As a cook for about 8 years on basically the same vessel for CHOUEST I have to say I enjoyed my job very much. The crew was great. I had probably the best captain for 6 of those 8 years and that is why I was with the company for so long.
All that is needed to be successful in the galley is to care about what you are doing and make a real effort. The crew will appreciate it. No you cannot please everyone all the time but give them a couple of choices of meat at lunch and dinner time. Don’t fry everything. Make a dessert or 4.
I was and am lucky in the fact that I love cooking and making people happy with a meal. Meat and potatoes are not hard to master. Using the grill is fun if it is on the same deck but trekking it to another level is a pain into the ass ask the cook if you can give a hand. It will be appreciated. Even clean and set up the grill for him Saturday morning. It will go far in the appreciation factor.
Also Sunday’s are a good day to give him/her breakfast or dinner off as long as they make a good meal for lunch if is is leftover friendly. Don’t forget the designated cook normally is awake for probably 16 hours a day and rarely sees a 12 hour off schedule.
In closing, appreciate whoever cooks and it will be repaid over and over in that you will have a nice prepared meal you did not have to think about other than eat it.
I am sure some of my past shipmates will recognize me just by my comments and I would like to take the opportunity to thank them for all the good times and memories my time at the big orange 280’s rule.
The best thing you can do is come aboard and announce that you dont know how to cook. People will realize that you really want to help but its the one thing you just dont know how to do and its not worth reading a cookbook to learn. Dont worry, although its an entry level position and basically the very least you can do to help out while you learn and become more than a nuisance on deck people will understand. If you get a captain or crew that is stubborn and believes that if you can read you can learn to cook just be sure to take out an exspensive peace of meat or fish and cook it so much that you ruin it and hopefully they will just not trust you and therefore you will be able to stay on snapchat your entire watch while the mate who worked hard for years can come down from catching up on paperwork and make dinner for everyone. do this and you will be on your way.
There’s a cook book, The best of the back of boxes bottles cans and jars. You can pick it up on Amazon. It has all the easy comfort food recipes you remember from your childhood. It’s my main go to after the Joy of Cooking.
Try doing a Google search for recipes. You’ll find a shit ton of options. I always planned my meals before I got to the boat. 21 days = 21 protein, 21 veg, 21 starches. Start there. Make a calendar on word or excel and rotate through beef, fish, chicken, pork etc. I still try to make fresh bread at least 2 times per hitch. EVERYONE on the boat loves fresh bread.
. I still try to make fresh bread at least 2 times per hitch. EVERYONE on the boat loves fresh bread.[/QUOTE]
To all you cooks that took pride in your work. To all you others that cooked the one thing you knew how to make. To all the Captains that cooked Sunday breakfast. Thank You
I’m an eater not a cooker, but I would peel vegetables or wash pots and pans for anybody that would make an effort to put food on the table.
I’ve flown everything from a DC3 to a Citation jet, a Bell 47 to an Agusta jet helicopter but those stoves scare the crap out of me.
I wonder if I would get canned if I wrote about the “cook” my crew and I suffer through?
But, after nearly two and a half years with it, I plain just do not care at this point.
After nearly two and a half years of hand holding by me and the rest of the crew, I have thrown my hands up and subsist on Dole Tropical Fruit (in the plastic bottle) and Corn Pops. Ok, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but not far off the mark.
Cookbooks go unread, those nice little recipe cards you get at the Publix go unread and one on one interaction is in one ear and out the other.
I understand it isn’t easy, but I did it, just like many of you did, when I was coming up. On a succession of oil fired stoves too.
But, I digress.
I thought it reached critical mass a hitch or 2 ago. I guess I thought wrong.
do you have a good fresh bread recipe you could share? ive tried making sourdough a couple times in our dutch oven but i fucked it up. I love fresh bread so any tips would help!
[QUOTE=skycowboy;186189]
I’m an eater not a cooker, but I would peel vegetables or wash pots and pans for anybody that would make an effort to put food on the table. [/QUOTE]
Exactly, if you don’t or can’t cook at least go out of your way to lend a hand to your shipmates that do the cooking!