Two For a Winter’s Evening
MORE SERENDIPITY (regular readers know what I mean): The book Canadian Railway Stories: 100 Years of History and Lore, com- piled by the father and son team Adolf and Okan Hungry Wolfe, recently caught my at- tention while I was searching for some other out-of-print title on line. Described as “an entertaining collection of true stores, anec- dotes and interesting facts,” it moved onto my impulse-driven “must buy — now” list. Here’s the most relevant — to this column — of the 55 short entries in the book: The Chef Who Served Roosevelt and Churchill: “Chef Leonard Rhode arrived in Canada from Europe as a boy, in 1905, never dreaming that his eventual culinary talents would please famous world leaders, including royal family members and prime ministers. “Because he was always
‘puttering’
around the family kitchen, he got a job with the C.P.R. as cook’s helper, in 1908. Eleven years later came his first opportunity for distinction, when he was loaned to the gov- ernment kitchens so he could cook for the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor), who was then visiting Canada. When King George and Queen Elizabeth travelled across Canada in 1939, aboard the famous blue ‘Royal Train,’ Rhode was among their cooks, as well. Two years later he did the same work for the Duke of Kent. “But the highlight of his life with the
C.P.R. came in 1945, when he served as pri- vate chef for Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, during their stay in Canada for an Allied conference. Rhode said this duty was so secret that he knew nothing about it in advance.
“He had been cooking out west, when his supervisor told him to proceed at once to Montreal. Arriving at the company offices there, he was told to continue his journey to Quebec City, where he was met by two mili- tary men who escorted him to the citadel, residence of Canada’s lieutenant-governor. Then he was told the purpose of his trip. “‘It was nice cooking for these men,’ said Rhode to reporters afterward. ‘I got a big kick out of it, and they weren’t difficult to satisfy. . . . Mr. Churchill was a hearty eater. Seldom would he miss having two helpings at any meal. Mr. Roosevelt, however, was a very light eater. Breakfast was a fairly big meal for both men, with Churchill having his meal sharp at ten-to-eight every morn- ing. He would have double orange juice, ba- con and eggs, cold ham and chicken, toast, marmalade, and coffee. He would order this same breakfast every day.’
“Menus for all the meals had to be ap- proved by military attachés accompanying the leaders. Churchill liked lamb so well that he once remarked to Rhode he could eat it every day. Roosevelt liked raisin pie, and was especially fond of lobster and Canadian kippers (herring). He gave the chef a special invitation to visit the White House in Wash- ington. As a parting request he asked Rhode to package up a small box of kippers to take back with him. “Churchill’s favorite item was Yorkshire
pudding — he ate ‘big, heaping dishfuls,’ ac- cording to Rhode. Upon departure, Churchill went up to him and said, ‘Chef, my stay was very enjoyable, and your meals were won- derful.’ For the immigrant Rhode, this was the crowning glory of his lifelong work.” The Serendipity Continued: Because Canadian Railway Stories was published in 1985, I could not find a current reference to the publisher, or current information about the author, on the web. Wanting (needing) permission to provide this excerpt, in an act of desperation, I simply mailed a letter to the last known address (as of 1985) for the publisher — Good Medicine Books in Skookumchuck, British Columbia. Imagine my surprise, when, a month later, I got a call from Okan Hungry Wolf. A gracious and pleasant man, he’s happy to share the story with us. That we talked as I was about to board a Branson Scenic Railroad excursion that was offering a buffet luncheon for at- tendees at the Railroad Passenger Car Al- liance annual meeting made the timing of his contact all the more remarkable. As news reporters are fond of saying, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
Dumas Station Wines A careful reader of this column, Tom Burg, wrote recently to say, “About your quest here to identify wineries with names or labels having railroad themes, I recall about five or six years ago, at a railroad meet in Pullman, Wash., a winery named Dumas Station. It had a table promoting its wines, one of which had a rudimentary (writer’s note: more on this in a moment) drawing of a loco- motive on its label.” He went on to point that he’d recently visited their website, and “found some really great wine labels! They have some great locomotive photos on sever- al, and that drawing is on their Cow Catcher Red blend. They also feature a silhouette of two guys on a handcar in their company logo.” “Clearly,” says Tom, in a spirit I try to em- ulate wherever I travel, “this is somewhere worth checking out! If you haven’t seen their website lately, take a look.” So I did, and communicated by email and telephone with a representative of the company as well. Here’s the skinny. The winery was founded in 2003. It’s named after its location, but Dumas Station is not actually a former railroad station. That was the name given, in the late 1800s, to an apple-packing shed built by James Du- mas, an early apple grower in the region. Happily for Dumas, known as the “Apple King of the Walla Walla Valley,” and whose apples were dubbed “the best apples on earth,” competing railroads ran on each side of his “station,” so he may have benefitted from favorable rates? Dumas Station was still standing in 2003, so
winery co-founders Jay DeWitt and Doug Har- vey“fixed up” the old apple shed and use it still. About the Labels: Among the conclu-
sions Tom shared following his research was this: “There clearly is railroad interest with the winery’s founders.” Ali Harvey, daughter
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