Amtrak RR French Toast Quality Declining

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I had RRFT on the Eagle a few months ago, and it was just fine....probably the best meal I had on that trip.

Looking at menus for next trip in August on CS and EB and RRFT is only available on one segment, so my question is: Are the pancakes "fresh" made? Or reheated frozen ones?
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
Prior to Amtrak most railroads took great pride in their French Toast and 5 Recipes are featured in the great book Dining By Rail by James D. Porterfield. He gives the recipes for Northern Pacific, Soo Line, ATSF, Pennsylvania and Union Pacific French Toast. According to his notes the ATSF Recipe which dates back to the 1918 Fred Harvey Chefs was by far the best.
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I agree! "The Santa Fe All the Way!!!" ;)
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Amtrak hires trained chefs (culinary school graduates) to man their diners... if so they are the most overpaid OBS employees considering you don't need all that culinary training to use Aramark products. If however Amtrak was to initiate a program that encouraged their chefs to actually, *gasp* cook food from scratch, then perhaps they'd be worth their cost.

The problem, of course, is that food is not going to be a great marketing point. Sure you can say "better food than busses or planes" but I don't suppose that would sell that many more tickets than say a lot of new equipment.

Additionally, I was looking at pictures of the new food (having not been on a train in a few years) and I have to say.. do the chefs now sneeze parsley? Any foodie will tell you the ultimate sign of a chef trying to lazily present terrible food is to throw a handful of parsley onto every dish... enough so that you could blow it off the food and onto the diner across from you like dust.
 
ALC_Rail_Writer said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Amtrak hires trained chefs (culinary school graduates) to man their diners... if so they are the most overpaid OBS employees considering you don't need all that culinary training to use Aramark products. If however Amtrak was to initiate a program that encouraged their chefs to actually, *gasp* cook food from scratch, then perhaps they'd be worth their cost.
The problem, of course, is that food is not going to be a great marketing point. Sure you can say "better food than busses or planes" but I don't suppose that would sell that many more tickets than say a lot of new equipment.

Additionally, I was looking at pictures of the new food (having not been on a train in a few years) and I have to say.. do the chefs now sneeze parsley? Any foodie will tell you the ultimate sign of a chef trying to lazily present terrible food is to throw a handful of parsley onto every dish... enough so that you could blow it off the food and onto the diner across from you like dust.
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No, they do not hire culinary school graduates, unless one would occasionally apply. Many years ago they teamed up with the Culinary institute to do some training of Amtrak chefs, but I don't know how many are still around, and since most meals are not prepared from scratch, as you noted, it is mostly irrelevant anyway.
 
OBS said:
No, they do not hire culinary school graduates, unless one would occasionally apply. Many years ago they teamed up with the Culinary institute to do some training of Amtrak chefs, but I don't know how many are still around, and since most meals are not prepared from scratch, as you noted, it is mostly irrelevant anyway.
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Hm, don't know where I picked that mistruth up. Thanks.

In any event it doesn't require much to run a diner... and from what I've seen the people who can do the most about it are in management, those who arrange alternative options like on the EB or CS, or who don't take all the shortcuts. I was pleased a few years back on the SWC to see the diner staff picking up whole heads of lettuce and tomatoes in Pueblo. Our dinner salads that evening were better than I get in restaurants around town I patron.

EDIT- I know most Americans aren't picky about their vegetables, but to make my point Amtrak salads are like the salads my mother makes. There's no care to them, just take a bag of carbon-dioxide preserved day-old pre-cut lettuce and put it in a bowl with two cherry tomatoes you've pulled from the freezer. Add a little onion and one or two soggy croutons. Contrast this to salads I make and which I have had on trains like the CS where the lettuce is freshly cut, with big slices of tomato and rings of onion. I think there is frustration on the part of the rail rider when one realizes Amtrak has worked hard to standardize food service and in the process proved that the only standardizing they ever needed was just a matter of setting a few... standards I mean.
 
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I actually prefer the RRFT as compared to the so called omlet with the suggy soggy vegetables if you can call them vegetables, they seemed to be to have been frozen and turned into mush.
 
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The popular show "Top Chef" actually had an episode where contestants had to cook a meal aboard a train. It wasn't Amtrak though, it was a Napa valley wine train. Still, one would think that Amtrak could get some good publicity out of something like this. Here's a 2-minute video from that episode. Note how most of the chefs complain about nearly stabbing themselves with their own knives due to the constant swaying.

