PANCHARD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12067, 24 July 1917, Page 7

PANCHARD.

CHEF, FOOD ENGINEER AND PATRIOT. THE MAN WHO KNOWS HOW TO FEED AN ARMY. (By MARIE MELONEY, in "Everybody's.'') Many of us have complained that the loose immigration laws have flooded the country with aliens whose hearts are as foreign to o'ur ideals as their tongues are to our language Some of us have listened with sinking hearts to the warnings of wise men who loved this country, and some of us have even wondered if the land of tho free would not perish from the earth. Here is something for the cure of your soul. It is the story of one of the foreigners who has come injdirough the open door. Tho day the German Ambassador took his passports the following telegram was received at Governor's Island :

"To General Leonard Wood, Commander of the Department of the East, Governor's Island, New York, —I have fed as many as twenty-five thousand people in one day. If my country needs my services, my resignation will be in the hands of my employers.— Edouard Panchard." And General Wood answered:— "Mr Edouard Panchard, Hotel M'Alpin, Nov.- York City—My D?ar Sir,—l have just learned of your generous offer of service, and wish to express to you my sincere nppreci»£ion. The spirit which you have shown is afmp, one and is deeply appreciated. I shall make your tender of service of record in order that your advice and assistance may he available in case of need.—Leonard Wood." THE BELLY OF THE ARMY.

Millions of people in this country were contemplating war. They were thinking in terms of battleships, aeroplanes, submarines, forts and marching men—all the machinery of war except' the bellv of the arrav.

Napoleon said: "An army marches on its belly '' Cesar said it. Grant admitted it. Every military leader who has seen war knows it. General Wood knows it. Panchard knows it. Who is Panchard? You would call him o cook. You might call him a Frenchman. General Wood would call him an American Panchard? He is an American citizen, born in Paris, of French blood—but born a potential American.

This man, who knows how to feed an army, this chef with a French name, who offers his services to America—"'my crAmtry''—is the son of a man of wealth and power. He is a student of chemistry and medicine, aformer officer in the reserve army of France. He has lectured at Columbia University. He is the directing chef of one of the biggest hotels in the United States. His salary at the M'Alpin is eighteen, thousand dollars a year. .And he volunteers as an army cook, a job that pays thirty dollars a month.

Panchp.rd stands ready and equipped. General "Wood is to use Panchard. There are army cooks to bs trained. This man knows to a bean how much it takes to feed a regiment; how to buy and store and provision.

SHAPED If IS LIFE WITH A DEFINITE PURPOSE.

From his eighteenth year, when he was a. medical student in Paris, until now, when he directs three hundred servants and feeds an average of fifteen thousand people a day, Edouard Panchard has shaped his life with a definite purpose. That- purpose has been to teach—first to France and later to America—the importance of food. In his medical studies at the Hospital de 3a Pitie, he <took up stomach and intestinal diseases. The young student's wholo mind was filled wth causes and effects. Ho began to study food. He looked at the people he. met in restaurants, in public places, and in his home. He measured 'them in scientific terms — terms of stomach and intestines.

''Mankind has a weak stomach," he concluded. "Why?" was his question. And then ho did an amazing thing—this son of a. majordomo, the- directing chief and councillor to Prince Lubanov"Rcstovski, Russian nobleman and Minister cf Foreign Affairs, tie took-a job as night helper in the kitchen of a famous Paris restaurant.

AYben lie had learned the weak spots in that organisation, and found that he could not put it on a scientific, sanitary basis, ho lef: and 'entered another departmont of cooking in a large hotel. Ho worked nt night and studied in the ; (faytime. And nil the while ho was polity from one h-g kitchen to another, : observing every depart it:: nt of cooking , from soup 'to nuts. FEEDING TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE. The mayors of all the towns in France ■ were to meet in Pails. -A great banquet at tiio Tuileries. Twenty-two thoui sand guests were to eeEbrate the : event, iiere was something which ap- | pealed to the imagination of Panehard., : Ho hunted up the directing chefs, Potel j and Chabot, and berged 'to be allowed !to help. Kg studied how the food was | bought, stored, then portioned out and prepared. He kept close to the directing chef, and watched everyching. He made himself useful and attracted the attention of the director. Guests weiv. divided int-o groups of fivo hundred with an experienced chef in charge of each group. Telephone connection rail from the. directors' headquarters to each field kiicLen. Every detail v.-as worked out by the I clock. At the appointed hour the director lifted the receiver and proudly gave the order: "En avant le bouillon!" (On with th© soup.) Comic opera? Yes. But to Panehard it was a, revelation ,an achievement—a victory for efficiency. Tuen ly-i'wo thousand people had been fed at one meal. Everything went through without a hitch, on tims and in order. It had all been figured out on paper—in pounds and quarts, tons and barrels. Panehard had learned a lesson in quantity. And the director had discovered Panehard. THE NATIONAL STOMACH. Came the time for his military service. Panchard went to the colonel in charge of the student assignments. lie told his story, and with the ardour of an enthusiast painted his vision. Two things stood out in the colonel's mind: " A nation is as strong as its stomach," and "an army fights on its stomach." The French people were considered the best-fed race on earth, and this boy said France had a weak stomach. But; he told other truths which the colonel admitted, so Panchard was put in the reserve officers' school—a small group of university men with marked talents, useful to tlie army in special services. When he came out of the army with his commission, he weoat to Monte Carlo as chef of the Grand Hotel. He was only twenty-one years old then, so he grew an imperial and moustache to make him look older. His success at Monte Carlo brought a position at the Ritx-Carlton in Paris. _ Later he worked and studied in other big establishments. Offers began to come from American hotels. When ho was twenty-three years old he had the income of a banker.

The St Regis, then the newest and one of the finest hotels in America, was about to be opened. Tho position of chef was offered to Panchard, and he accepted it. Panchard found in New York many opportunities to put his ideas into ef-

feet, But his dream did not come true until he met L. M. Boomer, a hotel man with a vision and plenty of money behind him. And so Panckard took charge of the APAlpin kitchens before, they were built, and modelled them as a standard. THE PANCHARD METHOD.

"food Engineer" would probably be a more accurate title tor Pauchard than "chef.''' He. conducts the four b:g restaurants which are under his direction much as the head of a great corporation manages his affairs. " Sanitary ; " is tiie watchword of Panchard's army of workers. Clean, wholesome food has been the ruling passion of his life. His men know that lie will stand for tardiness, for breakage of china or glassware, for impudence, for almost anything except uneleanness or carelessness in the handling of foodThe house pays out more than two thousand dollars a month for broken crockery. Men are not fined for this carelessness. But let one kitchen worker put his hand to his face or handle salads, bread, butter and such uncooked foods, and there is a line to be paid. "When the Board of Heal ill in New York started its investigation cf public eating-places last year, Panchard's kitchens were given the first " white card," which meant the highest prize for sanitary standards. Panehard has always been a busy man. He says: "'Only busy men have time to think and keep out of mischief.'' SCIENTIFIC HANDLING OP POOD. A society for foreign chefs in America, for fifty-one- years has held an annual private exhibition showing the art of cookery. Panchard saw in this organisation the nucleus for a nationwide educational movement.

Two years ago he financed and organised a national food exhibition for tha benefit, of the public. "It was held at the bK'rcest exhibition hall in America. Marvellous culinary achievements—banquet dishes costing hundreds of dollars -to produce, real works of art —were displayed. But Panohard's chief interest lay in demonstratiug sanitary. approved methods of preparing and handling foods. This feature of the exhibit had an educational value for the public. Tie asked schools and colleges and people of influenco to go there and learn the lesson it taught. The exhibition was a success.