Intility Arena: from school lunch to VIP restaurant in the same building.

Ability runs a kitchen that serves between 100,000 and 150,000 meals a year. School canteen, nutrition for elite athletes, daily catering off site and VIP dining for up to 600 guests on match day. Often in the same week.

Intility Arena is one of Ability's most complex Food and drink deliveries. The same address holds an upper secondary school, the administration and elite teams of Vålerenga Fotball, and an arena that fills with spectators roughly twice a month through the season.

That imposes demands which normally belong to entirely different operating models. A school canteen is about predictability and volume at fixed times. Nutrition for elite athletes is about composition and timing around training and matches. VIP dining is about experience and precision on a day when nothing can be postponed. Catering off site is about logistics.

Ability solves all four from one and the same kitchen.

Daily operations

Valle Hovin upper secondary school has around 520 students. We serve daily lunch to between 100 and 150 of them, in addition to teachers and school administration.

The administration at Vålerenga Fotball receives daily lunch.

Vålerenga Elite men receive breakfast and lunch up to seven days a week. The squad numbers 40 to 45 people, including coaches, physiotherapists and support staff. Vålerenga Elite women receive lunch three to four days a week, around 30 people. For both elite teams we prepare match food that the players take with them on the bus and on away trips.

Off site we deliver daily catering to NLA University College with around 100 diners and to the City Environment Agency with between 30 and 50. Through the year, events and catering assignments come on top, among them summer parties, regional gatherings and school balls.

Match day

Roughly twice a month the building changes function.

The setup starts the day before. Three people prepare the premises while the school is still in ordinary operation.

The VIP restaurant on the fourth floor is a classroom the rest of the week. On match day it is laid with white tablecloths and set up for full service to up to 400 guests. For the biggest matches we open the third floor as well, reaching 600 VIP guests. The concept is a themed buffet built around countries. The themes are planned before the season starts in collaboration with Vålerenga. The kitchen has its own pastry chef who makes the cakes for the VIP events.

«People are surprised when they hear that the VIP restaurant is a classroom. We set it up the day before every match and reset it afterwards, and on Monday morning the desks stand there as if nothing had happened.» – Tommy Nilsen, operations manager at Ability.

The canteen area holds Folkevippen and Henger'n, with room for up to 800 guests. There the concept is informal football food. We set up two bars and a self-pour tap wall, where guests pour their own beer and cider. This area too is converted from canteen to arena concept before every match.

On top of that, food for the crew runs throughout the day for everyone working, with simpler fare such as open sandwiches and sausages.

After the match everything is reset. On Monday morning the fourth floor is a classroom again, and the canteen is a canteen.

Staffing

Day to day the kitchen is run by four people, the pastry chef included, plus two who handle the delivery to NLA University College.

On match day three people begin the setup the day before, eight work at Folkevippen, and in the VIP restaurant around ten waiters and two chefs are on duty.

Why it works

What makes Intility Arena demanding is not the individual meal. It is that four different deliveries share the same kitchen, the same premises and the same people, and that the transitions have to happen without any of the guests noticing them.

«What is demanding here is not the individual meals, it is the transitions. We go from school lunch to player breakfast to VIP dining for 400 in the same building, and none of the groups should notice that the others exist.» – Tommy Nilsen, operations manager at Ability.

That requires planning in a monthly perspective, not a daily one. The buffet themes are set before the season starts. The setup plan is known in advance. School operations continue as normal while the conversion is under way.

This is the kind of composite operation Ability is built for. One operational responsibility, several services, one point of contact for the customer.