The 1,200 inhabitants of McMurdo are hungry. Some have been drilling holes in -20 degree weather. Others have been fixing or driving heavy machines. Others still have been working indoors, plugging away at their keyboards. You are the cook. What do you feed them?
Most of your ingredients are dehydrated, frozen, or canned.
What could you make with these giant cans of food?
The plane that was supposed to deliver fresh veggies three days ago still hasn’t shown up. You’re left with a box of sad mushrooms, a freezer full of meat, and various cans and boxes of tomato sauce and other processed food. With this over-populated station, the kitchen is now mostly out of spices as well as many other common ingredients. The crowd wants something tasty, so what do you do?
What could you do with these spices for 1,200 people?
That’s the challenge the cooks here in McMurdo face now and most days. Though they plan their meals two weeks in advance, ingredients are never guaranteed to arrive. Fresh vegetables are definitely in short supply. Furthermore, since most of the food comes from New Zealand, sometimes you can’t get “American” food. Butternut squash is not the same as pumpkin and limes and lemons are not interchangeable, contrary to what some Kiwis seem to think. Furthermore, some Kiwi sausages do not go over well with the American crowd. What do you do?
Your kitchen in McMurdo - what do you make and how?
According to Barbara, one of the cooks in the galley, you make do with what they have. The cooks’ motto is “Keep people fed” as food is morale and both are needed for happy workers. Barbara gave a group of us a tour last week. We saw the giant 40 and 60 gallon steam pots used to thaw the massive amounts of frozen meat, eggs, and pre-made dishes as well as cook the 20-30 gallons of soup.
Stoves lined one wall while ovens lined another.
De-thawing broccoli - could you bake it?
One freezer was full of frozen meat.
The cooks prepare about 500-600 pounds of meat per lunch or dinner. They only need about 300-400 pounds for breakfast.
Another freezer, the Freshies Box, was empty, except for a few miserable mushrooms, some tomatoes, and a bit of lettuce. That was a sad sight.
Such a sad, sad sight... No freshies for McMurdo
We saw where the food gets warmed and stored until it’s ready to be set out. For each dish, the cooks have to make about 25-30 pans in order to feed the masses. Everything gets cooked ahead of time and the challenge becomes keeping it all heated. Once it’s set out, it has to be eaten or it gets thrown away. Food codes are strict here due to navy regulations and the fight against the McMurdo Crud. However, leftovers that haven’t yet made it to the common area do reappear in soups and salads.
We admired the giant mixer, Barbara’s favorite tool. She uses this to make gallons and gallons of salad dressing!
There are four meals that get served in McMurdo each day – breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midrats – the midnight to 1 am meal for the night shift. Barbara is on the midrat shift and, instead of having to cook for all 1200 people on station, only has to cook for about 130 people. That means she doesn’t use as much of the pre-made dishes as the other cooks do and she can make asparagus for her patronage. She has 4 cooks working with her as well as about 6 DAs (Dining Attendants). Since she has a smaller group of hungry mouths, she knows her patronage and really enjoys making specialties like home-made pizza for them. Coming from high end restaurants, she’s gotten used to making more “homely” dishes for us Antarcticans.
What creations can Barbara make with all this frozen food?
She gave us all a few inside tips:
The yogurt comes from powder!
Expired ingredients are not uncommon down here – it affects the quality but not the health.
Bakers make most of their stuff from scratch - enjoy it but watch out for the baked goods as they’re full of sugar and fat.
Watch out for the sandwich meat – it’s not the best quality.
Something green in Antarctica? Something alive and growing? It's sprouts which are indeed grown here in the kitchen in McMurdo!!!
The administration also clarified a minor emergency. "Despite the rumor... All Coffee is Caffeinated"
muffins - my favorite! Every morning I grab one for a mid-morning treat!