Chef
On the right track
Jonathan Kohout has been head chef on the Orient Express’s British Pullman train for 18 years. Julie Baxter joined him as he served a five-course lunch during a Kent countryside journey
What are the key challenges you face? The biggest challenge is with food loading and then with processing the food to a very high standard. We have to be careful with the menus we design because a lot of meals simply won’t work for us. Timing is crucial when we are loading as we get fined for every minute we go past our scheduled departure times.
Tell us about the onboard operation We have two kitchens onboard at either end of the train but they have limited facilities, no electricity or microwaves, just gas and hardly any work top space. There is a chef in each kitchen along with four porters to deliver the food to the 10 carriages.
Do you actually cook on board? In the past we bought in a lot of the food pre-prepared from the Pru Leith Kitchen but when I became head chef I wanted us to produce our own food so I set up a dedicated kitchen headed up by our executive chef, Robbie Gleeson. He is responsible for the menu planning and preparations pre-departure and I oversee the food once it is onboard. The static kitchen is in Battersea (London) where the train is stationed each evening. The majority of the food is pre- prepared there and where possible plated too.
What menus do you serve? Our menus change quarterly, with seasonal dishes being added, except when we do a charter when perhaps we theme the menu. A recent VisitEngland charter included all English speciality produce such as Cornish crab meat,
pea and Suffolk hock ham soup, Kentish guinea fowl, English cheeses and summer pudding. The wines were from Biddenden Vineyards, Kent’s oldest commercial vineyard. We always include a soup which is easy to prepare onboard. We also focus on individual portions of meat or fish with sauces. There is always a cheese course.
Where do you source your ingredients? We have built strong relationships with key local UK suppliers. We get all our meat from the Rhug Estate Organic Farm in Wales, our smoked salmon is from Formans London Smokery and Inverour in Scotland and the veg is all from Covent Garden.
How does the timetable affect your work? Timing is a big issue for us. To serve a five- course meal potentially to 232 people on a three-hour steam train journey through the Surrey Hills can be very hard. Passengers want their main course served in the heart of the countryside, so we work closely with the guards to know how the journey’s progressing.
Tell us about any disasters you’ve had A temporary driver crunched into the buffers in
Blackfriars on one occasion and all the soup went flying! Thankfully with standby stock and cream we managed to recreate it and the passengers never knew a thing! On another occasion we had a total breakdown and had to serve the whole meal in Victoria Station!
What sort of service do passengers get? The emphasis is definitely on traditional, quality service, cut glass, silver cutlery and linen table cloths. A trip on The British Pullman is about the train and the tradition, not just the food. The carriages have a lot of historic interest and have been beautifully restored.
How has the onboard product evolved over the years? Originally the train was only designed to cater for afternoon teas but in the last 30 years it has become a real travelling restaurant with a wide choice of UK itineraries.
Orient-Express offers an extensive year-round programme of luxury day excursions to England’s historic towns and stately homes in meticulously restored 1920s and 1930s carriages
www.orient-express.com
www.onboardhospitality.com 41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92