Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-05-22
MASTERS OF THE MENUS.

How Hotel stewards Prepare Their Many
Dishes.
Here, waiter, bring me some roast
beef rare. p cce Of partridge and the
usual vegetables and be lively about
I" was the d r gwen by belated
travel,r at :e of the hotels. Sunday.
Il say. Jack. subse Iuantly re-
marked a eJmpan on. what conun-
dram must be for some one to guess
what on and aal several othet hun
CRY transien-s are going to eat every
liay." T"
"Ies, | sup. ose 81" was Jac.S's Ii
cone reply.
Wonder how the do it?'' contia-
ued the other mu ingly. Nov aes
terday had NUT o.; the day be'sp |
ordered roast beef AM today | have
eaten turkey and cranberry saaca. Il
the tastes of Others have been equally
as whimsical, th gst.ence as well as
the abilities of the cook or the steward
or some one else must have been Sc
yerely tested.
But you don't always get what you
want" !" growled Jack, impatient for
the waters return.
True, when you are late" respond
ed his companion. unmindful of Jacks
failing, or his feelings ..But notice
that the bill of fare at iirst-class hotels
is very seldom crossed. 1t is the
smaller hotels where You and meet
with our most frequent disappo.nt-
ments. One would naturally suppose
that it would be just the reverse; that
large hotels, favored with liberal but
necessarily uneven trans ent trade, and
| furn shing their patrons with a great
variety of dishes, would fall short more
| frequently than smaller hotels with
lin. ted and more regular patronage,
as we'll as less number of shes to
serve.
There was no response from Jack.
and his compan on having finished his
meal, sauntered into the Office and pro-
ceeded to quest on the clerk as TO who
was responsible Tor tn meals served in
| hot Is.
1T is fferent in different c es, re-
lpl:cd the clerk. I'm New York, Chi
ago and some other large cites the
bills of fare of the leading hotels are
| arranged by the head COOKS. The best
hotels in Detroit. with but one excep-
ton, ass gn that work to their stew
d.. The table of the hotel excepted
is looked after BY the propr.etors, who
have made quite a reputation in that
Iline. The stewards, whose chief duties
are usually to purchase the supplies
and attend to the carving, are second
ed in Their work by a head cook, who
in turn depends on a number of second
cooks and their helpers and vegetable
and pastry cooks. This staff. which in
size is regulated by the business of the
houses. is, with the except on of the
vegetable and pastry cooks, made up
of male help. In a few hotels women
are employed as pastry cooks.
"Put few women are engaged as
cooks exceptin very small hotels. They
are not competent. A woman cook
will scarcely make one thing twice
alike. They take too many chances;
trust to much to luck. and in conse-
quence fal repeatedly. They hardly
ever prepare their dishes according to
any liked rule as TO the weight or
measurement of the ingredients. On
the contrary, they are disposed to lump
| things; about a teaspoonful of this,
about "a cupful of that, and when near
! " done stir in a little seasoning.
They pay no attention to the size of
the teaspoon or the cup and insert
the seasoning when and where it may
please their fancy to do SO. Now, a
man cook works quite to the contrary
continued the hotel man Every in
cred ent he uses is as accurately meas
ured and weighed as though part of
a druggists preser ption. and the mix
ing and cooking OF the same are ealcu-
lated and med as carefully as the hours
allotted by the doctor for the patients S
med ne. Even the purity and charac-
ter of the goods are inquired into.
Nothing is left to chance, and hence
there are no failures to be followed by
that feminine excuse: I don t see why
it is | should have such luck; can t
understand it.
.But how do the cooks know what
J quantity to prepare''
Easy 'nough. About ten o'c,ock
every morning the Office furn shes the
Ihead cook with list of the probable
number of guests there W II be at din
uer. In case of an unexpected rash
subsequent to that hour, supplementary
lists are sent to the head cook, and il
he finds there is a l.kel hoo1 of any of
the dishes running short he will order
one or more of the second cooks to dis
CONTINUE dishing and prepare second
dinner. A first-class hotel prides Itself
J in ALWAYS having enough of everything,
but occasionally houses that make a
special effort to secure novelties as soon
as they appear in the market, are IN
: able to satisfy late eomers, owing to the
J limited quantity OBJ ainable. Meats that
are left over can be served cold at SUBJ
sequcnt meals: the pastry that remains
generally goes to the help; otherwise
ear they would nor get many fancy
ldlshes IN theirs.
Wages? They tale W de range.
In Detroit there is one cook. French
man, who receives $1,000 a year and
Ibis board That IS the highest pr ct
$ pa d in the city. Other first cooks in
1.-THE lead ne hotels receive from 5000 te
$500 and board. The best of them are
foreigners. Second cooks. or brolers
las they are sometimes called, are paid
iron $50 to $50 month; head yogeta
ble cooks receive S25 to $50, and theil
assistants from SO TO $l5 month
Head pastry cooks demand from S25 tx
. SlO9 a month, according to the hous'
AID the ability of the individual Il
most hotels the pastry department j
entirely distinct from al others. |