From Soup to Nuts 



"Who's who" behind the scenes in 

 a big hotel or restaurant kitchen 



ORDERING a meal at a fashionable 

 restaurant or hotel is simple enough — 

 to the diner. But it is safe to say 

 that few have any idea of what goes on 

 behind the scenes, that is, in the kitchens, 

 after the order has been given to the 

 waiter. 



As a matter of fact, giving one's order of, 

 say, oysters, soup, fish, steak, salad, dessert 

 and coffee starts a most intricate process. 

 In the first place, your waiter cannot give 

 your entire order to one cook; he must go 

 to as many different men as there are 

 dishes on your order. First he stops at the 

 oyster booth, where two or three men do 

 nothing but open oysters. Then he goes to 

 the soup cooks, of whom there may be six or 

 eight; next, to the cooks who look after the 

 fish, and so on to others who are specialists 

 in the preparation of steaks, vegetables, 

 salads, desserts and coffee. In the average 

 large restaurant there are from seventy-five 

 to one hundred and fifty cooks, all of whom, 

 with the exception of girls who prepare the 

 salads and vegetables, are men. In addi- 

 tion, there are the chef and his staff of 

 assistants, who may number half a dozen 

 and whose duties are to oversee the work of 

 the others rather than to cook. 



When your waiter has given your full 

 order he returns to the oyster booth, gets 

 your blue points and takes them to you. 

 On his way out the oysters pass under the 

 eyes of no less 



than five differ- 

 ent checkers. 



While you are 

 eating your oys- 

 ters, the waiter 

 goes back after 

 your soup, which 

 must also receive 

 the approval of 

 the five checkers. 

 The same process 

 takes place in 

 connection with 

 eachdish brought 

 out, which means 

 that your waiter, 

 who seems so de- 

 liberate, does 

 considerable 



Checking up the food on his tray. The waiter has to 

 pay for each item in chips out of his own pocket 



514 



It only takes a word to order a dish, but it 

 takes a whole organization to serve it. 

 You may rave at the waiter for being slow 

 but while he is out of your sight he is hust- 

 ling from cook to cook with lightning speed 



hustling during the serving of your meal. 

 The huge range, from forty to sixty feet 

 long, is given over to the frying of different 

 kinds of food. It also contains the ovens; 

 the broilers are separate. 



The steward is an important personage in 

 any large restaurant, and commands a large 

 salary. He must not only know what 

 people like to eat, but he must have 

 statistics to show 

 about how many 

 people will order 

 each item on the 

 bill of fare. The 

 preparation of a 

 bill, important as 

 it is, by no means 

 constitutes the 

 steward's chief 

 difficulty. He 

 must know at 

 all times exactly 

 what the pantries 

 and refrigerators 

 and storerooms 

 contain, and in 

 ordering food 

 from the mar- 

 kets, he must be 



