The Washington times., 1904-06-05

cake, fruit, butter, or pastry Two
women are on duty at this window,
and their fingers fly like those Of a
ticket seller on the railway as the or
ders come rafting in. Behind the store
room is the pastry cooks domain. where
mattresses and other disturbing ele-
ments never penetrate. The bakers.
piemakers, and cakemakers work away
there IN perfect seclusion. and turn out
creations in airy pufrery Of paste and
meringue, or solid sweetness of plummy
cake or. pie of a dozen different kinds.
Furnace in Summertime.
A feature Of the pantry which doesn't
conduce TO comfort in August weather is
the enormous cupboard in the middle Of
the room. in which dishes Tor hot food
are placed 20 keep warm. Heating ap-
paratus runs up through the middle Of
this thing. and on each Of its four sides
are perhaps a dozen shelves filled with
plates. platters, bowls, tea and coffee
pots. tureens. and the small oval dishes
shaped like a canary's bathtub, in which
individual orders of vegetables are
served in some hotels and restaurants.
Each kind of dish has its own place,
and as fast as washed they are de
posted in the heater 1t is quite as
good as a large base-burner stove in its
effect on the surrounding atmosphere.
The presence of this apparatus ma be
one reason for the enormous consump-
ton Of cracked ice by tne employees who
work in the pantry. A huge bin full OF
il stands near the dining room door
ready to be used in cooling the drinking
water, and all day long there are knots
Of two or three girls eating Ice out Of
that bin. One would think they would
all have dyspepsia. but it seems not 10
affect them IN that way. Now and then
the manager grumbles about the con-
sumption Of ice, and Shoes the girls
away from the bin. but they return with
the persistence OF chickens 10 a flower
bed.
The privileged character Of the pantry
does not appear until rather late in the
day-9 o'clock or thereabout. He is a
little, spry negro waiter. who serves
meals TO invalids. He skips about like a
large and weIl-dressed monkey, climb
ing up the shelves to get dish from
the top. wheeling the cooks and the
store-room girl. and finally trotting off
with his tUays, which he sometimes car
ries over roofs and hands in at windows.
20 save time.
The Realm of the Chefs
Beyond the pantry is the kitchen.
where genuine art IS on exhibition. It
sounds like Babel, for the Mattresses
talk Irish, French, Canadian. and Yam
kee, the cooks jabber French and Ger
man, and the tall. dignihed. white
capped chef. stalking back and forth.
may be speaking his English with a
foreign accent. or he may not. Time
was when every American hotel had a
foreign chef, French, German or Ital-
ian, but nowadays many Americans
have studied the gentle art Of cookery
and occupy these positions. The salary
paid to a chef ranges from 5000 to al
most any sum per year, according to
the size of the hotel. the length Of the
managers purse, and the ability Of the
artist
At one end Of the kitchen is the stove,
which is consecrated TO griddle cakes.
and all along one side are the CRATES and
fires at which cooks are broiling, frying.
sizzling good things for the American
! epicure, and incidentally, 20 judge By
appearances. scorching their tempers
now and then.
'A-ah-h, ahr' excIaims the irascible
little Frenchman In white cap ana
apron. whose business II is to bfol
steaks and chops, you t'ink l have
Messing 10 do but Wait on you. you Mel
lee McFadden? You vait-you Wait uii-
III / get desc or-r-ders feeneeshed. den
! sect
But, Peer CHibernian for Pierre)
my people have ben waiting an awful
long time. and they'll complain, maybe,
TO the mead water. Say, Peer, If they
give me a tip I'll go balyers.'