Is having no chef on the CONO permanent?

[vwalton]

I got my reservation for 3 bedrooms for a family group (paid, not AGR) for the first week of January before they announced the change, and I've not yet received any word of the change from Amtrak. I would not know about it at all if not for reading about it here. Does anyone know if it is a temporary change? (Hoping against hope here!)

 

[yarrow]

it is supposed to be evaluated at some point. i was on the cono a couple weeks ago. the dining car crew didn't seem to care for the change but they weren't consulted. one of the lead service attendants told me that all they were told was "expect more changes call customer relations at amtrak. and let them know you don't like it. tell them it's not what you paid for.

 

[vwalton]

Thanks, Yarrow. I hope they evaluate it before January. Two of our group will be having their first Amtrak experience, and if it is like the experiences I've read here, it may be their last. I will surely call Customer Relations if there is no chef.

Has anyone who reserved when there was still a chef and a regular menu been notified of the change by Amtrak?

 

[George K]

I reserved my trip months ago, and received no notification from Amtrak about the changes. I'm traveling this Sunday.

Though it would be nice if Amtrak did notify us, the letter of the reservation says that "meals are included." It doesn't say what kind, or what quality. That said, they did change the menus after I booked my trip.

I'm still going.

 

[dlagrua]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more? In todays world we follow the Wall Street lead that give's the customers less and charges the customer more. The only way we will see diners on the Cardinal, Capitol Ltd, and City of New Orleans is if the passengers start complaining or stop talking the trains. Sleeper passengers pay a lot of money for their LD trips and it is sad to see the service declining to where you you have to eat "TV dinners" and can't even get a fresh cooked meal. The cafe car menu is accptable for one meal but on a 28 hr run such as the Cardinal, you will be served four of these pre-cooked meals as on the CONO.

Due to this factor and the coming of AGR 2.0 we will take our final trip on the Cardinal route in 2016. We wrote off the Autotrain when the cut backs in food quality and other amemites were eliminated. If thats the way the game needs to be played, we can get to our destination by another means just the same with better food, fancy lodging and at a lower cost..

 

[KmH]

Is it reasonable for us to expect notification from Amtrak about the changes?

After all, meals are still included in the fare for sleeper berths.

Define 'fresh cooked'.

I wonder how much of the food served on LD trains is partially cooked at the commissary before the food is put on the train.

Are the eggs scrambled in the commissary and loaded onto the train in gallon jugs?

Are the garlic mashed potatoes made from a powder?

Are the roasted potatoes cut and seasoned at the commissary?

 

[haolerider]

As far as I know, nothing is prepared at the commissary. It is simply a supply depot.

 

[jis]

i suspect if the train is Chef-less, like the Cardinal or Acelas, the food delivered is mostly pre-plated in some form or the other, since all that they have in the Dinette is to heat up the stuff and deliver them to the tables.

 

[dlagrua]

Is it reasonable for us to expect notification from Amtrak about the changes?

After all, meals are still included in the fare for sleeper berths.

Define 'fresh cooked'.

I wonder how much of the food served on LD trains is partially cooked at the commissary before the food is put on the train.

Are the eggs scrambled in the commissary and loaded onto the train in gallon jugs?

Are the garlic mashed potatoes made from a powder?

Are the roasted potatoes cut and seasoned at the commissary?

How I define fresh cooked is that the food is raw, sesoned, and cooked on the train. AFAIK, many of the dishes in the dining cars are cooked from scratch. The bacon, eggs, breakfast items, fish, chicken and most assuredly steaks are all cooked in a dining car on the grill. On a few routes the meals are brought to the cafe, pre-cooked and re-heated in a convection oven. Reheated eggs are often rubbery and tasteless while fresh cooked eggs are soft and tasty. Fresh French toast in the dining cars has been good while the French Toast sticks in the Cafe car are terrible . There is a difference.

As I said before, we can accept a cafe car meal for one meal but to have to eat that pre-prepared fodder for four meals is unacceptable.

 

[tommylicious]

"Fresh cooked"...I think we know it when we see it vs microwaved.

