The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-16
SOLVES The COOK PROBLEM.
LONDON.s IMPROVEMENT on A
DOSTON ENTERPRISE.
A Company Now Delivering Meals Ready
Cooked Ut Houses Of Customers for
Less Thar They Would Cost u Pre-
pared at Variety OF tho Menu
Success Of the Plan So Ear.

pared at variety OF tho menu
success Of the Plan So Far.
The London housewife is seeing agreat
light upon her domestic horizon. II eman-
ates from travelling kitchens and irradiates
even the murky gloom OF the domestic
service problem.
1t Is only fair TO say that the idea OF the
London distributing kitchens was borrowed
from Boston, but the English syndicate
that imported 1t has improved upon 1t until
It CLOVIS In q fashion that makes the original
Boston sunrise look like a tallow dip.
Presumably, families able to hire COM
petent cooks and satisfactory stafs OF SER
wants will continue TO have their cooking
done In their " homes. The woman
whose soul firmly cleaves to the delights
Of marketing and ordering and cooking
will 20 on with her home programme, but
for the jewellers In fats and chambers, for
the housewife whose soul Is harassed by
struggles with ignorant or bad-tempered
cooks and the depressing problem Of cater
ing for three meals a day, the tim Of de-
nverance seems to be at hand.
Her salvation arrives In up-to-date
fashion on a motor car. She may sleep
peacefully o. mornings, undisturbed by
wonderings as to whether the cook came
home the night before or has oversight
or has left with morning light.
At the appointed hour a motor delivery
wagon will stop at the door. A uniformed
mar will deliver the hottest and most APP
petizing Of breakfasts, carefully packed in
a food carrier warranted TO keep hot things
hot and cold things cold.
AL tina remains 10 be done is 10 serve
the food upon the home table. The entrees
come on shining s~ilver-plsted dishes piping
hot, the coffee in a silver pot as hot.
II the housewife prefers using her own
linen. cutlery and china. well and good.
II not, the caterer supplies everything,
and everything Of good quality.
or course, while the experiment is new,
IL is natural enough that the silver sheu.dbe
brilliant, the china wi bout hicks, the linen
i'm naculate. Possibly when the work has
gone on longer. the service will be less
dainty, but the company promises the
reverse. A large corps Of servants al the
distributing kitchens does nothing save
polish silver. and it is said that china, linen
&c. will be replenished as fast as 1t shows
siyus OF wear.
The central kitchens are well worth a
visit, and the enthusiasm Of Mrs, DaubeDy,
the manager, is contagious when taken
In connection with the visit. Guests are
welcomed at any time and demonstration
dinners have frequently been given TO
invite criticism.
The great kitchens are scrupulously
clean and nowhere else In England, says
the can be seen such a complete
installation Of all improved and laboI-sav-
ing kitchen contril anoes. Some OF the
equipment comes from America, but the
largest part of the plant ! ais from Paris.
home OF cooking utensils and OF cookery.
A large percentage Of the cooking utensils
are OF nickel, hat metal being more easily
cleaned than the old-time brass or copper.
There are innumerable devices for special
cooking details. a host Of utensils whose
names and missions would be a sealed book
to the ordinary cook.
The cooking is done by gas, with ar oc-
ca sional lapse into charcoal: The gas Is
fnitelv cleaner. quite as satisfactory and
saves labor.
There are specially constructed gas stoves
for heating the silver dishes in which the
food Ia to be sent out. The fact that already
hundreds Of lumcheons, dinners and break
fasts are sent out each day gives one who
has not seen the kitchens some idea Of the
Of service dishes needed and Of
the size OF the plant.
There are cooks enough to spoil any
broth; but. fortunately, each cook Is de-
tailed to some one especial detail Of tho
cuisine and only a few are turned loose
upon the broth. The sauce chef sticks
20 his sauce. the pudding che has n soul
beyond his %puddings.
There are East Indian experts among
the cooks, men who can prepare cur les
of all sorts in a fashion TO rejoice the souls
and palates Of that large class In Lordon
called Anplo-Indlan. Col. Herbert trained
these cooks. He himself was long head
OF the vice-regal household in India and
what he does not know about Eastern cook
ery is not within the knowledge of epicures.
So here In the distributing kitchens are
pantries and store rooms stocked with
queer seeds and spices and powders and
nuts and fruits and dried leaves-all the
paraphernalia Of the Indian chef; and
here are concocted kubab ~curries. dry
curries, devtlled pine kernels. chutneys,
all the weird and spicy dishes dear to tho
Anglo-Indlan and the Englishman who
has been introduced TO them by relatives
and friends.
Italian dishes are a speciality. too, M
Italian cooks are prepared to open the eyes
and tickle the palates Of the Englishman
who doesn't know his Italy. The ways Of
cooking macaroni are legion.
The kitchen menu offers eggs cooked
IN any one Of a hundred ways, Many Of
them Italian; for, though the French chef
Is n Ward handler Of eggs, the Italian
cook knows certain tricks of serving egg
with nut sauces that should rouse envy
ever I'm the hear OF the Frenchman.
While the menu offered for selection Il
under discussion It might be mentioned
that to offset the 100 styles Of eggs there
are sixty varieties Of soups from which the
diner may pick and choose-soups OF all
nations. soups made from materials which
the ordinary Englishman would never re-
motely associate with soup.
Another dietetic point IN which the Eng
lish are sadly in need of education con-
Germs the cooking Of vegetables. Nowhere
In the world is vegetable cookery so ne
elected as In Great Britain. The vegetable
entree Of the Continent Is practically un-
known there. The distributing kitchens
propaganda may gradually change all this.
One Of the big separate kitchens IL given
over entirelyt 70 the preparation Of vegetables
and the re as Ia the soup kitchen. the best
recipes from all lands are put into practice
hy cooks trained especially for that work.
Fifty vegetable entrees are on the list Of
dishes served to order.
In salads, too, England Is lacking, and
the common variety OF English cook knows
No more about sals DIS than she does about
20 nskrit. but the Distributing Kitchens
offer ninety-eight salads. A special de-
partment is devoted to meats and poultry,
another 10 fish.
When the ordered dinner has been pre-
pared, II is put in very best silver dishes
and naaLaH in npfapt On rriarS Eaoh