SKATERS wowing audiences at this month's Brighton ice extravaganza may be the stars of the show.

But the backstage heroes are father and son team Jean-Louis and Joel Bondoux who play a vital role in keeping the show on the road.

Jean-Louis and Joel have the task of keeping the Holiday on Ice skaters and crew fed and watered.

With 56 skaters building up huge appetites performing up to three shows a day, it is a tall order.

But the pair have got it cracked, rustling up dozens of dishes each day, from slap up English breakfasts to late night suppers. At times they are called upon to come up with quick snacks for performers caught out by hunger-pangs mid way through a show.

Jean-Louis, 54, said: "The skaters use up so much energy in each performance they need to eat good food between shows, with lots of vitamins, plenty of fresh fruit and lots of pasta."

For Jean-Louis, touring with the Holiday on Ice company, which is performing at the Brighton Centre until the end of the month, is a way of life.

A former French ice dancing champion and Paris-trained chef, Jean- Louis first came to Brighton 22 years ago as a skater in Holiday on Ice and has been back every year since. He has been with the company for 34 years.

Seven years ago he quit skating to concentrate on catering and now spends most of the year touring with the show in Europe and South America. Home is a caravan - currently based at Sheepcote campsite in Brighton.

Jean-Louis said: "I joined the ice show for one year for a bet - 34 years ago. The owner of the restaurant I was working at then thought it would be a good way of learning languages for a year."

He and Joel, 23, who toured with his parents until he was eight, have turned the backstage area of the Brighton Centre into a canteen, bringing with them their own fridge-freezer, oven, cooking utensils and food cupboards - everything bar the kitchen sink.

The surroundings are far from glamorous, but the food is first class and it is a chance for the ice dancers to get out of their intricate costumes and relax in dressing gowns.

Each week Jean-Louis and Joel go on two mammoth shopping trips, spending hundreds of pounds on food to keep the performers full of energy. They aim to serve up local dishes according to which country they are performing in and at the moment that means lots of shepherd's pies, roasts and stews.

After so long with the company Jean-Louis has become something of a father figure to the young skaters in the show and cannot imagine giving up his nomadic way of life.

He said: "I've been with the show too too long to be able to stop. I don't know what I would do if I stopped travelling, it is my life. I've seen the whole world."

Skater Fiona Kirk, 30, from South Africa, said: "The food is fantastic, it is too good and the scales show it!

"Jean-Louis is a character and because he has skated with the show he knows what everybody wants."

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