INTRODUCTION Prior to the Advent Of
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INTRODUCTION Prior to the advent of airliners and interstate highways, the passenger train was preferred mode of travel. American railroads operated high quality and time sensitive passenger trains on a complex network which provided the backbone of the Country’s transportation needs. Great trains such as the Super Chief, 20th Century Limited, California Zephyr, Broadway Limited, City of New Orleans, Empire Builder, and Overland Limited, just to mention a few, crisscrossed America carrying not only the average American but also the rich and famous. Long distance passenger trains needed not only to provide transportation to the on board passengers but also needed to meet all of their passengers basic needs, which included beverage and food service. In early railroad passenger train development long distance train made prescheduled stops at locations along the route where the railroad had strategically place railroad dining halls and restaurants. This practice caused needless delays in travel times with passenger disembarking, dining and re- boarding their train before continuing their voyage. In 1869 the first dining car West of Chicago was put into service on the Chicago & North Western Railway. For the first time passenger aboard trains could be fed en route without a time costly dining stop. This began the development of the truly innovative and unique component of the passenger railroad industry, the Dining Car Department. The dining car developed from a rather crude mobile dining facility into literally culinary dining palaces on rails. Elegant menus were developed with quality always a top notch concern. Railroads competed for customers, in part, by proclaiming their onboard services were the best in the nation. Elegance, impeccable service, and truly spectacular cuisine were the hallmarks of many of America’s “Crack Limiteds.” Dining Car Departments strove for uniformity of service and consistent quality of product. To do that, many railroads developed their internal menu items, exact recipes for these menu items, and the precise service standards. To communicate to all dining car employees the dining car manual or operational “bible” was born. This book is a recreation of one of American Railroad’s finest Dining Car cook books. The Union Pacific Railroad, one of America’s greatest railroads, developed one of the most in depth dining car cook books in the industry. Over time it was continually updated and improved. These cook books were placed aboard each dining car and were used by crews en route to assure top quality service. What follows here is a historically accurate recreation of the book developed for the Union Pacific and their many great passenger trains in the 1940’s and 50’s. It was also the standard used aboard trains under joint operations with the Chicago & North Western and Southern Pacific Railroad on the transcontinental “Overland Route”***. These other two roads, Chicago & North Western and Southern Pacific, are today part of a greater Union Pacific Railroad. The author obtained two original copies of this company publication. The first one was from Mr. Joseph Verona, the last Dining Car Manager of the Chicago & North Western, and Mr. Homer Noar, former Dining Car Manager of the Union Pacific Railroad. The editions are remarkably similar in text and recipes. We are gone through each copy and have painstakingly retyped the cook book as accurately as possible considering the condition of the two texts. The development of this book was overseen, in part, by Mr. Leland “Sugar” Cane, the last living member of the old C&NW Dining Car Department. We have strived to keep it as accurately as possible and have not edited out all typing errors or misspellings. We retained the actual format used over 67 years ago when it was first hand typed on a Union Pacific typewriter by an unknown Dining Car and Hotel Department employee. While not an original, if we were able to go back in time, we believe that the level of quality is such that this edition would pass Union Pacific muster for use on those trains of the past. *** Overland Route was created with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1865 with the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Point, Utah. The two roads completing the line were the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad, which later became the Southern Pacific Railroad. On the east end of this line at Omaha, Nebraska / Council Bluffs, Iowa the Union Pacific was connected eventually with several other railroads but none more important to this transcontinental route than the Chicago and North Western. It was the North Western that delivered from the East much of the materials and supplies needed for the Union Pacific to built West. These three roads created the first through train connection between