As the morning wore on the aroma of the hams filled the kitchen more than anything else. Great stuff was cooking, really great stuff.
The hams emitted that honey, maple, sugary scent, a smell that at first was so tempting you felt like you could eat a whole ham but which after awhile became so overbearing you couldn’t stand it in your nostrils.
Later in his career, when he worked in New York and was one of the top sauciers in the city, Bill would have to make fifteen gallons of curry sauce at least once every week, sometimes twice. On top of that, at least once every two weeks, and usually more because it also came up on banquets, he would have to make Cream Senegalese.
It didn’t happen all at once, but after awhile Bill couldn’t stomach the smell of the curry. No matter how much he washed his hands and how long he showered and shampooed his hair when he got home, he couldn’t get away from the smell.
Forget about eating curry. Ever!
So when he was a kid Bill had a friend named Alan whose father was part owner in Barricini Candy. His friend went on to marry his high school sweetheart, invent a deodorant and then some. But he had to work in one of the candy stores and lots of times Bill went with him, to work and to hang out.
Alan’s father also owned a piece of a movie theater, the RKO Keith’s in Flushing. Alan got free passes to the theater all the time and so Bill and Alan and Alan’s girlfriend and her friend, who went with Bill because they were young and had to be on double-dates, went to the movies a lot and sat up in the last rows of the balcony making out.
Bill was thinking about the candy store experience the more the ham smell got to him. At first it was a swell smell, really swell. They would stop the rotary and baste the hams, pans of them, and then start the rotary again.
The ham smell getting near-nauseating as the day wore on caused Bill to remember everything, especially those times in the movie theater. Under The Boardwalk.
The hams were beautiful too. Golden, then maple, then a light maple-brown. The cooks glazed each one with a brown-sugar glaze that made it shine.
By comparison, the turkeys, which were also beautiful, golden and succulent, were almost non-smelling, not because they didn’t have their own aroma but because the ham aroma smothered them.
To the people who came to the buffet in the kitchen, the people who just caught the whiffs, ate and cut out, that ham smelled swell. It was swell because as the morning wore on it was put out on the buffet to eat. To Bill and Jimmy G, who both had to serve it all day, it was something they wouldn’t really choose from the selection.
Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and yams, that was one fare they were preparing. Ham and choice of stuffing or potato was a second fare they were preparing. But they were running the regular menu too, just a little modified. Steaks and chops were all being served, as was the fish. Only things not being served were the lobster tails and frog legs. The idea was to limit the sauté so that both Bill and Jimmy G could concentrate on the specials.
Basic idea, from past experience, was to turn over the room as many times as possible. Many hotel guests had called down to make reservations and they already had multiple turns of the room. This meant, and they all knew this, it was going to be a slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am day and the goal was to make sure the food put out was not just good, but Falstaff Room great.
About ten-thirty, almost everything was done. Bill and Jimmy G were already loading up their truck for the first trip out. The room was opening for dinner at noon.
