I have served my last day in the galley. At least for this season.
I have worked with some great people. We have come together to produce some really amazing meals. We've been cooking for about 250 people. We produce mass quantities of food. We have two teams in the galley. During the sail, we work every other day. While in port, we work:
Week One: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Week Two: Wednesday and Thursday
(repeat)
Everyday, we chop the following (approximately):
20 bell peppers
14 cucumbers
30 carrots
30 mushrooms
25 tomatoes
12 heads of lettuce (preferably romaine or iceberg)
Some days, we have left overs so we do not need to chop as many…
We also created some beautiful and tasty salads…And washed many, many, many dishes! See them just stacked on the floor!
And one tends to get very wet while washing so many dishes. So, a little improvisation is necessary. Idris, here, has created a poncho from a trash bag:
And here are the dishes sitting on our clean table, ready to be put back:
The only way to survive is to have a sense of humor…Idris finds a new hat!
Most of my time, about 95% is spent on the "cold" side of preparation. The other end of the galley is the "hot" side. There are tilt skillets, fryers, ovens, large electric kettles, stovetops, etc. It can be a scary place if you are not paying attention!
I was quite lucky to experience the Gurkhas' cooking. Our ship security team consists of several Nepalese Gurkhas. They are great men who diligently keep us safe. They are also good cooks. During a sail, the Gurkhas typically cook one meal for the ship. My team happened to be working the night they cooked. They prepared fried egg curry, chicken curry, potato chutney, and seasoned rice. We simply provided the salad fixings.
We often also act as Quality Control:
We work well together, most days.
We also make dessert some days:
During the sail, we threw any organic waste over the side the ship:
Here is the team that I originally joined:
Three of them have left, but three more have joined…
I am eager to return to the hospital, which I will do on Wednesday October 15 for orientation. The galley has been a good but temporary home.
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