The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-05-16
CHEFS OF NEW YORK.
Important Personages In Clubs-ynIuahIs
Wivoy who Are Cooks,

Wivc, who Are Cooks.
Cooks were men of high pay and
much distinction in old Greek days.
and they have come to be persons Of
consideration in modern New York.
When a man. lunchipg at a club the
other day, found a particular dish
especially to his taste, he asked,
with some hesitation, whether the
cook could be persuaded to reveal
the secret of its composition. The
hoad waiter thought he might and
undertook to be- the diplomatic in
termediary between the dining room
and the kitchen. There came in re-.
ply an inquiry from the gentleman
below stairs as to whether the gen.
tleman above stairs could read
French, and when this query had
been answered in the affirmative
there came from the neither region
the recipe, neatly written and we'll
expressed in that language, upon
the note paper of the club. The club
member sent his respects and ao-
acknowledgements to the invisible po-
tentate of the kitchen, and thus an
agreeable incident came to an end.
Nearly all clubs and considerable
hotels have French cooks, male, of
course, though it is usual in small
clubs to employ as second cook a
woman. The chef in a large club has
as many assistants as he demands
and is a parsonage of the highest
consideration, we'll paid, much de-
ferred to, and, as far as possible, con-
ciliated. Cooks maintain their an
cient reputation for i'll temper, and
the company in the luncheon room
of a Fifth avenue club was startled
n day to see some sort of kitchen
underling burst into the apartment,
actively pursued by the raging cook,
butcher knife in hand, bent upon
doing execution upon the frightened
offender. A good club cook costs
from $3.50 to 81, 200 a year, and there
are some who receive much higher
salaries.
One finds in some of the smaller
French restaurants q woman cook,
perhaps the wife of the proprietor,
O tireless creature who labors late
and early and manages by her pecul-
lar gift to confer a special reputa-
ton upon the place. A wife such as
that is an unspeakable treasure to
any restaurant keeper. for not only
does she do the work of a skilled
and we'll paid man and keep it up
for twice as many hours as he can
be induced to stay in the kitchen,
but, above all, the cooks that are at
the same time wives, whatever their
peculiar traits and however i'll their
tempers, do not give notice" The
services of such a wife can hardly
be valued in money, and widowed
indeed is the man that loses her.
A pleasing feature of a restaurant
that has now, alas, deserted the old
French quarter for the new was the
occasional presence of the cook, clad
all in white, his paper hat on his
head, in the dining room among the
guests. He knew some of the regu-
lar patrons, and it was his custom
to honor n il another by taking a
seat at his side and entering into
conversation. The chef in most
clubs, hotels and restaurants is an
object of awe to all his fellow serv-
ants, if indeed tho cook may, even
by implication, be called a servant.
His moods r watched his moments
Of rage are INDUCED. The waiter
that must carry to the kitchen a
dish that has been rejected in the
dining room sneaks in with fear and
trembling and %endeavors to propiti-
ate him whose art has been called in
question. The cook comes in for a
large share of the Christmas box at
every club. Though he may be un-
known by sight to any member Of
the club, and a stranger even to the
house committee, he is known by
his deeds, and he stands firmly for
all his rights and privileges. To dis
miss SO great a man is a duty that
few care to take upon themselves,
and to admonish him is the most
delicate and diplomatic of tasks
New York Sun.