Passenger Trains > AMTK have any chefs left?

Back in the day, Amtrak used to brag that all their chefs were trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and when I was a regular rider back in the 80s and 90s much of the food was pretty decent, if not downright good. With the new food service, does Amtrak even have any chefs left?

JG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/20 20:42 by jgilmore.

I think the closest to a chef is a microwave oven made by Magic Chef

I suspect Howard Johnson restaurants said the same thing about KFC, McD, etc in the 1960s.

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jgilmore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Back in the day, Amtrak used to brag that all
> their chefs were trained at the Culinary Institute
> of America, and when I was a regular rider back in
> the 80s and 90s much of the food was pretty
> decent, if not downright good. With the new food
> service, does Amtrak even have any chefs left?
>
> JG

My mom's long term care facility just hired a young CuIA graduate as their head chef.  Economics aside (in house vs subcontract) working a dining car would be a great oppurtunity to young chefs as they would have a lot of responsibility in a lower stakes environment.  The problem is that travel dining neds a level of consistancy akin to fast casual.  It would be interesting to see an experiment with contracted food service that has a base menu it has to provide, but then is given freedom on the rest. Would a different food operation per route or even per departure turn passengers off or become a valuable amenity?

The cruise lines and air lines occasionally feature celebrity chef developed menus as a draw for passengers.

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AMT is Agence Metropolitaine de Transport was the name for Montreal's commuter rail system.  Montreal was one of the best cities I've visited for food and it would have been awesome if AMT commuter trains had dining cars.  That said, I'm pretty sure that AMT commuter trains, like all others in North America, never hired chefs.  AMT is now Exo. 

Amtrak's reporting mark and abbreviation is AMTK. 

For Agence Metropolitaine de Transport and Amtrak reporting marks, see the following Association of American Railroads list:

https://www.railserve.com/aar_railroad_reporting_marks.html

Bring back Brian Rosenwald!

Right now on the trains, Rachel Ray would be a vast improvement. 

Auto Train chefs should be it now.

If by some miracle, the funding  and corporate culture allowed full dining and the chefs to return, how would they be brought into the ranks?

Fresh new faces with no seniority or simply leftover stale employee's still lingering with high seniority running the show?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/20 04:30 by Molino.

Nice problem to have.

Be nice to see dining go back to pre 2006 levels!

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Some good fun here. A friend joined a dining group here in the UK, and was told ' you're not a chef, just a microwave technician'!  chris uk.