How to run a restaurant on rails The Rocky Mountaineer has an impressive menu, considering the train’s constant motion and space constraints, writes
Donna Demaio.
Leaning against the steel bench in one of eight galleys on Canada’s luxury locomotive Rocky Mountaineer, chef Jean Pierre Guerin says he’s never totally satisfied with the food served by his 90-person team. That’s because the man who’s prepared meals for the likes of Bill Clinton and Diana, Princess of Wales is on a perpetual quest to raise the cuisine’s already excellent standard via innovation, creativity and an evolving menu.
As the train chugs across stretches of the prettiest parts of British Columbia and Alberta (picture gushing waterfalls, snow-capped peaks, the deepest of blue rivers and ubiquitous wildlife), Guerin, having accrued years of cooking nous in the aviation industry and at five-star hotels, spends his days mapping out how to best prepare and serve memorable meals for upwards of 550 passengers per trip.
The galleys are one-person-wide slivers of space, peppered with chefs cooking and plating the quality, fresh, pre-cut ingredients. (Just imagine trying to fillet an enormous fresh salmon in the confines of an area with near-zero elbow room.) The vegetables are pre-washed to save on limited water reserves onboard and the stateof-the-art stoves are custom built.
Breakfast bites
The menu is impressive, considering the limitations on space and the constant motion of the train, and service must be a synchronised operation. Breakfast includes a vast selection of tweaked favourites. These include the Fraser Valley eggs and cream cheese scrambled and wrapped in a crispy spring roll (scrambled egg crisp) or the two poached eggs and Montreal-style smoked beef stacked on a toasted English muffin with tarragonscented hollandaise – a gorgeous twist on eggs benedict.
And then there’s the newly added must-have cranberry apple French toast made with pan-fried cranberry and apple baguette, drizzled with maple cream and served with roasted almond and honey syrup.
Even a simple stove-top oatmeal is a standout served with brown sugar and fresh berries.
Guerin has coined an adage for those travelling on the Rocky Mountaineer – ‘‘It’s not catering. It’s a restaurant.’’ Then comes lunch with a further assortment of meals to delight and satisfy. There’s delicately seared Albacore tuna loin for the Rocky Mountaineer signature tuna nicoise salad. Alberta beef short ribs in Okanagan Valley Merlot accompanied by whipped garlic potatoes and local market vegetables can’t be removed from the menu for fear of a riot. And Guerin’s burger pride and joy: a mouth-watering, eight-ounce Canadian angus beef patty with light mesquite seasoning, stacked in a toasted pretzel bun with sliced portobello mushrooms and smoked Canadian cheddar with house-made ketchup and a crunchy slaw. Excellent train-riding sustenance.
Train tipples
Each bi-level carriage (in the GoldLeaf coach), with its magnificent and superbly practical glass-domed roof, has about 34 guests and a cluster of hosts to handle all manner of requests and assist with wildlife spotting.
As the fluffiest of warm cinnamon scones with Okanagan berry jam are served, you may hear yelped alerts such as: ‘‘Look there’s a moose!’’ Or: ‘‘Bear to the left.’’