The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-02-12
From the n. y. Sunday Sun.

SGolS. 1t IL Ill TIE w dluOIl-ASIolld anu
is the biggest kitchen in the world.
Things are so systematized down in that
basement that the work goes on as if the
kitchen were run by machinery, and well
oiled machinery at that With multi
tude of hungry people upstairs waiting to
be fed, one would imagine that there
might be no end of fussing, fuming and
foundering around below among the cook
pots, but that is not the case Things
move along as quietly and evenly and
smoothly as they do in well-regulated
family kitchen; even more 50. perhaps,
or the cooks in this mammoth kitchen
iaren' allowed to have any beaux or other
company around The most humble
guest can get his little dish of fried hominy
and sausages or whatever he wishes Just
as promptly as ten course dinner, every
course consisting of things out of season.
is served to the epicure.
A woman reporter found herself wan
dering around in this kitchen the other
day just when luncheon was being served
upstairs. She hardly knew how she got
there, because the kitchen is protected far
more carefully from intruders than are the
fine parlors, reception rooms and galleries
of the big hotel But she was there and
SO the bosses of the various departments
concluded to make the best of it and treat
her we'll At first she was almost dazed
by the very bigness and cleanliness and
silence of the place, but when high Off
Ger of the realm, a big bodied big headed,
handsome faced young man, stepped up
and said, ''Wouldnt you like to take a
look around p she recovered the use of
tongue and limbs and after that it was nip
and tuck between them asking and an
swering questions.
This yonng man turned out to be the
buyer for the kitchen. He buys every
thing that is consumed in the Waldorf
Astoria restaurants, dining rooms, tea
rooms, cafes and barrooms, from oysters
to coffee, and he is so modest that he
doesn think that it is any job at all to do
this. He doesn't even want to see his
name in print.
"Oh! if some of the spirit of this
kitchen could only be conveyed through
the dishes served at the luncheons of the
women's clubs that meet above, said the
reporter before she thought, and the
young man laughed I-know- -thing-or-
two-about that laugh and then said:
'tYou've been getting general idea of
the size of this kitchen, and now L show
you how we have things systematized.
This is the largest kitchen in the world
There are few kitchens from which as
many people are served, but they are in
stitutions of one kind or another and all
the people are served at the same time
and with the same articles of food, and
everything is cooked at once in big pots.
Here everything, of course, is cooked to
order
The Waldorf Astoria kitchen is like
a huge department store. 1t is divided
into the kitchen proper, the storeroom,
and pantries and the walters department.
The kitchen proper is in charge Of the
chef, Adrien Tenue,' introducing the
man himself ''Adrien has his kitchen
divided again into various departments,
and he has under him from rs to 100
learned cooks who command salaries rang
ing from S75 to 5000 month. These
cooks are the men in white coats, aprons,
and caps, who are presiding here at the
long rows of ranges. They consider their
uniform as sacred as the Red Cross people
do theirs, and | wouldn give much for
the life of a scullion who by chance put
on Il cook S coat or cap. 1t is mark of
honor when cook gets high enough up
in the art or science of cookery to be al
lowed by the chef to adopt that uniform.
''One department is devoted to roasting,
another to broiling, third to frying, and
the one next, which is under Il woman, to
the preparation of vegetables; this depart
ment in front of us is given over entirely
to soups and sauces, and another, and a
very important department, is that de-
voted to the serving of raw articles, cid
meats, and salads Each one of these
departments, like all of the others |
haven't mentioned, is presided over by an
expert who is Individually responsible for
every order filled in his department. Take
the sauce cook for example, and, by the
way, he gets $500 month. Suppose a
waiter brings back dish which this cook
has prepared, saying the person who or
dered it is dissatisfied He takes the dish
to the chef and the chef goes with it to
the sauce cook, and finds out what is
wrong, and if necessary calls the sauce
cook down. Sometimes the sauce cook
has forty or fifty orders at once during the
busy hour, and when this is the case he
appoints two or three of the most expert
men under him to help superintend the
filling of these orders, but they do not
share his responsibility to the chef. How
ever, remarkably few dishes are returned
to the kitchen as unsatisfactory. When
one is returned the rule is not to question
the matter or to exchange words about it,
but to serve the guest with anything else
he wants. Now, the other day | hap
pened to see myself a dish of lamb chops
returned. An epicure would have said
that they were perfectly cooked, but the
man who ordered them simply said to the
waiter, L don't like these lamb chops
He didn't say whether they were cooked
too much or too little, and the waiter would
have been severely reproved had he dared
to ask him why he didn' tt like them. Dur
ing the oyster season we serve from three
to four thousand plates of raw oysters
daily, and l can t remember the time when
one single plate has been sent back.
''But to get back to the kitchen proper.
where elaborate service is the order
This department that we've been talking
about does not include the bakers pastry
cooks and ice cream men, Owing to the
very nature of their work, they form a
separate department, which is also under
the chef. So much for the kitchen
1.-The storerooms and pantries are pre-
sided over by the steward, 7. M. Hilliard.