Village Squire, 1979-02, Page 7I
Dayid Niven, David Frost, Laurence Harvey, Rex Harrison and
Princess Grace and Prince Ranier took a whole floor. There were
three employees at the hotel for every guest.
To serve this high class clientele the executive chef was one of
Europe's top chefs Pierre Toulemon. Security was laid on to
make sure guests were not bothered by press and gawking
public. Even to get a seat in the dining room one had to be known
to the head waiter or they'd never get in the door.
Mr. Nisbet got his job in the kitchen at the Connaught because
of the friendship of the head of his course and with M.
Toulemon. When he arrived he was about the only one in the
kitchen who spoke English. The practice of the Connaught was to
bring all staff over from the continent to give them the chance to
work in another country and learn English.
This was not the problem it might seem at first sight because
in England. the working language of the kitchen is French. All
utensils are called by their French name, the menus were in
French without even English descriptions of the dish. It was up
to the waiter to describe to the customer what the French name
meant. All orders to the kitchen are given in French. Still, he
says, he's not bilingual. The only French he speaks is kitchen
French.
The kitchen was so French, he recalls with a chuckle, that he
had been in the kitchen for about three years before he learned to
make a Yorkshire pudding, even though he was working right in
the heart of the city of London.
The use of French as the basic language of the kitchen
facilitates people moving from one country to another to work
in hotels. Benmiller manager Chris Gowers recalls that when he
moved to Switzerland to work he couldn't really speak French,
but he knew enough of the language to be able to work there.
Moving from one kitchen to another. from one country to another
is important to an aspiring chef because it broadens his
background and allows him to learn different ways of doing
things first hand.
A greater variety of food preparation techniques are required
in Canada. Mr. Nisbet says. because there is a great variety in
the kinds of meals served. Here Chinese. Scandanavian,
European. Italian, and North American dishes all find their way
onto menus. He worked his way up through the ranks at the
Connaught Hotel before he went along with the head chef at the
hotel when he switched to take over the huge Mayfair hotel in
London. It meant suddenly preparing food for an 1800 -room
establishment instead of a 100 -suite hotel. The hotel also had
casinos and a Polynesian style lounge as well as the regular
kitchens. It was like working in a factory compared to the
smaller, very high priced hotel. The staff would make 2000-3000
sandwiches at lunch time. Still. the wide range of experience
added to the training of a young man on the way up. In addition
the money was better (in the prestige hotel the salary was six
pounds per week in the mid -sixties.)
It was quite an adjustment for the people coming over from the
small Connaught to have to make. There were hundreds of cooks
in the kitchen and thousands of people in the hotel staff. There
was a kitchen on every floor, each with its own specialty. With all
the entertainment spots in the hotel it was an exciting place but
the staff was, by company rule, not supposed to go back to the
hotel for its own entertainment.
He went on to work for the British Broadcasting Corporation as
a chef in its celebrity and private directors diningroom at
Kensington House. It was an interesting experience, providing
300 to 400 meals a day. Cost here was not a factor since the
kitchen had only to break even and as a result the menu was like
a fine restaurant with prices about half what they would normally
be. He also got to prepare food for shows like the Galloping
Gourmet. And perhaps best of all. he remembers, he worked a
35 -hour week (almost unheard of in the business) and worked
only in the daytime.
He had taken the job with B.B.C. to learn something about the
catering business because of a job offer in Canada with Beaver
foods. He later came to Canada as assistant manager trainee but
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February 1979, Village Squire 5