The Opelousas courier., 1886-09-04
THE CATERER.
How Some Entertainments
Are Supplied with Food.
Caterers of Every Grade who Garry Eat
ables to City Households.

Caterers of Every Grade who Garry Eat.
ables to City Households.
The caterer, says a correspondent of
the Troy Times, is now a power i'll New
York. A few years ago a well-stocked
household was considered sufficient unto
itself, but now the caterer and his assist
ants are called in for anything out of the
regular order of things, from a luncheon
of six people to supper for five hundred
guests. There are caterers of every
grade. from good-natured and hard
working negroes who serve meals to
bachelors living in cheap rooms, at
prices ranging from thirty to seventy
cents a meal, up to the Pinards, who
pretend to be a peg higher even
thar Delmonico. The humber caterers
may be seen trudging along in the morn
ing from their homes in the poorer quar-
tiers of the city, Juggling oblong
tin boxes that have been ia
PANIED a seal brown at a date
more or less remote, and vending their
way toward sleeping bachelors all over
town. The tin boxes are about a foot
square and two feet and a half high,
with a big handle on the top. Within
are tin shelves. Under the bottom shelf
are alcoholic lamps. On the shelf is a
platter with chops, steak or ham. The
space between that shelf and the next is
only three inches, but the shelves above
it are about five inches apart to give
room for the cups, saucers, coffee and
milk pots and sugar bowl. ALI of these
things have their slots, into which they
fit closely. The top shelf is used for the
table cloth and napkins. The front Of
the box is door. Tt swings open and
exhibits the breakfast to the hungry
ledger when the caterer bustles into his
room More p~retentious kits than this
are sent ont by the hotels and restau.
rants. A breakfast may be carried miles
through the snowy streets and laid on
the table hot and inviting. The cater
ing department of the big restaurant is a
very important one. There is a preju-
dice against boarding houses in New
York. At all events, it is exceedingly
questionable to live in one, and the
people who are not supplied by caterers
from choice are from awe of the form Of
fashion. Contracts to serve meals may
be made with the big restaurants at
rates far below the regular fig ures ON the
bill of fare. But perhaps the caterer
is most highly appreciated by people
who entertain.
Instead of bulldozing the regulation
cook into preparing a dinner for a mum
Der Of guests, a note to the caterer set
ties it all. There is then no hurry, no
delay, no Wrangles with servants, and
the surety OF a good dinner well and
promptly served. Half an hour before
it is time for the guests to arrive a wagon
of the hearse pattern with q chimney
through the roof drives up. Nimble as
~sistants carry in the wine from the re-
frigerator in one end of the wagon and
the edibles from the hot compartment in
the other end. Everything is there,
from the flowers to the salt. The regu-
lar servants retire and the caterer takes
possession Of the kitchen, pantry and
dining room until the guests have
gone. Then the wagon drives up
again, and in twenty minutes all traces
of the dinuer party, whether to sig or a
hundred guests, have disappeared. This
plan Of giving dinners grows more and
more popular every year. The extent to
which the fashionable New York house
wife depends on the caterer, not only for
food but for nearly everything else in the
way Of entertaining, is growing more and
more noticeable. These useful servants
take all the details Of the work Of party
of the hands Of The hostess. They
the dancing cloth, provide musicians,
have the dancing orders composed and
printed, decorate the rooms, put up the
storm awnings, number the carriages,
provide extra chairs, coat checks, supper
and help, and virtually give the enter
tainment. All the lady Of the house has
to do is to walk down to her parlors and
her guests when they begin to
The cost Of all this is very much
less than Il would imagine, and the re-
lief from the din, hubbub and annoy
that prevail when the house
servants undertake the work is decided.
-
Speech Photography.