Cooks and their employment.

[happy daze john in oz]

Can always remember when the ship run out of bread, And cookie used to bake his own bread rolls I am sure most of us done it dug the dough out of the middle and played tennis against a bulk head the inside was just like rubber

They were not called 'Second cook and Brick layer' for nothing mate.
Seen French sticks that looked more like giant straws than bread.
Amazing what they could do with what was supposed to be bread.
Any comments Den??

[Rodney Mills]

I was once a galley boy. Port Line, Burries Marks. I got my rating and signed on as a company-man with Union-Castle I did two years training with them, undertaking training at their cooking school and following up on different work-stations on their passenger ships, i.e. 6 weeks roast cooking course, 3rd assistant roast cooks station on board. It was great training. I passed my Ships Cooks Board of Trade certification at 19yrs 8mths. I was the youngest ever elected to the Academy of Chefs of America (U.S, master Chefs certification) and a Fellow and Master craftsmen designation from the U.K.'s Craft Guild of Chefs/Cookery and Food Assoc.. I have won awards in every category (I still have the actual awards and medals, etc.) of baking. confectionary, wedding cakes, food decoration, ice-carving to full course classical French cooking (awarded the Cordon Bleu of the Les Amis de Escoffier Society). I have photos, newspaper cuttings, certificates and references from every position I have ever held commencing as a chip cooker at the age of fifteen at the Regency Grill Bar, Southend-On-Sea, Essex, (next door to the Ivy House pub,) to my final position as Executive Chef of the Los Angeles International Hotel, the first Hotel you would see as you leave the L.A. International Airport (think it's a Hyatt today). 650 Rooms, three dining rooms and banquet facilities for 3,200 ( I still have references from the balance of my career, Food and Beverage Director to President and CEO of a multi-country remote-site catering company, retiring in 1985).

Okay, that's my qualifications out of the way. The greatest thing career-wise was going into the M.N and then signing-on with the Castle Line. My training was excellent, my teachers at the Castle school gave me not only catering knowledge, but encouragement. The first assistant cooks that I worked under, also taught me and encouraged me, and pushed me if I started to goof-off. From them I had the determination to make something of myself. I always had my eye on the next move.

I also had the luck of being in the right place at the right time and making life changing moves at the perfect moment. Example: Leaving the M.N. in 1958 to emigrate to Canada. Within a couple of years passenger ships became a thing of the past, as did our Merchant Navy. Leaving Canada for the USA and the bright lights of L.A. Calif. was a great move too. Every hotel had a restaurant coffeeshop, and a banquet room. And after I left the business what happened? outside of the major cities and the upmarket hotels the chains bought out independent hotels or merged, built hotels with no catering facilities, got out of the food and beverage business and leased land to Burger King. Mickey-Ds, Taco Bell and goodbye to cooks (replaced by bun-fillers), working-chefs, bakers, pastry-chefs, butchers, Executive Chefs and all the serving help for a full service hotel. Timing ain't the only thing...it's everything! even if it's blind luck.

Some nosy-parker butted into a conversation I was having with a fellow executive chef once and he asked me "What's the difference then between an executive chef and a cook?" I answered him "About fifteen hundred dollars a month!" This was in 1970. Doc's informative post on the differences between chef and cook, Made me think. I know I was making US$20,000.00 a year on my last Chef's Job (I was promoted to the hotel's Food and Beverage Director) in 1970.

My salary as the executive chef in todays dollars would be US$130,781. 97 a year.

God bless our old Merchant Navy.

Rodney

[Keith at Tregenna]

Years ago, believe it was in the Times or similar,
a lady wrote in saying that she had followed a
feature on top chefs and could not understand
how her Yorkshire puddings failed, was the recipe
or had she missed something.

The chef replied a week later that the recipe was
tried and tested and most likely what was missing
was the 30 years experience.

K.

[Red Lead Ted]

Talking of Second Cooks we had a guy aboard the Linguist Stevie Chow 2nd cook a real joker I remember one night in the ships bar he handed out a tray of tab nabs in the shape of sausage rolls Tuck in lads...…………….. It was a broom handle baked in pastry and cut into small bits { Swine }

[Keith Tindell]

I remember the mince pies at Xmas, and one of the guys in the messroom, was always known as gannet, he would always take a lions share of anything going in the messroom. The mince pies were on a tray, and one somewhat larger than the rest, yep, he went for it, and it was full of tabasco sauce. All that with the cook looking round the corner and laughing, joined by the rest of us, kt

[Rodney Mills]

Keith.

I never used recipes for cooking, however for baking definitely, though I could bake and decorate, I didn't have to do it very much. If the baker or pastry cook were taken sick or quit, I could fill-in in an emergency, I had to, but I knew how to knead dough and such, but would rely on recipes. Cooking was different, I just had a feel for it. I just knew how much spice or puree or mayonnaise would be needed. On the passenger ships all the first class menus were in French, the bible to cooks was a reference book called La Reportoir de la Cusine (sp.?) by Lois Saunier, It didn't give you amounts, it just listed the major ingredients.