San Francisco on the West Coast and Chicago on the Great Lakes. This became the infamous “Overland Route.” Many great trains operated over this combined steel highway. Working together they operated some of the finest trains of its day including the grandfather of them all the Overland Limited. This route was unsurpassed in quality and the route was one of the first to operate Pullman Palace Sleeping Cars and to develop entire Pullman sleeping car train service. The marriage of these three roads ended their joint passenger train operations in 1958. The Chicago & North Western was retired from the triad and replaced by the Milwaukee Road. Joint passenger service from Chicago to the West Coast operated in private hands until 1971 with the creation of Amtrak. Today, the route continues to service over some of the original Chicago to San Francisco line under the banner of the California Zephyr. DEDICATION As a young boy living in Milwaukee, I was able to befriend a gentleman by the name of Mr. Joseph Verona. Mr. Verona was the Dining Car Manager of the Chicago & North Western Railway (C&NW). Mr. Verona worked in Chicago in the bowles of the Chicago Passenger Terminal but lived in the South Side of Milwaukee. Our friendship that lasted almost 30 years began with letters and eventually led to countless trips to Chicago to visit the C&NW Dining Car & Commissary Department. Over the years I would travel with Mr. Verona aboard C&NW Streamliners from Milwaukee to Chicago and return to spend the day at the 168 N. Canal Street. The Department was in its last several years of service before its ultimate demise. Through Mr. Verona, I was privileged to experience the remnants of a once proud and vibrant organization that served millions of passengers and employed thousands over its decades of operation. While Mr. Verona was short in stature he was an uncompromising professional who ran an extremely tight ship. Joseph Verona was born in Hampton, NJ. November 11th 1908 and moved to Milwaukee, WI with his family at the age of two. He grew up Milwaukee’s south side and began his railroad career cleaning passenger coaches at Milwaukee’s lake front Passenger Depot at age 13. Working his way up in the ranks he finally was accepted as an employee of the C&NW Dining Car Department. Mr. Verona began his dining car career with the C&NW as a Fourth Cook and worked his way up to the Manager of the Dining Car & Commissary Department. His positions within the company also included Steward, Traveling Chef, Dining Car Inspector, and Assistant Dining Car Manager. His travels were over most C&NW passenger routes of the day but worked a very significant period of time on the C&NW – Union Pacific (UP) “City of Denver Streamliner”. During his employ with the C&NW he also worked closely with C&NW Railroad Police, the F.B.I. along with State and local police departments in many undercover investigations. In one of the most important cases Mr. Verona, on leave from his position as Dining Car Steward on the City of Denver, worked under cover aboard Southern Pacific and Union Pacific to uncover wide ranging thefts of monies and products by dining car, lounge car and sleeping car employees. Mr. Verona’s files are filled with letters of commendation from many law enforcement and judicial officials including two personal letters from J. Edgar Hoover. He maintained memberships in St. Jude League of Police, League of American Lawmen, Wisconsin Law Enforcement Officers, Institute of American Food Technologists and the International Association of Arson Investigators. He also was recognized by friends, peers and even several newspapers as an excellent Chef. While Dining Car & Commissary Department Manager his department won unprecedented awards for safety and health inspections by several external and internal regulatory groups. He was also a cost cutter and but in cutting expenses he never sacrificed department quality. One of his highest accomplishments was building a very trusting and honest relationship with all of his employees He was respected by a majority of his employees and many of them could call him a friend. One of these employees was a C&NW Head Chef and Commissary Assistant Mr. Leland “Sugar” Cain, Jr. Mr. Cain became Mr. Verona’s right hand man. Sugar is the last known C&NW Dining Car Department employee alive today. I first met Mr. Cain through my many visits to the Commissary in Chicago. While Mr. Cain reported to Mr. Verona, “Sugar” ran the day to day operations in the Commissary portion of the Department. With the Commissary in its twilight of glory, the staff was bare bones and Mr. Cain’s duties were extensive. On those days when I would visit Chicago, “Sugar” and Mr. Verona would cook up a spectacular lunch fit for a king. The Commissary had extensive cooking facilities along with meat lockers, freezers, refrigeration areas, linen room, silver and china room and general stores.