KITCHEN RICHES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 699, 29 August 1914, Page 2

KITCHEN RICHES.

3LDEN GRILLS AND FRYING'

PAN FORTUNES

The modern chef who achieves a reputation as a culinary artist of great skill can command as high a salary as a Cabinet Minister. Twenty-five years ago there was probably not a chef, in' America who was paid more than seven or eight hundred a year,, hut nowadays a*first-class assistant chef can command as high a salary in a wealthy . establishment, whilst a chief chef can quite read'ily pick up a couple of thousand a year—or more. M. Edmat, the chief chef in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's establishment, who; retired a short time ago, had a salary of £250 per month. He was one of the most famous cuKnary artists of his day. He began life in a fashionable. Paris restaurant as a kitchen-boy, he studied the work of the chief chef very carefully, and in a short time made himself' so useful that he was promoted to be an assistant cook. Then his chance came. He was sent out one night to prepare a dinner for a wealthy banker, and the dinner pleased the banker so -much that he offered the young- chef a salary of £SOO a year to enter h'is service, an offer M. Edmat at onca accepted.

CHEF TO A KING. Five years later he became chef at a salary of £1,500 a year at the German Embassy in Paris, from whence he went to New York to enter Mr. Morgan's service.

M. Menager, the late King's chief chef, who was pensioned on the death of King Edward, had a salary of £2,000 per annum when he presided' over the kitchens at Buckingham Palace. He made his reputation wh'ilst he was in the service of Mrs. Hartmann at White Lodge* who frequently had the honour of entertaining many members of the Royal Family at her heautifml residence in Richmond Park, Surrey. The chief chef in the service of one of the wealthiest financiers in the City,, who has a sajary of £2,500 per annum, jumped, by a stroke of good luck, into fame and wealth. He was chef at a small country hotel at which the financier stayed one night on a motoring tour. The) financier ordered some cutlets for dinner, and the way in which they were prepared so pleased him, that he then and there offered the hotel chef a post in his establishment, which the man accepted. Two years later the chef achieved the reputation of being one of the best cooks in London, and in order-to make sure of retaining his services, the financier raised his salary, first to, £1,500 and then to £2,500 per annum.

There are some great chefs who elect to remain free lances in their profession, and who would not accept a permanent situation at any price, and some of these make very considerable incomes. '

THE DJNNBR AUTOCRAT. There is a chef in London whose charge for superintending the cooking of a single dinner is a hundred guineas. He earns about £5,000 a year, and could make much more if he chose to work harder.

. M. Cedard, King" George's chief chei is another world-famous culinary artist.

Like all great chefs, M. Cedard is the inventor of a number of special dishes, and these, of course, can only be tasted at the Royal table, "for the manner in which they are prepared is a secret known only to the inventon.

There is a special kind of fish sauce that is frequently served at the Royal tables, which it is said took M. Cedard three years of exper'imental work before he arrived at tiie result he desired to achieve.— "Answers."