Is it reasonable for us to expect notification from Amtrak about the changes?

After all, meals are still included in the fare for sleeper berths.

Define 'fresh cooked'.

I wonder how much of the food served on LD trains is partially cooked at the commissary before the food is put on the train.

Are the eggs scrambled in the commissary and loaded onto the train in gallon jugs?

Are the garlic mashed potatoes made from a powder?

Are the roasted potatoes cut and seasoned at the commissary?

 

[neroden]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*

They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

 

[MikefromCrete]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*
They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

Neroden, your posts are always the highlight of my day.

 

[zephyr17]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*

They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

 

[haolerider]

I think we would all be surprised as to how much food is cooked "sous-vide" in many restaurants. Convection ovens and the sous-vide method produce food with far better quality than microwave; however food that requires browning - such as steaks & other grilled items don't do as well. I haven't seen an official announcement as to what will be served on the CONO, but if there is no chef, that will be a waste of all that lower level,space in the dining car!

 

[jis]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*

They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

Airlines treat their upper class passengers plenty well and even improve service from time to time. It is the steerage where they do the serious cost cutting since there is also a serious support from the customers of serious ticket prices cutting. So it all balances out properly.

 

[peconicstation]

Is it reasonable for us to expect notification from Amtrak about the changes?

After all, meals are still included in the fare for sleeper berths.

Define 'fresh cooked'.

I wonder how much of the food served on LD trains is partially cooked at the commissary before the food is put on the train.

Are the eggs scrambled in the commissary and loaded onto the train in gallon jugs?

Are the garlic mashed potatoes made from a powder?

Are the roasted potatoes cut and seasoned at the commissary?

How I define fresh cooked is that the food is raw, sesoned, and cooked on the train. AFAIK, many of the dishes in the dining cars are cooked from scratch. The bacon, eggs, breakfast items, fish, chicken and most assuredly steaks are all cooked in a dining car on the grill. On a few routes the meals are brought to the cafe, pre-cooked and re-heated in a convection oven. Reheated eggs are often rubbery and tasteless while fresh cooked eggs are soft and tasty. Fresh French toast in the dining cars has been good while the French Toast sticks in the Cafe car are terrible . There is a difference.

As I said before, we can accept a cafe car meal for one meal but to have to eat that pre-prepared fodder for four meals is unacceptable.

Giving Amtrak some credit here they have gotten much more transparent about how food is prepared in a full service diner.

A number of entrees like the healthy option are reheated on-board, and the bacon is pre-cooked.

There is no mystery here just go on the foods facts site, and check out the food items available on your train.

You'll see the package that the bacon comes cooked in, and it will mention dishes like the healthy option that come in service packs.

Ken

 

[trainman74]

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

Time Warner Cable has been in the process of increasing Internet speeds in all of their markets -- I think Los Angeles was upgraded during 2014. My speed went from 20 Mbps down/2 Mbps up to 100/10, with no price change.

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

As much as you want to say Amtrak cuts services and charges more, the fact is that almost everything worthwhile has a cost. Amtrak certainly has to pay any chef for a given train. If the CONO (or any other train) has a chef, someone is paying for it and I guarantee corporate isn't.

Right now Amtrak's CONO has no chef. Assume they want to have one. Who pays? Here are the options.

1) All passengers/ raise everyone's prices $X. Would that turn passengers away? Are the current prices allowing for more business than the with chef prices would?

2) All sleeper car passengers $Y (and Y is larger than X previously). How would the increase affect sales?

3) All diner car customers pay $Z more per meal. Would that affect sales? Would customers more likely choose the cafe car food if the difference in price is higher?

If Amtrak can do 1, 2, 3, or any combination and not lose money on paying the chef, I would think they would be smart enough to do so.

 

[jebr]

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

Depends on what you're looking at from the cable company. The actual cable TV service...generally, yeah, I'll agree that it's not really improving. However, a lot of the rise in costs is due to programmer's fees going up much faster than the rate of inflation...especially true for smaller cable companies (and even to some extent for all those that don't produce their own cable channels.)

