Lyndy Redding is the managing director, part-owner and founder of Absolute Taste, a catering company that is majority-owned by the McLaren Group, which also owns the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team. Redding, who is British, graduated from the Tante Marie School of Cookery in England, of which she is now a part owner with the chef Gordon Ramsey. At the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix, she worked as a caterer on a yacht for the Leyton House team, which hired her as a chef the following year. She later worked as a caterer to McLaren, and in 1997 founded Absolute Taste with Ron Dennis, the McLaren owner, to cater to the team and in other areas. Absolute Taste has grown into a company of 320 employees, serving McLaren at races and the staff at the team factory. It also caters major events, such as serving corporate guests at the London Olympics in August, and services companies and private jets. The Monaco Grand Prix is Formula One’s biggest guest and VIP event, and Absolute Taste will cater not only to the McLaren team, but to six yachts and the VIPs at all team lodges above the garages. Redding spoke to Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune.

Q. What does the Monaco Grand Prix represent for you?

A. This is my 24th Monaco in a row, except for one, when I had a baby. Of all the Grands Prix, it is the one that has probably changed the least, because the security around the other races has changed. But Monaco, because it is still so accessible in between the track sessions and when the roads are open, is not hugely dissimilar to the early days, apart from the new pits. There is an experience, a feeling that I think everyone must feel, at the end of the race, when all the fog horns get blown on all the boats, and it’s over — it’s just a mega feeling. And I still get a bit of goose pimples — “Oh my goodness!”

We have the normal operation here, we look after the team, but it is even bigger because all of our partners, all their board members come, we have all of the CEOs of pretty much all of our partners. So everybody is on edge, everyone is there wanting to have fun but pretty much everybody has a job to do. The Singapore and Abu Dhabi races are right up there, but Monaco still has that extra pizzazz.

Q. How long is the work day for the catering staff?

A. Monaco is really long. It depends what day it is, but the longest day at most races is probably Friday. It starts at 6 a.m., doing breakfasts — we’re open from around 7 and we close near 11 p.m. or later, with a sponsor dinner. But in Monaco we do the lodges, we do the McLaren apartment, we are doing six boats this year. The boat crews and the way the boats are designed they are used to looking after 12 or 24 passengers, but for the Monaco Grand Prix they will have a party for 60, a lunch for 40, and with their kitchens and staff they just cannot do it, as well as doing the breakfast and rooms and general crew catering. From the U.K., we bring about 18 people for the team and 80 people to come to do other work.