WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE? - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 124

own personal collection of spices onboard to give several of the
items on the bill of fare an additional bit of individuality.
Once the trip is underway and mealtime begins to approach,
activity in the diner's kitchen increases to a pace that's somehow
frenzied and orderly at the same time. The chef is still clearly the
one in charge and handles most of the actual cooking. Orders
come in, are filled, and are sent out (or up via dumbwaiter, in the
case of Superliners, where the kitchen is on the lower level) with
amazing dispatch. And they'd better be organized! On some of
the more popular trains, as many as 300 meals will have to be
prepared and served at several sittings over a four-hour period.
Meals have to be prepared and served efficiently or the dinner
hour will stretch into bedtime—which is annoying to passengers
and exhausting for the dining-car crew.
One veteran Amtrak supervisor, who has worked his way up
through the ranks, says that a chef has the toughest job on a pas-
senger train. I absolutely believe it!
Food Specialist
These are the people who work in the kitchen under the supervi-
sion of the chef. Responsibilities are divided but include all of
the tasks we perform at home in our own kitchens, from putting
the groceries away to cleaning up the pots and pans after the last
meal is served. Depending on the train, there will be one or two
of these people working down on the lower level of the dining car
with the chef. The days are long and the work is hard. As with
many other onboard employees, what makes it all worthwhile
is good pay for the hours you work and lots of time off for lei-
sure or, in many cases, another job for additional income. Newly
hired food specialists go through an extensive initial training pro-
gram of about 80 hours and must take a number of trips, totaling
about 60 hours, and perform satisfactorily under the watchful
and usually very critical eye of a veteran chef.