No.399

SAUTÉING ON THE HIGH SEAS

Imagine how much of a blag being a merchant navy chef would be.

You've spent the better part of your young adulthood slaving away at culinary school, learning with great difficulty the proper way to butter-baste a steak or make an authentic bolognese, only to be shipped off with a bunch of craggy-faced, irritable seamen who're seemingly only interested in eating slop for sustenance.

Soon enough you too become less and less interested in spending four-to-seven hours making Pho and resign yourself to a life of exclusively eating baked beans, own-brand pot noodles, spam salads and pocket lint, bitterly wondering why your supreme talent has been discounted and overlooked time and time again...

What's this got to do with the outfit above?

Not a lot to be honest. We just wanted to take this time to salute the thankless job of maritime cooking.