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/videos/cooking-on-a-train
 
D.P. Roberts said:
The popular show "Top Chef" actually had an episode where contestants had to cook a meal aboard a train. It wasn't Amtrak though, it was a Napa valley wine train. Still, one would think that Amtrak could get some good publicity out of something like this. Here's a 2-minute video from that episode. Note how most of the chefs complain about nearly stabbing themselves with their own knives due to the constant swaying.http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/videos/cooking-on-a-train
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I'm at a loss to name a single AmChow dish that would even require a knife to prepare.

Seeing the precooked frozen meals being reheated and sold for good money should make for some great publicity indeed.

Bachelor_Chow.jpg


^ That's more like it.
 
Amtrak doesn't need to have the best food out there. In my opinion, the dining car food needs to be comparable to an average diner.
 
That's right, Amtrak doesn't need to have the best food out there. Although if you have just spent $1000 on a bedroom on one of the LD trains, you might feel you deserve something better than reheated fairly bland slops.
 
I've said it before..... Bring in a Waffle House crew! :D Their food ain't any worse, and you'd be amazed at the consistency of all their fresh prepped meals. Their steaks are prepackaged, but they are certainly grilled. It's hard to wait more than 15 minute for a meal when they are crowded. The other day, my boys and I had breakfast served in five minutes - waffle, two eggs, cheese omlet, 4 toast, 2 hashbrowns, 3 strips of bacon, coffee, OJ. And their workspace isn't that much larger than a heritage dining car. :)
 
D.P. Roberts said:
The popular show "Top Chef" actually had an episode where contestants had to cook a meal aboard a train. It wasn't Amtrak though, it was a Napa valley wine train. Still, one would think that Amtrak could get some good publicity out of something like this. Here's a 2-minute video from that episode. Note how most of the chefs complain about nearly stabbing themselves with their own knives due to the constant swaying.http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/videos/cooking-on-a-train
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That would, unfortunately, lead to inflated expectations, and, in turn, more threads just like this.
 
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I agree with the waffle house idea. Now if they can just turn the cafe cars into conveniance store food.
 
Charlie... While that might be true I at least can see my food being prepared at Waffle House. I sometimes wonder what all goes on behind the scenes in places like IHOP and Ruby Tuesday.
 
...And on Amtrak - which isn't judged as a chain and probably not ranked. But back to Waffle House. Considering that none of the other restaurants listed are open 24/7/365, I believe that if you look at the violations as a percentage of meals served it would show a very different picture.

AlanB said:
VentureForth said:
The other day, my boys and I had breakfast served in five minutes - waffle, two eggs, cheese omlet, 4 toast, 2 hashbrowns, 3 strips of bacon, coffee, OJ.
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No partridge in a pear tree?
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No. :( They do serve quail at a local diner, though. :D

70 miles from Manhattan to the closest Waffle House in Bethlehem, PA. 2:45 to the closest one by train in Lancaster. I understand now that New Englanders are just deprived. LOL
 
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Count me in with the Waffle House tribe!

Seems like a good fit for a tiny kitchen crew making quick work of fast meals made to order.

It's honestly fun to watch 'em go, although on a Superliner we'd need a video feed or something.

Cho Cho Charlie said:
Maybe we should sic Guy Ramsey onto Amtrak? Let him critique the "new" French toast, with the camera zoomed in as Guy "paws" at it with his fork.
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So what's the deal with Guy Ramsey. Is he a thoughtful and entertaining critic or is he just some sort of loud mouthed jerk? I keep seeing him on my streaming accounts but never dove in.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Count me in with the Waffle House tribe!

Seems like a good fit for a tiny kitchen crew making quick work of fast meals made to order.

It's honestly fun to watch 'em go, although on a Superliner we'd need a video feed or something.

Cho Cho Charlie said:
Maybe we should sic Guy Ramsey onto Amtrak? Let him critique the "new" French toast, with the camera zoomed in as Guy "paws" at it with his fork.
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So what's the deal with Guy Ramsey. Is he a thoughtful and entertaining critic or is he just some sort of loud mouthed jerk? I keep seeing him on my streaming accounts but never dove in.
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Both. Public persona for the bucks.
 
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