As for celebratory Chefs: That is a particular skill. First one must look presentable, or fat (looking like the image of a old time chef or Julia Childs). Not camera shy, or afraid of public speaking, and the ability to produce a finished product suitable for a small family, that doesn't break a families budget AND WORKS EVERYTIME. I do not have those skills. I'm a behind the scenes person. nervous in crowds and terrible public speaker, severe stage fright. Think of my old school report card, "Rodney does not play well with others."

I enjoyed most, my last chef's position. Dining rooms full, coffee shop jumping, 1500 for a banquet in the ballroom, 500 or so in the Gold Room and ten other parties from 150 to 50 in lessor banguet rooms. and that could be for lunch and similar action for dinner.

I think the celebratory chef that stated what was missing was his experience was full of you know what, and it wasn't his good cooking. His job was to give instructions and recipes to amateurs who want to learn and he failed.

I only went on T.V. once. The manager of a hotel I worked at made a deal with a local TV station for me to do an Ice carving on a cooking show, this without my knowledge. I asked the station, "Is it an hour show as it takes that long to carve out from a block of ice." The studio people told me I had three minutes saddling a commercial break, six minutes total and they had already announced it was coming next week and live not prerecorded. I had them buy four kiddies blow-up wading pools, four milk crates to elevate the ice-blocks and two men to move ice into place so during narration I could move from one location to the next as I couldn't leave ice under strong studio lights. I then bought four blocks of Ice, left one whole, next one, half of the swan I was making done, third block three-quarters done and the forth a finished swan. It worked like a charm. I had the four carvings delivered twenty mins. before I went on. I chipped away on number one, and the announcers broke away to yabber and I moved to the next station, did a bit of finishing and so on to the final completed swan and just touched it up with a finishing chisel. I'm making it sound easy, but I had a week of sleepless nights...show biz ain't for me, at least not in front of the cameras.

Rodney

[happy daze john in oz]

Talking of Second Cooks we had a guy aboard the Linguist Stevie Chow 2nd cook a real joker I remember one night in the ships bar he handed out a tray of tab nabs in the shape of sausage rolls Tuck in lads...…………….. It was a broom handle baked in pastry and cut into small bits { Swine }

Terry mate there were some 'bakers' who could produce the same without having to use wood.

[Michael Lawrence]

Hi Lads. Been off on a 'jolly' over to South Wales . Normal trip to Cardiff 1 hour Friday gone almost 3 hours, WHY England were playing Wales at the milllenium stadium. England lost so not much diff from normal exceptr Wales were not playing their best. We *(W.R. ) and I had a great time out with the 'Family'. Fri., evening off to the St Athan golf club for a game of 'Bingo' and a curry. On Sat., brother in law working so I thought oh well just have to watch the game, BUT the Ladies had other ideas and off we went to a jolly old visit to St Fagan,s Folk Museum which was very interesting an d I reccomend if your in that neck of the woods. also a visit to the old Tiger Bay worth a visit as theres a lovly Cenotaph to the men of the M.N. who lost their lives in the wars that took place in the 20th century.
That evening we partook of sustenance at a very good Italian restautant in the Canton area, where not only was the food GREAAAAT but the wine glass seem to fill itself continously. . So it looks as if I will have to takes tuition to find out where I send all this mail to. One last thing , I will have no second thoughts about sending these Italien cooks on any voyage I am about to sail on.

[Keith at Tregenna]

You were in my neck of the woods, glad you enjoyed the area.

Please come again and discover so much more.

Pos meet up sometime with anyone else that could venture this way.

Wales Rugby, did not intend to go over the too but, were determined to win,
saving more for the World cup.

Fond memory's of RAF St. Athan and St. Fagan's is a National treasure.

#57: Rodney, classically trained myself. attended Westminster Hotel School, London amongst my sins.
never one for broadcasting me and mine online but, have more letters after my name than actually in it.

Official Secrets etc prevents me telling much more but, can see where you are coming from.

K.

Scan MN 16C.jpg

.

[Michael Lawrence]

Docked in Cardiff around May 60. Mate Shanghaied me ashore , started at the Cottage in St Mary's St., and then found ourelves in the Sandringham hotel. Met her on the Mon., proposed Sat., Stayed at sea for another 3 years about and joined the Royal Mail working out of Park St., and Westgate st., until Penarth road opened it's office and worked out of there on H.G.V.'s. Good crowd of lads and finished up in Bristol to help run the transport H.G.V's
My W. R. wanted to move over to be near her eldest brother so here we are ,good and truly anchored in Somerset. So one more year and it'll be 60years married.
.. Wish now I had taken my cook's ticket, but you can't think of everything.


and buried in Somerset