The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-08-18
COOKING FOR ROYALTY.
ESINTHE COURT KITCHEN
OF GERMANY,
On Great Occasions Emperor william
Himself Bosses Thing = Ordinarily,
However, He Trusts to the Empress
to Get His Dinner.

However, He Trusts to the Empress
to Get His Dinner.
The German court kitchen affords
nm interesting spectacle to those who
visit it for the first time, especially
if the visitor be present when prepa-
rations are being made for. state
dinner of which several hundred
people will partake, says a Berlin
paper.
The court kitchen is under the d.
rection of the court marshal's Office,
and more particularly one depart
ment of it called the court kitchen
Office. This department. has to at
tend to all purchases and orders,
and to settle the accounts of the
tradesmen who supply the goods.
The ''fouriere" literally, quarter
masters), who look after the receipt
of the provisions, are officials of tho
court kitchen department; on grand
occasions they act as stewards and
superintend the walters as we'll as
the kitchen staff. An official called
the master of the kitchen is at the
head of this staff. He has number
of chefs under his control, each of
whom has the management of a par.
ticular branch, and is assisted by
four, five or ten men, in accordance
with the amount of work to be done.
The roasting department is proba-
bly, the most important; it's chief and
his men must be excellent cooks.
Next in order comes the entremets
or side-dish department, which is en-
trusted with the preparation of soups
and vegetables of all kinds. The
third division has to attend to fish,
entrees and sauces. The pastry cooks
form another branch; they not only
make all the pastry and confection-
cry, but are also responsible for the
production of jellies, preserves ana
sweetmeats.
The washing-up department is also
an important one; the women en-
ployed must be skillful in the clean
ing of silver and the washing of
crockery and glass. They are under
the supervision of a male official.
The pantry, or provision rooms,
with the stock of meat, fowl, game,
ETC., are under the charge either of
the master of the kitchen himself or
his deputy. Financially, there is a
special department for the safe-keep-
ing Of the culinary utensils which
are made of copper and tin; here are
all sizes of sauce-pans, frying-pans,
kettles, etc, carefully arranged. each
utensil having number corr espond-
ing to certain place in the iron
racks at the side. Those in every
day use, however. are generally
piled up in a pyramid in some handy
part of the room in which they are
required.
The iron stoves are all of the most
improved construction, and set in
the wall to the best advantage, so
that the cooks can get at them very
easily. Pit coal is used in all of
them. To enable the cooks to pre-
pare dishes speedily on an emer-
gency the stoves are provided with
an apparatus in which gas is used
for heating an iron grid on which
saucepans can be boiled very quickly.
Each room is provided with tab
let on which is written the time at
which the meal is to be ready. A
good clock also stands in promi-
nent place in each room
In addition to these, the roasting
room contains the special stoves re-
quired for the purpose, colossal
things looking like immense sid e.
boards set in the wall; special ar
rangement for cooking beefsteaks,
and an enormous turnspit, worked
by fan-wheel Tin the chimney set
in motion by the heat of the fire and
moving piece of clockwork machin-
cry which regulates the turning of
the spit
The pastry cooks, of course, have
special fireplaces and ovens; they
also have large glass cupboards in
which their productions are placed
until required for the table.
On great occasions the menu is
prepared week in advance and SUBJ
mitted to the emperor himself. On
ordinary occasions the empress ar
ranges it. This settled, the prepa-
rations begin in the kitchen; provis-
ions are ordered, details are ar
ranged. and the whole of the staff
are as busy as possible until the din
ner is thing of the past. Probably
the pastry cooks have the most to do:
in addition to the usual supply of
pastry and sweets they have to pre-
pare all the ornaments for the table.
1t is the custom to bake rander, or
edges, for the plates and dishes;
these are of dough, gilt or silvered,
and are for show.
These cooks make large represen-
tations of Chinese pagodas, Egyptian
temples, Turkish minarets, old cas-
ties, sometimes in ruins, and many
other things. The framework is of
wood: this is covered with dough or
fat, which is shaped and colored. It
requires considerable skill to produce
these ornaments. Many of them con-
tain groups of figures, with hunting
and other trophies, which are first
cast in cardboard moulds and worked
up by the cooks. They are never
used twice.
The kitchen staff is likely to be
called upon at any time to accompany
their imperial master to some
country seat or elsewhere; as, for
instance, when he attends the autumn
maneuvers, and takes it into his