Who will feed the ‘Hamilton’ cast when it arrives in town in June? This newly hired chef
No one who works at Century II — the 54-year-old performing arts and convention center that “rounds out” Wichita’s skyline — can ever remember the place having a head chef.
It does now, though.
ASM Global — the same company that manages Intrust Bank Arena and the Orpheum — took over management of Century II in October 2021 after the City of Wichita decided to outsource operations. Since then, ASM has made several changes at the venue, including switching its ticketing vendor to Select-A-Seat and designing a new logo.
In January, ASM decided to make another change at Century II and to hire an executive head chef. Katie Doornbos got the job and started in January.
Now, when events take place at Century II, food will come exclusively either from Doornbos’ kitchen or from Hyatt Catering. Previously, Century II event organizers also could have gotten food from Corporate Caterers, based across the street at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview.
But ASM wanted to change that setup, said Emily Larkin, Century II’s marketing manager.
“We really wanted to do something in house so we could offer a greater variety of options for our patrons,” she said. “...As we are growing into the events we are doing — like national touring events on the performing arts side — we wanted to give greater options for cast and crew and anyone coming here for our different conventions, anyone using our different halls.”
Doornbos, who was a student in Butler Community College’s early culinary arts classes — said she had been working for a couple of years as a chef at Via Christi St. Francis when she saw the job listing. She got the Century II job and arrived to a pretty bare-bones kitchen, she said, but she’s now working on getting it upgraded and ready to cater big events.
So far, she’s done a few smaller events — though she did get to feed the casts of “Anastasia” and “Dear Evan Hansen” during their recent runs on Century II Concert Hall’s stage. Her plan, she said, is to soon start catering 500-700-person plated dinners or buffets. She’s also in charge of the concession areas in Century II.
Some of the jobs Doornbos is excited about on the horizon: She plans to offer her time to help cook for the annual Cajun Food Fest, a marquee attraction at the Wichita Riverfest that’s staged in front of Century II and that this year will happen on June 8. She’ll also get to feed the cast and crew of “Hamilton” when the traveling show arrives in early June for a two-week run.
“After May, that’s when we ramp things up,” she said.
Doornbos has created a new menu for events at Century II that offers boxed meals, buffets, plated dinners and more and she can serve it at meetings, proms, even weddings that are booked for a Century II space.
Larkin said that the staff has been thrilled with Doornbos’ presence so far and definitely does not mind being recruited for menu taste tests.
“She’s awesome,” Larkin said. “A good perk of the job is her food.”
