The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-12-26

bers, but it has succeeded in erowding
out the poorer class of cheap restau-
rants where wretched food was offered
at what seemed a low price. but which
was in reality far too high for the quail
dty of the stuff. There are no horses
of this kind in Christiana now. and
those restaurants which offer a dinner
at little advance on the Steam Kit
chen's prices are of good class and be
trusted
The kitchen is an immense square
room, as unlike the ordinary kitchen
of large eating establishment as can
be- In place of the ordinary endless
rows Of ranges. there is but one stove
OF moderate size. and occupying the
place of honor in the room. are seven
or eight immense cast iron cauldrons
holding each 80 gallons. nesting amid
a network of steam pipes. The bulk of
the food IS cooked in these cauIdTons,
which are heated either directly or IN
directly ny steam, as the case may re-
quire. At the height of the days toll.
when all the cauldronS are in kissing.
bubbIing, seething activity. and clouds
or steam escape from the pipes, the
most appetizing OdOrs arise from the
giant cO0k-pOts. Long white scrubbed
tables, rows of shining saucepans for
the baking and frying, which is done
at the one range, complete the kitchen
III III III III diAOl1EI room lust across
the court IS the chopping machine for
cutting up .Ueat and vegetables. and
mere, too, are the vegetables prepared
for the machine or the cauldron A
long row of refrigerator closets, store
rooms, linen and china closets, take. up
space on the ground floor, and below
are the laundry and the boilers for
generatng steam.
During the first year of the Steam
Kitchens existence. its manager had
not learned the routine necessary for
so large an establishment, and it could
not even support itself Then was
started a side issue of the business
which is now in a most prosperous
condition and furnishes all the surplus
Tor reserve fund and dividends, while
the cooking department merely pays
Its own expenses, as no conjuncture of
nigh or low prices for raw material
can persuade the shareholders to
charge more for the dinner, or to give
an inferior quality or quantity of the
food provided. The side branches make
and sell all kinds of force meat, sau-
sage, etc, as well as preserve fruits
and fruit juices and this part of the
business soon outgrew the parent es-
adjustment, and now has its branch
stores in various parts of the city
Inc prices here, too, are very mOder-
ate and the quality excellent, so that
the Steam Kitchen has come to be re-
garded as ChTistiana's chief provider
of this sort of delicacies
The managers of the kitchen, be-
sides the many meals a day given
gratis, often furnish refreshments for
bazars in aid of any worthy charity.
and occasionally a gift of money is do
mated, as last year when SEQ kronOrs
(S1SI5O) was subscribed to the fund
raised for the families of fishermen
drowned in a disaster to the Chris
iania fishing fleet.
During the last year as many as 1000
meals a day have been served either
in the dining halls or to customers to
take away, and the amount has never
run below 1,500 meals a day for ten
years, so that an average Of 2,4O0 din
ners a day cooked and served by the
Steam Kitchen would not be an over
rating of the facts. The establishment
employs an immense force of servants
in kitchen and dining hall besides Of
hce assistants. cashiers, bOokkeepers.
heads of departments, sales people and
drivers, stablemen, and messengers.
Those studying this matter of provid-
ing good food at reasonable cost for
the Inhabitants of great cities can not
fail TO be interested in the work of the
ChTiStlana Steam Kitchen, nor fail to
see how superior it is. even to those
in cities of far great size and import
ance than the little Norwegian capital
with It's 2Ol 900 inhabitants.
GRACE ISABEL COLBRON.