I’d rather call you Chef! (Soup Kitchen Diaries #09)

We’re having a Summer Break?

Thursday evening and it’s time for me to open up again. Lights, dishwasher, urn for hot water all switched on and three kettles of boiling water in the tea urn so the tea will served hot. Two football-sized bags of minced beef have almost defrosted in two containers in the sink, which I break up into small lumps so they can be popped into the two large saucepans.

Four gas rings lit in the kitchen with the largest saucepan put on for the pasta. Oil in the water to stop the spaghetti sticking and onions are there as a base for the Spaghetti Bolognese or ragu as the Italians call it. Ask for Spaghetti Bolognese in Italy and you will probably get a blank look. Ask for ragu and you will be asked what type: beef, chicken, pork or even rabbit.

Two volunteers arrive where one of them has his priorities right – he puts the kettle on and brings a nice cup of builders’ tea 4 minutes later. Onions are sliced and go into three saucepans – two for meat and one for the veggies. No mushrooms or courgettes this week. Looking at what is there, 12 small potatoes are sliced to go into the veggie saucepan. A search in the huge pantry reveals one jar of Rosemary and 15 packets of chilli powder which stay on the shelf. But we might as well use the half bulb of garlic and the three-quarters of a jar of Basil. One clove of garlic goes in the spaghetti.

First Cock up

For the two meat saucepans we use 12 tins of sliced tomatoes but the electric tin opener which still makes a whirring noise and which worked fine last week, won’t open the tins. Get out the manual opener but the electric opener has mangled the edge so it doesn’t work either. Brainwave – open the tin from the other end! The large unchopped tomatoes need dicing before going in after the beef.

The veggies get three tins of different beans and some spinach makes the sauce look better, as well as two tins of tomatoes, the last two it turns out. In go the potatoes, slightly pre-cooked from the microwave.

Onions soft, the beef goes in and lids on to help it brown more quickly.

4.5 kilos of spaghetti goes in meaning 100 grams per meal, as the average for a Thursday evening is about 45 meals.

More Troops Arrive

Martin the project manager is here now and quickly interviews two new volunteers from Hands On London whose helpers have been excellent. The tables are laid by now. From having loads of salt and pepper and tomato sauce containers these are now in short supply, but their absence reminds me to add the salt to the three saucepans.

More regulars arrive, the tea is made and once the spaghetti has been drained, off we go. When cooking large quantities, the 8-10 minutes for a packet of spaghetti is nowhere near enough and just over 20 minutes does a perfect job. Volunteers come back – can one guy have  a veggie instead with the spaghetti on one plate and the veggie sauce on another? Grrrr. He gets the two side-by-side on the same plate.

Spaghetti getting low so I ask a new volunteer to slice and butter some artisan bread. We avoid the mistake of letting too much bread out too early. Bread (especially when already buttered) practically evaporates in a soup kitchen and can mean that much of the cooked food is thrown away. A large tin of vegetable soup goes into the veggie saucepan as the meat sauce has finished. Good job the potatoes were microwaved before going into the saucepan as they are just cooked.

Please Sir! Can I have some more!

A volunteer comes back asking if there is a pudding? We give what we have but this week there is no dessert. A few times we have served a starter, then a main course and even a dessert, but this week it’s just one course. Ironically, the one item that hardly ever seems to be served is soup.

Can one guy have some tuna to take home? He gets his usual two tins (what’s the point of keeping it?) but I suggest to the new volunteer that she gives it to him discretely.

Winding down now, the two portions of veggie food left go into separate dish so the last of the saucepans can be washed.

Some of the Hands On London volunteers leave just before 9 pm. We exchange names, but one lady says she prefers to call me Chef! For someone who was conspicuously never made a prefect at school and whose CV is light on management, it makes my day!