A SWISS CHEF'S CAREER: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE YUMMY (5)

Chapter 5

Lodore Swiss Hotel, 50 years ago

My Room was across the street on the first floor by the parking lot

                      On March 6^th 1967 my parent’s took me to the airport in Zürich. Another first!!

My first time on a airplane. I was excited and nervous at the same time. It was definitely not like today, there was only one gate, only a few planes and all planes had propellers. Once inside the plane I felt great. I was on the way to London, there I changed plane and I flew to Manchester City. From there I took a Taxi to the Train station and traveled to Keswick with a stop at Carlisle.

Arriving at Keswick I was personally greeted by Mr. Toni England, the owner of the Hotel. He picked me up in his Rolls Royce. That made me feel welcome for sure. This is my experiences that taught me about costumer service that I will never forget! Toni's German was very limited and I was a novice in English. Needless to say our trip was silence all the way to the Hotel. I still very much enjoyed the trip in this luxury car on the scenic route along the Keswick lake.

I arrived on March 5^th 1967 at the Lodore Swiss Hotel

                  

                         This was really a planned starting point of my cooking career, because I finally decided how my future should look like. For the first time I am living in a foreign country. Everybody spoke English and I’m not!! But thats why I chose this particular hotel. I thought a hotel with a Swiss name in it, will have some people speaking German and will help me to become on expert in English!

                        The Hotel was still closed and I met Executive Chef Kurt Hartman being busy putting together the kitchen crew for the 1967 season. He was from Switzerland and we spoke Swiss German. Kurt was well respected and everybody liked him, he worked for this hotel for a long time and in the winter months  he runs the kitchen of a big resort in Jamaica. In the three season we worked together he teached me a lot and we became a great team.

Executive Chef Kurt Hartman And Me

                         That day I also met the Sous Chef and Pastry Chef , both from Germany, both speaking German. This was fine , because the rest of the crew where locals with no knowledge of German!

                       The Hotel was only open from middle of March to October every year. So every year the Chef has to put a new crew together. It is not easy to find people willing to take a job for only 7 month. Kurt did this with ease. From the beginning I felt great working for him. I had a whole week to prepare my station before the hotel opening and it was on exiting time. I made lots of new friends and I learn new English words every day!!

                          Because Chef Kurt lived there for some time could answer any questions you had not just cooking related, he was really helpful to everybody. He helped me buy my first car a used  Sunbeam I was using for the next 3 years and I had to learn to drive on the left side of the road!! He also made made me on expert on Horse betting. I don't know if that was very good, but it was a lot of fun. At one point I also met the Beatles and even could made a tape of a practice session on my big wheel tape recorder. Unfortunately I lost it later on in my life. In our free time we always went horseback riding or swimming in the lake. In two of the Season we also had our own Football team.

Lodore Swiss Football team

That's the Car I wanted to Buy

That's the Sunbeam I ended up with, Ha

                           Life was good but we had lots of work too. We served Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and special events like seafood buffets and banquets for groups, weddings and of course a very elaborated buffet for the Swiss national day on the first of August.

Me in full action during dinner time

My buddy Heinz is standing behind me to my right

It is hard to remember the names of my coworkers after 40 years

The quality of the photos were not either 

Front view of the hotel in black truffle on a home cured Ham 



Whole smoked salmon

My masterpiece model, the landing of the shuttle on the moon

made out of pastillage (gelatin and powder sugar)



Prime rib and lobster, most clients favorite!

another design for our famous ham

Lamb saddle was always popular

Old fashion chaud-froid

Duck galantine and roast turkey

 Here is a fantastic classic picture from when the hotel operated as the Lodore Swiss Hotel.
The owners Mr Robert England with his Swiss wife Merthie Muggler and there son Toni
 owned the hotel from 1947-1987. 

                            After that time the hotel changed the name to Lodore Falls Hotel and went to extensive renovation, mostly inside. Even the outside looks the same I saw on their website pictures of they're gorgeous inside pool, new bar, beautiful rooms etc, etc. 

                             Here in England I got introduced to Yorkshire pudding, in fact i had to made them every day to accompany our prime rib. 

Here is the recipe:

4 oz Flour
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Pepper
4 each Eggs
2 oz liquid butter

                  Combine the eggs, milk, flour, salt, pepper and butter, blend well and place in refrigerator until ready to use. (allow to rest for at least 30 minutes)

                   Preheat oven to 425 degree

                   Put 1 tablespoon of oil (or beef drippings) into each section of a 12 hole muffin tray and  put in to the oven until very hot almost smoking.

                   As soon as you take tray out of the oven pour in the batter to three quarters fill the tins (it should sizzle) and immediately put back into the oven

                    Bake until the yorkshire puddings are well risen, golden brown and crisp, 15 to 20  minutes. don't open the door until the end or they might collapse.

We had a very busy and enjoyable Season. In September I started looking for a winter season job and found one in Arosa Switzerland. Before I left I promised Chef Kurt to be back next season as Saucier Sous- Chef .