The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-28
ED HOWE'S NOTES.
AtchisOn Editor Writes From
Home Once More.
What Passengers on a Big Boat
Eat.
COOK rs A BUSY MAN.
Must Have Food Prepared for
Hundreds of People.
How the Food Is Prepared on
ShipbOard.
OOK is A BUSY MAN.
Friday. February Il.

sympathy for the farmers wife who
cooks a day or two for 10 or Is har-
vest hands. Albert Meyer, the chef OF
the ''Moltke" cooks for $50 people
weeks at time. True. he has Sc as
sistants; 10 cooks. four bakers, two
PASTRY cooks. two butchers, one crew
cook, four pantrymen, II dishwashers
and three carvers. The chef does none
of the actual cooking, but stands around
and tastes everything. 1 asked him
how he went about preparing a meal
for $50 people. He says every passen-
ger requires two pounds of meat C'two
pounds of fesh,'' he expressed IT'D every
day, which includes beef. ham, poultry
and game. Each member of the crew
requires a pound and a half Of meat
Yer day; this, the chef says, is about
the only rule he has. He has no book
of recipes and no rules. Every after
noon he makes out the bills of fare
for the next day, and sends his eSti-
mate of the supplies he will require
to the man in charge of the refrigera-
tors. If he intends to have quail on
tomorrow's dinner bill OF fare, he will
order $50 cooked, in order that there
may be a quail for each passenger, and
a small surplus. A good many of the
passengers will not take quail, and the
birds left over go the officers mess;
there is always so much left over that
served in the main dining saloon, and
often the stewards get what the first
class passengers get, owing to the sur
plus. The rule as to quail is the rule
in everything else; portion OF every
thing on the bill of fare is provided Tor
every passenger. so that there is bound
to be a large surplus for the oh1cerS
mess and for the stewards.
Before leaving New York for the pres
ent voyage, which lasts nearly four
nd
on the supplies needed. and the purser
ordered them. Among other things, the
chef asked for 260 turkeys, and these
were supplied by the purser- The cher
says that Americans care only for the
white meat of turkeys; the dark meat
goes to the officers mess and to the
stewards. You may imagine that the
purser buys his fresh vegetables and
fruits in the West Indies but ne
Doesn't: he buys everything in New
York for the reason that no adequate
supplies are to be had in the West In
clan towns, except oranges, plneapples'
bananas and grape fruit.
In the kitchen of the Moltke, one
cook does nothing but bake hot cakes,
at breakfast time; another prepares
beefsteak. another fish. another toast,
another ham and bacon, another cofee,
and 50 on When a waiter appears at
one of the windows of the kitchen with
an order it is taken by a man VINO
passes it to the proper cook. When 1t
is ready, the cook passes 1t over TO
the window man, and the window man
places it on a steam table until the
waiter calls for it. The kitchen of the
'Moltke" IS a very interesting place at
$50 a. M, for that is the busiest hour
The pancake man interested me most
when 1 visited the kitchen: he had hve
or six orders on the stove at the same
time, and turned the cakes by throw
ing them in the air. and catching them
ir the pan. He was as busy as stack
er during the wheat harvest. Inc other
cooks seemed to have an occasional
n3omenc of leisure. bu the pancake man
worked with tremendous energy, and
never missed a stroke.
The potatoes are peeled by a machine
run by an electric motor. This machine
also cuts the big potatoes into little
round balls, reSem bling very small new
potatoes. The waste in the process goes
to the crew. All the potatoes served in
the first cabin dining saloon look like
new potatoes but suppose the mem
bers of the crew get mashed potatoes.
When an ordinary sailor is hungry,
he presents his tin plate at the window
of the kitchen, and the cook fills the
plate with beef and potatoes. One crew
cook provides food for more than two
hundred men. whereas thirty-f1ve cooks
and one hundred stewards are required
to look after three hundred and forty
passengers. At one of the big Mills no.
tells in New York, sixty employees look
after nearly two thousands guests
At the Waldorf hotel it is said there are
three servants for every guest. That's
what makes the difference in price. At
the Mills hotel, rooms are 20 cents
day-at the Waldorf, 81 up.
While 1 sat in the chefs room. talk
ing to him, the printer appeared with
a proof of the dinner bill of fare, which
the chef looked over, and corrected. An
assistant also appeared, and asked for
a bottle of wine, to be used in making
a pudding, and the chef signed card
for the wine as 1 would have done, had
1 been ordering. The chef is Swiss,
and only 80 years old. He began as
cooks assistant in Lucerne, when a
boy. and for seven years has been chef
on different ships of the Hamburg
American fleet. After making three
cruises to the West Indies this winter.
he will return to Hamburg, and make
three cruises during the summer 20
Norway. For several years he has been
going to the West Indies in winter, and
to Norway in summer He lives in Ham
burg, and showed me pictures of his
home. and of his wife and baby. Also,
pictures of his wifes mother, his wife's
grandmother and of his wife's great
grandmother, who live with him. said
to him:
Your wife seems to be real thrifty
about her kim
But the chef does not speak English
very well, and did not quite understand
me- Indeed he thought 1 was saying
how lucky it was his wife had kin to
stay with her during his long absences.
The chef spent year as assistant
cook in one of the big restaurants in
Paris. and I tried to ask him if any IF
his own people lived with him, but he ,
said no; they were all in Lucerne. (Isn't |
that just like a woman to work her
mother, her grandmother and her
on her husband? It's
a wonder Mrs. Meyer doesn't insist on
her husband remaining at home, and
cooking for he kin, he's so good at IT'D
You are familiar with the manner