Eating and drinking on the train

Maybe it’s just the group I’m with, but everything on the train seems to revolve around eating and drinking. The drinking part is really easy. Basically, Antoine opens up the bar first thing in the morning (Bloody Marys), keeps it going while we’re waiting for lunch (Whistler Pale Ale), and recommences at “tea time” (whisky on the rocks). So far I’ve yet to see anyone ask for tea at tea time.

Yesterday as we were waiting for our call for lunch, Rocky Mountaineer executive chef Frédéric Couton came up to our dome car to ask us how we liked the food so far. What’s not to like? Our selections for lunch included an aged Alberta top sirloin, wild British Columbia salmon, or Alberta pork tenderloin. All served with lovely wines from the Okanagan Valley.

Frédéric, who was born in France and trained at Michelin Star restaurants in Paris and Geneva, considers working on the Rocky Mountaineer as something of a vacation. “It is very much less stressful than working in a restaurant,” he said in his heavily-inflected accent. He knows exactly how many meals he’s going to have to prepare every day and when we are going to eat it. “If your staff does the prep work well, it is not so hard to put out a gourmet meal on a train,” he said, although he admitted that the “kitchen” is “very, very small. I bend over and my fanny hits the other side.”

And by three in the afternoon, his day is done and he can relax and enjoy the train trip like everyone else. “I do a little paper work, maybe make some phone calls, but compared to a restaurant, it is nothing,” he said. “A walk in the park.”

He asked if we had any other questions and when we were all silent, he said, “Well, then, let’s go eat, shall we?” And so we did.