarmiento takes notes each year to keep track of what is leftover or what they might need more of. However, he said, the meal basically is prepared the same way it was the first year.

Courtesy image

"It's like grandma made it," Campbell said. "It's all passed down. We take all the bones and start making stock on Friday right through noon on Thanksgiving. The turkey stock goes into everything. We make our own mushroom soup to put in the broccoli casserole. We steam and cut the broccoli, grate the cheese, make the roux."

Turkey fat is saved in 5 gallon buckets and all the turkeys are rubbed in fat and sage. A thousand pounds of cranberries are turned into gallons and gallons of cranberry sauce.

Twenty workers have the duty of carving turkeys.

The Thanksgiving Day shift begins at 2 a.m. and ends about 9 p.m.

Have there been mistakes over the years?

"There is no feeding 7,000 people perfectly," Campbell said. "Do we have a mistake? Yes."

The biggest mistake was about procedure and not about preparation.

"Our biggest gaffe came three years ago," Campbell said. "We allowed special instructions for Thanksgiving to go orders. Of the 300, 299 had special instructions — substitute this or that, extra dark meat — it was a nightmare. They were lined up down Lakewood Ranch Boulevard (waiting to pick up their order). It was so much chaos and it caused a chain of events."

Never again.

But gaffes aside, Campbell said his team prides itself on "the positive energy we put out."

"This is about feeding people," he said. "We are blessed that we can put food in front of 7,000 people. We are hoping this can be a time they will remember the rest of their lives."

When the Thanksgiving work shift is over, the workers sit down together for a holiday meal.

"Nobody wants turkey," Campbell said. "We order 80 pizzas."