The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-01-11
By Leola Harvey-Eldcr.

As soon as | got inside the kitchen
door | knew that something was wrong
ana unless my sense of smell was i'm,
pared the damage was beyond repair.
| was not over enthusiastic about maxi
ing this tour of inspection anyway and
when | saw the state of confusion in
that kitchen and noted some of the
accidents which had happened it was
only my woman s curiosity which lead
me to make further Investigations.
For the preparation of what elab-
crate banquet or great celebration was
the kitchen being usedf I could not
down an awesome intuition the sight
of the food gave me that it was At
only for serving gathering of lost
souls. l could not get rid of this lost
soul idea and it was only by the great
est effort that I forced myself to in.
spect some of the eharred masses.
1t was easy to see that the ruin
nearest me was an immense bowl of
macaroni in the preparation of which
many quarts of good cream. rich cream,
and several pounds of grated cheese
had been wasted. In the cooking the
cream had all been allowed to cook
out and the cheese to melt and run
down between the sticks of macaroni
which were now lying curled like burn
ed snakes all around the edge of the
bowl.
Several small clouds of steam were
pouring from a large fiat breadpan
nearby The pan contained large fat
loaf of either cornbread or gingerbread.
Only the most willful neglect or an
absolute ignorance of the culinary art
could have caused cook to make such
a blunder as the loaf showed. 1t had
been placed into an oven which must
have been several hundred degrees too
hot. The result was leathery scorch-
ed crust over the top and the lower
portion left still in its doughty state.
1t was now cooling and the crust had
split open into several large cracks
through which little clouds of steam
were pouring up from the hot dough be-
low. / tried to make out by bending
over and getting a Whit of the steam,
if the failure was really gingerbread
but, Judging from the warmness of that
steam, / had missed my guess at the
number of degrees of the overhead of
the oven by several Thousand and then
some. In the one dash of steam which
poured over my face I got ahead of my
beauty doctor to the tune of fully a
dozen face steamings.
The taste of the hot steam burned
the edge off my curiousity and was
a little more careful to what extent
l went in my further investigations.
So, giving the steam wide berth,
| went over to where a large roast of
beef had been deposited among the
vast collection of ruined foods. I say
this was, or had been, roast of beef;
but there was so little resemblance left
to its former juicy tempting appear
ance that | may be wrong in doing
so. The invisible chef was not only
have been crazy as well. That immense
chunk of meat looked as though he had
not been in a condition to make up
his mind whether it was roast or
steak and to be sure of being in the
right he had taken no chances and had
shifted it back and forth from the
broiler to the oven and paid no atten.
ton to the amount of heat used in
either place. The roast -grilled result
was understandable.
/ gave up in disgust and walked over
to take look at the rows of sweets
and pastries. thinking it probable that
had misjudged the absent cook. AT.
ter all, maybe it was the day off for
the regular cook and the pastry artist
had had to manage the whole affair.
In this case his blunders along the
plain cook line were pardonable if his
pastries were all that they should be.
was doomed to find worse failures
here than ever, if that were possible.
A large cake found in worse mess
than the cornbread. 1t had been allow
ed to burn in an overheated oven and
rough crust had formed through
which the dough had oozed up into
little humps and Jumps and flowed