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Tina Sawyer: Some cooking students dream to one day land their dream job as chef in a fancy restaurant. But one chef has made a decades-long career cooking aboard ships on the Great Lakes. I recently talked with Katherine Schmuck who started the conversation explaining how a chance meeting in a bar got her culinary career started.
Catherine Schmuck: When I was working, a man used to come in every afternoon and I was just finishing high school and he said, "So what are you gonna do now?" And I shared with him that Lorraine, my younger sister and I had planned on going to Europe, visiting the relatives and then exploring. And he said you wanna make a lot of money and have a lot of vacation. And I was like, "Yes. I'm 19, of course." So he said. "Look, you know, like I work on a ship, they're looking for people. There is a a training school. Give them a call." I went home after my shift that day and I said to my sister. I said, "Look, I'd like to try this." And she was like, "You go, I go." My mom and dad are immigrants from Germany, so they're always very encouraging and adventurous themselves. So they were like, "Yeah, you girls go ahead." They had to sign a letter for Lorraine because she was only 17 and away we went.
TS: Now this we should clarify, this is not like a cruise ship.
CS: No, far from it. It's a cargo ship.
TS: Being 2 females aboard the ship, how did you get welcomed?
CS: Well it it is for sure back in the early 80s when we joined, there was still a lot of the old crusty sailors, you know, that were like you've got no place on here, you know. So there was that. But already the trends were starting to change, like on my second ship, which would probably 19, let's say 1990s, there was women. More recently I've sailed with four female captains, and so there's more and more women on board.
TS: Is it hard to to cook aboard during bad weather or just on the water in general?
CS: Not really. It basically is like going to your diner down the street. It doesn't happen as often anymore, the bad weather, because one of the things to that I notice that they change, there's no going out into bad weather anymore.
TS: I would imagine there's a lot of organization and prep work involved to cook aboard a ship. Can you tell us something that people may not realize in that process?
CS: What people might not know is that it's not like a shore where if you're like, oh, you know what, I want to make this, like, whatever for supper. If you don't have it in your dry store and you haven't ordered it? You can't make it. So you have to be able to foresee that that you've kind of budgeted your food.
TS: How do you deal with allergies?
CS: You know what's funny is because when I sailed in the '80s, that was really never a topic of conversation. It was maybe, "I have a peanut allergy," but now there are many more food intolerances. So what I do when I get on the ship, I always write a note on the boards, "Let me know if you have any food allergies."
TS: What was the most requested dish?
CS: Butter chicken is one of my personal favorites, and a crew favorite. I make a lot of bread. Can't go wrong.
TS: Now I'm hungry. What advice, Catherine, would you give to anyone wanting to do what you do?
CS: I wish they knew about this career opportunity. You've gone to school to become a chef. What most chefs, who are working at night and on weekends, that's the restaurant industry. This type of career, it's not fancy. Yes, you're gone 30 days or 60 days, but when you're in like a restaurant on land, you're also gone. I think what I like about it too is that nobody tells me what to do. There's something fun about making a grocery order for $10,000 that you don't have to pay for! One of the other things too is that you have to like your own company.
TS: And with that isolation, you decided to write?
CS: Once I discovered how many people were interested about sailing, I decided to write the cookbook and include stories from being on a ship and what I cook for the crew.
TS: Well, it seems like a life's calling for you. Catherine, is that true? Why do this?
CS: For me personally, and not all of the cooks look at it like this, but I look at it as my responsibility is not just to serve food to the crew, but create an atmosphere that's like your kitchen at home. It's monotonous for the boys on the ship because they're working every day, and if there's no days off, and the only difference in their day is what's on the menu. It's my place to kind of create somewhere that they're like a highlight in the day
