The mission statement for the “FIFA Fan Festival, Kansas City” reads as follows: “We Believe in Good Matches, Good Food, Good Entertainment and Good People.”
Kenneth Hardiman of Bloomington will have no impact on the quality of FIFA World Cup soccer matches at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. Nor will he be responsible for the entertainment or people.
Hardiman’s focus will be the food. A regional executive chef with Levy Restaurants, his job is to help ensure premium and concession food at the Kansas City venue meets Levy standards.
“I’m not overseeing it. I’m in a role to help the people at the location,” Hardiman said. “I’m in more of a supporting role, coming in on the planning end of making sure of the execution of the event.”
There is a game plan to carry out and Hardiman is well-equipped to assist. He has been in his position for four and a half years with Levy, one of the top food providers for sports and entertainment venues and events.
Kansas City will be the site for Group Stage matches on June 16, 20, 25 and 27. It also will host a Round of 32 match on July 3 and a quarterfinal match on July 11.
“I will not be there the whole time. I will be there for a good chunk of it,” Hardiman said.
The surroundings will be familiar. Hardiman was born and raised in Kansas City. Soccer also is on his family’s radar.
Hardiman’s wife, Lindsay, is a sister to Carrie Chapman. That makes Hardiman a brother in-law to Matt Chapman, longtime soccer coach at Normal Community High School.
The World Cup is among many major sporting events on Hardiman’s Levy calendar. He was at the Kentucky Derby in May and in New York for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. He was in Oklahoma City recently for the NBA Western Conference Finals and works a number of top-level tennis tournaments, including the U.S. Open.
“It’s definitely a transition from what I used to do,” he said. “I have a background with restaurants and hotels. I kind of fell into the role of being in sports and entertainment, which I love. There’s something different and new every single day.”
Hardiman initially sought to be an artist, taking some art classes and attending galleries in the Kansas City area. But there was a hitch.
“I got farther into it and realized, ‘How am I going to make money off of this?’” he said. “Then I realized I could intertwine art in cooking.
“I loved how cooking with my parents and family made me feel, just being around great surroundings and gatherings and what that meant. I honestly used my family and siblings as test subjects when I was watching The Frugal Gourmet and different shows. I just dived into as many cookbooks and different things as I could and tried things out.”
It led to Hardiman completing a culinary program at a community college in Overland Park, Kansas, then graduating at the top of his class at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Minneapolis.
He worked at high-volume restaurants and hotels before getting connected through Levy to the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. He was an executive chef with the team and its venue, Fiserv Forum Arena, leading to his current position.
His schedule, particularly in the summer, means a lot of time away from Lindsay and their 11-year-old son, Clayton.
“He and my wife are very intricate in all of this,” Hardiman said. “We plan the summers and stuff like that. Whenever I have down time, I’m home.
“One of the things we want to do is when they’re available in the summer, I try to have them come with me on these trips to be a part of things … just for his growth and seeing some different venues and events, being a part of the experience.”
Hardiman said his duties vary from event to event, but always include “making sure we uphold our [Levy’s] standards.”
“I help with the planning and processing,” he said. “It’s making sure we have staffing and the food looks great and the sanitation is in place. We’re just continuously moving the mark.”
Hardiman, 46, embraces the job’s challenges and rewards.
“It’s a heck of a ride,” he said. “I knew in middle school I wanted to be a chef. But if someone told me this is what I was going to be doing as my career, I would have told them … I don’t know. There’s always another door and opportunity that opens up.”