The ISP side of many cable companies is continuing to improve speeds. Some are counteracting this by imposing data caps, but others are offering this increase without any addition of a data cap. If cable companies weren't innovating in this field, I'm not sure the internet (especially internet video) would be flourishing as much as it has been. Could it be better? Certainly, but to say that there's no absolute improvement on the ISP end would be flat-out wrong in the vast majority of cases.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*

They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

Airlines treat their upper class passengers plenty well and even improve service from time to time. It is the steerage where they do the serious cost cutting since there is also a serious support from the customers of serious ticket prices cutting. So it all balances out properly.

And decades of experience have shown the airlines, often from their own kitchens, can pre-plate some AMAZING High Shelf Meals that are loaded on ready to go or only needing minimum on board prep; obviously you cannot put a Diner size Kitchen on an airliner. With that in mind, if Amtrak goes to pre-plated ready to sling meals they should be able to at least do as good as a typical airline. Moreover, to assure freshness, there is no reason Amtrak (or more likely Aramark, Sysco or whoever has the contract) cannot have Catering Stations set up to replenish Long Distance trains as they progress on their routes.

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*

They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

Airlines treat their upper class passengers plenty well and even improve service from time to time. It is the steerage where they do the serious cost cutting since there is also a serious support from the customers of serious ticket prices cutting. So it all balances out properly.

And decades of experience have shown the airlines, often from their own kitchens, can pre-plate some AMAZING High Shelf Meals that are loaded on ready to go or only needing minimum on board prep; obviously you cannot put a Diner size Kitchen on an airliner. With that in mind, if Amtrak goes to pre-plated ready to sling meals they should be able to at least do as good as a typical airline. Moreover, to assure freshness, there is no reason Amtrak (or more likely Aramark, Sysco or whoever has the contract) cannot have Catering Stations set up to replenish Long Distance trains as they progress on their routes.

I would support the catering stations ideas as long as they do not delay the trains. If they can have them in stations where LD trains are scheduled for maintenance and take care of it during the scheduled service breaks it would work.

 

[seat38a]

Examine the progression of any business government or private over the years. When was the last time that you saw any business giving the customer more?

The businesses I deal with routinely give customers more. They're doing quite well. *Shrug*

They, of course, cater to the upscale market.

You must not work for an airline. Or a cable company.

Airlines treat their upper class passengers plenty well and even improve service from time to time. It is the steerage where they do the serious cost cutting since there is also a serious support from the customers of serious ticket prices cutting. So it all balances out properly.

And decades of experience have shown the airlines, often from their own kitchens, can pre-plate some AMAZING High Shelf Meals that are loaded on ready to go or only needing minimum on board prep; obviously you cannot put a Diner size Kitchen on an airliner. With that in mind, if Amtrak goes to pre-plated ready to sling meals they should be able to at least do as good as a typical airline. Moreover, to assure freshness, there is no reason Amtrak (or more likely Aramark, Sysco or whoever has the contract) cannot have Catering Stations set up to replenish Long Distance trains as they progress on their routes.

They sure can. Taste is a whole different matter but presentation can make terrible look good.

Both meals look delish but in reality was awful. DB and many of the EU trains reheat precooked meals and then plate them on REAL china that make them look absolutely tasty. I saw couple shows on the backend preparation going on for the dining cars in Germany and pretty much everything is reheat and serve. The thing that really makes it is the presentation.

I think the key is, don't just plop the whole container at the table, after reheating. Plate it! Heat each component separatly instead of throwing the whole thing in at the same time. I don't mind precooked as long as its done right.

DSC02728 by B H, on Flickr

DSC06317 by B

H, on Flickr

Now having said this, I'm sure Amtrak inconsistent crew will find a way to screw this one up as well. Some in the dining car will probably just drop the plastic container that it came in and then quote non existent policy when you ask them why its not plated.

 

[Montreal Ltd]

I have read here that VIA Rail does well with precooked/ convection oven heated mrals.

 

[tommylicious]

Those dishes didn't taste good? Hard to believe.

 

[philabos]

Great Western in the UK has a fresh cooked English breakfast , the price is 18UKP, or about $26.