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[John Arton]

Jim B
I did the first 4 crossings of the last ever season on the Canada before she was withdrawn from service and laid up in Tilbury.
My first experience of an Empress chef was on my first ever ship ( a tanker) where we had Spanish crew and C.P. in their wisdom decided they needed to teach the Spanish cook how to prepare and cook meals in the "British" way. So they sent us an Empress chef to show our brilliant Spanish cook how to cook "British" way. What a farce, nearly caused a riot. All he did was stand in the galley door drinking beer and watching the meals come out,, never saw him pick up a cooking utensil beyond a can opener for his next can of ale, a real waste of space but on his chef's gear he did have a insignia denoting him as Chef along with his name and this was the same with the servers at that special meal I wrote about.
In 71 when I was on the Canada my experience with the galley staff was often confrontational when I was having to eject drunken galley staff from passenger accommodation along with being threatened by them.
As to the state of cleanliness of the main galley, It was awful as I said. Apart from the soup pots, the galley ranges were a fire hazard covered in burnt on grease and chefs stores in a mess with broken eggs spilling onto open bags of sugar and flour.
We were often asked by passengers if they could have a tour of the galley but always had to fob them off as it came down from on height that passengers were never to be allowed into the galley. Bridge tours were twice daily and an organised engine room tour was done each crossing but a galley tour never!
It broke the hearts of many of the regulars of the Canada to see the state that she had descended to in those final days.
I had a relation whose husband had sailed in Cunard on the Queens and then joined C.P. sailing on the Empress's. He ended up as Master in C.P. and his wife always said that she preferred the White Empress's as their interiors were far lighter than the "Queens".
From my point the Canada was one of the finest looking passenger vessel of her era and the C.P. guy who designed her and her interiors was world renowned for his designs at the time. Even in those terrible green funnel colours she still looked the part.
As an aside that funnel design came about after a $150,000 design contract and was supposed to represent}-
The black section is part of a square representing solidity
the white section is part of a circle representing global trade
the Green section represents an arrow showing forward thinking.
Now if that aint tosh, what is.
rgds
Ja

[Rodney Mills]

A huge difference on the castle boats, After breakfast all junior cooks, third assistants, scullery-men, plate washers, turned to and a hot water hose was used to wash the kitchen floors from one end to the other, followed by the juniors with long stiff bristled brooms, then rinsed. The stoves were elevated so the underneath could be hosed clean. The senior cooks had an hours nap and kept out of the way.

1100 was inspection and it better be clean. Bloods tour was one outbound and one homeward bound.

Jim was right. There was one head or chef de cuisine (chief of the Kitchen), there was a sou Chef, (under chef) who was the equivalent to a foreman and was THE chef's assistant/supervisor.

There was a pastry chef though it was head baker. French terms were sometimes used for first assistant Cooks, i.e. roast cook, chef de roti, fish Cook chef de poisson, but not in common practice.

This same system is used throughout the world, as French is to fine cooking as is Latin is to a doctor. But sadly they are only used today in a large major city Hotel.

With the Exception in the U.S.A. the chef de cuisine is called the executive chef. Chef is the French word for chief, not cook.

Fine dining is almost gone today. Most of the motels 100 rooms and up used to have a coffee shop, a dining room and at least one banquet room that would seat 75 and up for parties. Today the motels rely on fast food restaurants planned and built next door to handle food for their guests, so many chefs and cooks lost out. No need to say about the U.C.L. etc. Their all history...sad.

Once somebody asked me what was the difference between a chef and a cook? I answered "About a thousand dollars a week in large hotels."

[Jim Brady]

Rodney on the Empress boats which I was on for quite a few years I only knew Chef and Extra Chef in the kitchen the remainder were cooks.The sauce cook was next step up to chef if I remember,he didn't just make sauces for argument sake he would make all the different omelette's at breakfast time and do things like chili-con-carne etc.Yes the soup corner had two big stock pots on the go from leaving Liverpool to Montreal then they were emptied out and started again,no Knorr stock cubes in those days,I suppose they weren't a pretty sight and anyone who didn't know the game wouldn't know what it was all about.Two good scrub downs every day one after breakfast and one last thing at night lots of boiling suggie thrown down, a few guys on the stiff brushes followed by the extra chef on the hose,spotless.A guy I met a month ago was on the Emp.Of Canada and he said the same work regime still carried on to the 70's.Galley sports night channel night Liverpool that was a deep clean.
Regards.
Jimm.B.