Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/337

 Fifth Aventce Hotel.

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��" IIow many mouths to-day?" asked the chef, who has a way of getting down to business at once, because he has plenty of business to get down to.

" Get ready for live hundred ; here's your stock," said the steward, handing over a slip of paper.

Things were growing lively in the kitchen. Through the door leading- tow ard the ordinary a dozen waiters were trooping at once, laden with savory bur- dens.

" I thought all the meats and vegetables were prepared and kept warm in the carving-room, next the ordinary?"

" 80 they are, for dinner ; but Monsieui- must know that in every good hotel each breakfast is prepared to order. Yes, the meats and fowl are j>repared the day be- fore, and packed away in the refrigerator. Monsieur may see the provisions coming in now."

And coming they were. It being past nine o'clock, the rush of waiters for breakfast was diminishing gradually, and a detachment of cooks were bringing in the suj)plies for the ensuing twenty-four hours. Ill a small room just off the kitchen, devoted to the production of ice cream, was a small elevator leading to the ground floor below. Beside it stood a stalwart fellow superintending the ma- noeuvres.

" Come, wake up, below there," he shouted to a blue-aproned butcher, who loitered in the rear of a truck which had been driven in from Twenty-fourth street, and was backed against the elevator. " I can't give you a whole day. Hoist away."

A creaking and a grinding, and the lift appeared, laden with great piles of meat, which was quickly transferred to the care of the men, who trooped off with it through the kitclien and into the cook's room. AVhen this was over the same process was repeated with vegetables, until it would seem that the entire animal and vegetable production of a New Jersey comity had been swallowed up.

��"I say, Pierre, give me a hand for a minute on this quarter of beef."

The speaker's head was just visible above a mountain of meat at one end of the long table in the cook's room, where half a dozen men were carving and cut- ting all along the line. The mountains became mole hills, as in the dissected state they were rapidly packed away.

" We 're ready for you, girls," shouted the chef's assistant. " Get those vege- tal)les out of the way as soon as you can. AYe 're a little behindhand to-day."

The late breakfasters had come and gone, and a lull was apparent in the kitchen. The acting had been transferred to the cook's room, and the " dreadful note of preparation " went on. In the knife-cleaning and dish-rooms a minor activity was visible.

" AVhat on earth is that — a beer A'at ? "

Indeed, the great copper vessel looked as though it might be, and the cook as though he would like it to be.

" That 's the soup stock. We fill that, and from it make two kinds of soup every day."

" How much does it hold ? "

" One hundred and two gallons exactly. But it doesn't take long to empty it. Those two boilers next to it are for mak- ing the two soups. From them it is draMii and kept hot in quantity in the carving-room."

At two o'clock the kitchen began to wake up again. At every step a new odor greeted the nostrils, and not one which was not appetizing. It was a de- licious conglomeration of smells. One man seemed more active than others, and breathed a dignity born only of author- ity.

All the cooks and girls had now re- turned to the kitchen, and the place looked a mammoth bee-hive. People were arriving in the main dining-room for dinner, but few waiters were visible. At the great range five men were busy, each with a fire of his own. Beyond and in the corner the great spit was at work,

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