The Inner Man.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2087, 1 July 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Inner Man.

Club Cooks and Kitchens.

The ehef of a dob is seldom or nerer seen by the members. He presides in the regions of the kitchen never frequented except by those whose duties call them there. Tery few members know who the ehef is, or indeed anything about bim excepting that he is a good cook or a bad one. If bis cooking is unsatisfactory to the members, it is needless to say bis regtme in the club is soon ended. The chef, however, is a very important if invisible personage in a club. In his own region his word is law. He is usually a foreigner. It is a part of his contract that he is to be supplied with all the claret that he wants to drink, with probably some fine brandy in the evening. He usually drinfcs all that is allowed him, yet it is rarely reported that the ehef is any the worse for his liberal potations. He always has one or more assistants. Then there is a second, or deputy ehef, who officiates between times, as the elwf never allows himself to be overworked. The ehef receives from £lB to £37 per month, the deputy from £l2 to £24. As a rule, they never care to partake of the viands they prepare themselves. It is seldom that they are gourmets, as one might suppose. While they possess all the secrets of the culinary art and that of tempting the palates of others they seldom develop any appetites themselves. It may be they are surfeited or satisfied by the frequent tasting of the dishes they prepare, which is a common habit with them, but they claim that the gastronomic odors destroy their appetite. The physician seldom takes his own medicine or the confectioner his own sweets. Unless in bad. health they are robust and fat, sleek-looking, inclined to corpulency and apoplexy. Many of them fall victims to consumption, and are of the lean, lank, Cassius type of humanity. The consumptives require their potations to be of brandy, and a bottle a day is a small allowance. While unseen except by those whose duties call them into contact with him—the steward, who is his boss and probably Ilia bete noire, and the assistants and the waiters, whom he is said to regard with contempt—the chef is an invisible power behind the throne, a sort of pivotal character as it were, the Bridget of the household, forsooth. Nothing ruffles a man’s equanimity and excites his temper sooner than unsatisfactory cooking. The club man is something of a sybarite, and his meals must be properly cooked and served, and his wines must be properly chilled or warmed, or ho is out of sorts at once. Bridget has only a tew palates to consider in the domestic household, bnt in the household of the club there are many diverse tastes to be catered for. It is no wonder that sometimes the ehef loses his temper and seeks satisfaction by chopping off the cat's tail, as one did once at the Lotos, or that he should take French leave in the midst of a dinner as one did at the New York Club. The chefs however, like the bartenders, soon leant the individual tastes of all the frequenting members, and there is seldom any trouble except from the occasional patrons, who snonld be more explicit in their orders if they are fastidious. Unless particularly ordered to the contrary, the chef will always serve the game, meats, etc,, in the approved style demanded by the gourmet —under-done and rare, the same as the bartender will make his cocktails dry unless told to make them sweet. As Bridget triumphs as long as she suits the master of the household, so the cho or the bartender is careful always to cater to satisfy the habitues, as there are those who will make a row and secure his conge through complaints to the House Committee or steward.

There are traditions that occasionally, on the occasions of a private dinner, when something extra is expected, the donor sends the chef a one or two pound notes, but there are rules in all the clubs prohibiting the feeing of the waiters or any employees, which is, however, more honored in the breach than in the observance. There are traditions—for it must be borne in ntind that the chef is never seen out of his own royal domain, and he is generally a mysterious, traditional personage, whose going and coming is unknown, except that between stipulated hours his services can be demanded, and probably as often his-deputy serves as himself—that the chef is indolent and given to reading the latest French novels. Stories are told of poor Felix Delice, sitting in the lower regions of the Manbatten Club, which has always been famous for cuisine, in velvet-dressing-gown and cap, in an easy chair, reading a French novel, and only disturbing himself to put a magical finishing-touch to the dish laboriously prepared by his assistant after bis directions.

From what has been said it may be rightly inferred that there is no class so hard to please as clubmen, for the reason they consider themselves in their own castle or home, and have a right to demand that everything shall suit them, every member being a sovereign in his own right; whereas, in a public restaurant, if not satisfied, he will not go there again. All the leading New York clubs pride themselves on their cuisine. Nothing but the best is ever ordered by the club steward, unless indeed he be a contracting steward, running the cuisine as a speculation. The members are only served with the best at moderate prices to cover the actual outlay, even if once in a while there is some complaint to be made about the chef. Usually the chefs are members of the cooks’ society, and contribute ornamental pieces to the table at the annual ball of the association, the materials for which, it is needless to say, come from the club larders, being considered one of the gratuities or privileges. It may be added that the eh*/ cannot take anything from the club, unless be steals it, although permitted to prepare for his own table on the premises anything he pleases, that he may thoroughly acquaint himself with the success of bis own skill.

In a report of the United States Consul in Catalonia, he save that of the wine produced in that, the chief wine-growingdistrict of the peninsula, one-fourth Is consumed in the country, and three-fourths are exported to France and South America, with small lots to Russia, the United States, and Cuba. In the district of Jerez de la Frontera, which produces the finest qualities of sherry, the yield is an average one of about 2,000,000 gallons. Up to the present time, the demand for the French market has been limited, but large orders are expected. In the San Lucar district, which produces Manzanillo, thoyield has been about 3,000,000 gallons, and “ a large quantity of sweet wine has been made of the new juice blended with Qermanspirit, and of this about 150,000 gallons have already been exported lo Bordeaux and Cette.” But the largest product is that of the interior while wine of the Huelva district which amounted to 8.000,000 gallons in 1885, and was more last year. This wine commands a ready sale to French bouses, who send representatives (o buy it up in advance. It is shipped to Bordeaux. Cette, Nantes, and Havre. They swell the exports as French wines, and we are (Inis customers of Spain without knowing it.

Claret is so commonly drunk at the present day that the quantity and quality of the vintage are highly important questions. On the whole the French yield for the season appears to be above the average of the last few years, if not what may be called good in comparison with such a year as 1875, when 1,800,000,000 gallons of wine were produced in France. The evidence of a largo firm of wine merchants goes to show that the phylloxera has been, at least, brought under control. Several favorite brands show a production much in ex.-t.-s "f Im>T.,