Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-10-10
THE CHEF AND HIS DOMAIN.
Some OF the Kitchen Mysteries OF
an English. Hotel.

exquisite neatness, says the American
Analyst. To produce this condition
there is an army of scrubwonen with
mops and pals and cleaning cloths,
and from the big copper caldrons at
one side of the room, where soups are
brewed. past the great row OF shining
tins suspended in the middle OF the
room, to the baAk of glowing ranges
at the other side-from the scrubbed
floor beneath your feet to the white
apron and black eyes of the chef at
your side, everything shines. This is
the chefs province. The chef not in
frequently combines the sensibility of
the artistic temperament with good
degree of education, and he will toler-
ate nothing unclean. He has been
trained in Paris. Before acquiring the
diploma OF the French cooking school,
which he found necessary to the pur-
suit of his art at home, he was pot
washer in the kitchen OF some other
artist, and he has served the long APP
premiership which most r.odern
Americans consider themselves smart
ity of the French chef coIOes because
we are willing to pay munitcently for
imported cooks, while our own sons
starve genteelly in dry-goods stores.
Even the cooks in many second and
THU d class hotels can boast of Paris
training. For, as not every actor can
play Hamlet, so not every Partisan
who goes TO cooking school becomes
an artist. Many n Frenchman who at
homo would be compelled TO twirl the
humble saucepan is able to lord it over
the kitchen OF an English hotel. where
he is endured because he is less ex-
travagant and on the whole more USE
full than the cook from the provinces,
who never saw even the outer wall of
a cooking school.
The most widespread misconception
of the duties of chef is the notion
that he cooks. He can cook, of course,
but il he could do nothing else he would
never be chef. His prime Importance
in the kitchen comes from the fact that
he can make five or six other men cook
at the same time. OF these assistants
he requires everything except the COM
position OF the sauces and the flavoring
of the soups. No chef with the true
artist soul will admit that any second"
as his first assistant is technically
known-can make u fine sauce c. give
the proper SAVIOR to a consomme ccyale
or Julienne. These be the inner
mysteries OF the temple and profane
hands must not be laid CT them. II at
your favorite hotel the consomme is
clear as amber and nearly as strong
as bouillon, while the flavor OF the
salad dressing inspires thrills OF APP
probation, your chef is an artist. and
life under his ministration is not likely
TO be resigned. If at the same time
your chop is sometimes charre1 and
your egg made stringy by exposure to
too great heat these are blunders of
the subordinates and may be remedied
by politely phrased complaints TO the
chef. IL, on the other hand, greasy
globules afloat on the top of the soups
and the beef and mutton gravies taste
susipiciously alike, then there is some
thing fundamentally wrong with the
kitchen, and the quicker you move the
better
The trouble may be too few stock
pots, for these great copper tanks, with
sizzling steam pipes running through
them, hold place in the kitchen econo-
my hardly second TO the ranges The
largest Of them will hold a barrel, while
the smaller sizes look like the domestic
tin wash-boilers reproduced in copper.
There are always three Of these and
frequently six. The largest is devoted
to consomme or plain beef stock-the
foundation of all good soups. Into it
are thrown great shanks of beef, the
bones being broken SO us to release the
marrow, together with cuttings from
various inferior parts Of the animal,
hut with the fat carefully removed.
The pot is then filled with water, the
steam turned through the pipes, and
the mass boiled eight or nine hours
until all the nutriment is extracted from
the meats. The liquid is then drawn
of, strained, and allowed to cool, when
it becomes a solid beef jelly. This is
put away in the ice-box. afterward be-
ing cut an d taken out in great chunks"
| like cheese and thinned and favored
for next days needs. This second pot,
equally large. is not so exclusive in its
associations. Into it are thrown veal,
ham, mutton, and poultry bones, trim
mings from all these sorts OF meats, the
IDS OF raw tomatoes. celery tops, and
various vegetables. The resultant stock
is finally favored, but it is not clear
and so it is used for basis for all the
thick soup and vegetable purees.
Though there are usually from one TO
four other stock pots it is possible to
supply all the soups of an extended bill
of fare from these two caldrons-with
tho aid OF a French menu-card and n
chef with an artistic taste for flavor
ing.
In frst-class hotel third steam
pot is devoted to poultry soups, n fourth
to bisques or fish soups Of various sorts,
and a fifth TO Espagnol, a soup that is
the basis of all meat sauces, and for
the havoring of which various vegetn-
bles. including onions and garlic, are
carefully fried in butter. Ox-tlil, mul.
ligatawney, mock-turtle, and special
soups are made on a range as wanted.
But "there are tricks in all trades, and
the hotels where beef, mutton, veal,
and chicken soups are made from the
plain beef stock, with the addition OF
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