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I'm still swaying. Until 24 hours ago, I was on a 74-foot boat named the Catalyst weaving along Alaska's Inside Passage. The reason for the trip was to watch my friend "Ace," a fellow alumni from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris manage her galley as research for my next book.
I thought her life on board sounded idyllic. She'd cook for the twenty or so guests aboard as she gazed out at the splendor of the Alaskan landscape. In the evening, she'd mingle with them over wine.
I was wrong.
Ace wakes up each day at 5 a.m. to start coffee and breakfast. most guests wake when the engines start at about 6 a.m. After that, she is in constant motion, preparing three meals, baking fresh breads and cookies. She's learned to expertly provision and portion. "I want there to be enough for second helpings, but not a lot of leftovers. We don't have the space." The hardest part isn't the cooking, she says. "It's being ‘on' all the time."
The galley of the Catalyst is on the main deck with the parlor, the place where all the guests hang out. Summer in Alaska is a cold, rainy affair marked by infrequent bursts of sunshine. Of the six days at sea, five featured pouring rain. Guests spend a lot of time inside, swathed in fleece, their hands curved around a cup of hot something. Most spend their time reading, looking at the landscape out the steamy windows or watching Ace cook.
"What kind of meat is that?" ‘Really, you use leg of lamb in stew? Huh." "What are you doing now?" "What was it like to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris?"
