For 37 years I've had two culinary careers -- one that paid the bills and the other imagined. Growing up in Fresno in the 1960s, I attended Camp San Joaquin in Sequoia National Forest. To me the cook and his assistant had the best job. Where else could I pursuit my passion for cooking and my love of the mountains at the same time, I reasoned? With retirement nearing, ambition may soon turn to gold, Lord willing.
Great insights, personal views, and some great recipes from another 'foodie' & cook...check it out.
ANYWAYS, Steve asks a good question:
Hi: What do you run for breakfast and lunch (and night meals?).
Well let me explain first that the menu shown on the 'menu' page is always the Evening Dinner or Supper listng.
Dinner (or the Lunch meal), is usually a homemade soup, meat and cheeses cut for sandwiches, and different fresh veggies and fruits with the salad 'bar'. Leftovers from the night before are 're-packaged' as a new dish or just heated up (some foods just don't re-package well)...if there are not a lot of 'hot'foods left from the day before we default to the above mentioned items. Meaning that hot foods (excluding soup) are only a bonus for lunch but are not guaranteed.
Breakfast is usually 'do it yourself' Mon-Fri which can include several different things: several different cereals, breads, oatmeal, jams, jellies, yogurt...but also we have cold cuts, cheeses, and a few other options for teams that work off ship during the day can 'bag' a lunch. Although the Europeans (and others) also eat these things for breakfast. There are toasters, juice, coffee, tea, hot water...all the condiments you could think of. The set-up for this is done by the Dining Room staff/crew every day.
Saturday breakfast is usually pancake day that is ran by volunteers who come make the pancakes.
Sunday breakfast is usually the above Mon-Fri with the addition of scrambled eggs, bacon/ham/corn beef hash (pick one) and sometimes other things like surprise cinnamon rolls or things like that.
The breakfast meal is done like this because of the nature of the job. Cooks (or the whole galley crew) work from 8am to 7am (or there about, give or take an hour) just to produce all the meals during lunch and supper, then a massive clean-up of the galley at the end of the day...so a hot breakfast everyday made by our crew would pretty much be 'out of the question' without trying to run a morning crew which we don't have 'bed allotments' for...plus its hard to have full staff when you rely on being fully volunteer.
On a further note, Saturday and Sunday you must pack your lunch at breakfast time because we do not cook lunch those two days. Saturday the galley crew still works but the first part of the day is reserved for cleaning and then on to cooking supper (evening dinner). Sunday its up early to cook a 'hot' breakfast, then a quick clean-up of the galley then on to church or back to bed (depends on how you feel inclined) then back again after 1pm to start dinner/supper.
May sound hectic or weird, but it works good...and has been for years.
