The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-24
The CARS
CHIEF COOK
An Autocrat, With Fifty
Thousand Dollars
a Year.

The rumored attempt to take thu
/ Cars life by means of poison intro
| duced into his food reminds one thai
| there are subtle dangers close at han6
| against which all the Russian EN-
| peror's armies of soldiers, police and
spies cannot protect him, and against
| which the most careful precautions
may we'll be powerless
There is no part of the Cars palaces
so jealousy guarded from the outside
world and enveloped in so much my
stery as the kitchens in which the
royal meals are prepared; indeed, all
the information we have about them
has been given by one or two employees
who have left the Cars service The
most complete and interesting of these
accounts was given some time ago by
Mr.. Victor Hirtzler, who for two years
was employed in the kitchen of the
famous Winter Palace.
This imperial kitchen is the head
quarters of the Cars culinary depart
ment. which includes scores of other
palaces and employs many hundreds
of hands, and it's principal chef may
well be described as the Kitchen
Autocrat' of the. world. His salary is
greater than that of our own Lord
Chancellor Git exceeds 10000 a year,,
he
when he makes his tours of inspection
every two months he travels in at
least as much state as an Ambas-
sador.
The duties of this king of chefs, like
that of the head of any other great
state department, are largely admin
tant duty which cannot be delegated
to a subordinate-that of devising new
dishes to tempt the Cars appetite. |
In the invention of delicacies he is a |
postmaster, and spends hundreds of |
hours yearly in his private and su- |
perbly appointed kitchen experimenting |
in the manufacture of new entrees |
seductive sauces and soups and table |
delicacies of every kind, the recipes
Of all of which are kept a profound |
secret
The menu. we are told is written out
by the Emperor himself, and is given
oy him to a Major specially chosen by
limself for the days duty, who in turn
hands it to the first chef. 1t is then
kitchen, and the various under-chefs
make themselves responsible for the
different dishes. When at last the
neal is ready, each dish is tasted and
by the Major, who in the
case of poison would thus be the first
victim; the dishes are then placed in
IN elevator and. accompanied by the
Major, are hoisted direct into the i'm
oerial dining room.
Once more the officer partakeS of |
every dish in the Cars presence. and
after this final formality and precau-
ion the imperial family sit down to
heir meal The dinner, Mr.. HirtZler
ellis US. invariably begins with vortsch,
Russian soup of which the En-
,eror is very fond: then follow meats,
lot and cold. several entrees, hot and
old vegetables, poultry, pudding; and
weets of many rich and dilicate kinds,
ces, cakes and rare wines, and tea or
-o6ka. For the imperial children
weets and chocolates in all kinds of |
lovel and fantastic designs are pre-
,ared The Car, we learn, rarely
misses q single one of all these varied
ourses-a fact which is a remarkable
ribute to his appetite and digestion. I
he room in which the meal is eaten
as walls and ceilings of cast iron, is {
roof against bombs and is always
ept securely locked between meals.
The hundreds of men employed IN
he imperial kitchens receive excellent y
aIaries and are we'll fed and cared :
Dr.: but they are kept under the strict Z
st surveillance and are little better :
nan prisoners One of the chefs not {
ing ago declared that he never re- q
aiyed a letter which had not previous
: been opened and read; while during
he seven months of his service he was :
nly allow to leave the palace three
mes and then it was in the company =
{ an inspector, who in turn was
by the secret police-T1t- &
it's.