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Catering Tales

Old 24th Sep 2018, 09:54
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During the squabble between Mintoff and Carrington in the early 70's about the Nimrods using Luqa airfield. my crew were the first to fly out of Malta and land at Sigonella. Several days ensued whilst a commcen was established at Sigonella (initially using the aeroplane and then in a big green tent) and we were billeted in the Central Palace in Catania. Natural curiosity led to familiarity with the P3 crews based in Sig and quite a few of the Americans were keen to find out what the inside of the Nimrod was really capable of. This preamble has a catering angle - our brass had made arrangements for lunch boxes from Alitalia in Catania Fontanarossa and these were duly delivered to Sig. Witnness - one thin turkey crustless dried out sandwich, and angel cake (similarly dessicated) a strange italian biscuit and a small bottle of cheapo vino.

For a nine hour sortie ? Really.

Luckily the knockers and our newly found american friends who were coming on the first Nimrod flight with Sig as a base had a pre flight breakfast meal in the Flight Diner followed by a post flight Steak and anything else you wanted. The cost : Free for enlisted men and after further enquiries one dollar each for Officers. We had a really good crew so I told the officers on our crew (only)about this facility. Unfortunately the facility was slightly spoiled when the word got out and people came to work in the morning at Sig bringing their overalls and pretending they were going to the Pre Flight Diner and operating that day, even though they were not flying that week.
The Italian Lunch boxes did continue for a week or so until the bills arrived, I think they were the equivalent of £18 per box and if you wanted tea or instant coffee it was extra.

Last edited by 5aday; 24th Sep 2018 at 11:21.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 11:39
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Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator
Shades of Sunderlands which had a wardroom, so did the Shackleton but the Nimrod had to make do with a galley.
I can't speak for Maritime Shacks - but there was nothing on the AEW Shack that could remotely be described as a 'wardroom'. While I was there ('74-'81), the crews were all officer, save for the Flight Engineer position which was filled either by an officer or, more usually, a Master or an NCO.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 12:09
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I saw the galley on the Sunderland at the RAF Museum and beliive me, the designer of the Nimrod Galley still had a lot to
learn. Whenever we carried flyaway ground crew, the only place to sit was in the 4 place galley or on the extra Dinghy over the spar.
so if you were part of the operating crew, when your meal was ready, you ate it at your position. One flight out of Masirah, the ground crew tried to
help by dishing out the starters, (Crayfish Salad) and there were boxes of crayfish, boxes of salad, and boxes of tubs of dressing. The six boxes of crayfish were devoured by the groundcrew, and the rest of us had salad and dressing. On another escapade, one of the groundcrew put some tins of soup in the oven.
Unopened. Don't ever let them near the Rima Grill. The next thing you would have was an underfloor fire / smoke warning.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 13:48
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One flight out of Masirah, the ground crew tried to
help by dishing out the starters, (Crayfish Salad) and there were boxes of crayfish, boxes of salad, and boxes of tubs of dressing. The six boxes of crayfish were devoured by the groundcrew and the rest of us had salad and dressing.
That just gives us groundcrew a bad name, what on earth were they thinking, fancy putting the dressing on your salad and not on the crayfish... Shame on them.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 14:50
  #105 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by sidevalve
I can't speak for Maritime Shacks - but there was nothing on the AEW Shack that could remotely be described as a 'wardroom'. While I was there ('74-'81), the crews were all officer, save for the Flight Engineer position which was filled either by an officer or, more usually, a Master or an NCO.
You obviously did not spend enough time in the galley. The double bench seat and drop down table had Wardroom above them.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 15:46
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Going back to the Sunderland, I was told by the late Gp Capt Jasper Coates, who during the war had commanded 120 Sqn and the Sunderland Operational Training Unit at Alness, that many Sunderland air gunners failed the course because they couldn't cook.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 17:04
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Deci, Sqn arrives and promptly struck down by the squirts... Turns out a lump of roast chicken was found festering under the water bottle in the block when it was changed. Sqn leaving suspected, but 17 shall remain nameless....ohhh err.
Gets up needing a drink of water at gawd knows what time, bimbles down the hall in the dark, takes cup and fills it, downs in one to quench my thirst, and nearly throws it back up as someone has emptied the bottle and filled it with Deci Red to keep it chilled.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 17:12
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Pre RAF this one... School cruise around the Med, 1st meal at sea, Steak and kidney pie, roasties and peas, covered with lashings of thick gravy....... takes a mouthful to discover the gravy is chocolate sauce, look forlornly at my lovely sponge cake covered in chocolate sauce and our worst fears are realised.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 18:08
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Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator
You obviously did not spend enough time in the galley. The double bench seat and drop down table had Wardroom above them.
Written in chinagraph? Think you're mistaken.. that area was never called the Wardroom (and I served my time in the galley!)
Perhaps Wensleydale could throw his £0.02-worth in.. (no stranger to the galley he!)
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 19:08
  #110 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by sidevalve
Written in chinagraph? Think you're mistaken.. that area was never called the Wardroom (and I served my time in the galley!)
Perhaps Wensleydale could throw his £0.02-worth in.. (no stranger to the galley he!)
Definitely not chinagraph but properly produced label.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 19:10
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Nutty, South Cerney, lunch food served, we all filed past the serving line collecting spud, veg and steak & pigmy, topped of with a ladle of rhubarb sauce.
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 19:51
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Operation Deny Flight saw half of 101 Sqn deploy to Sigonella, the other half of the Squadron was already deployed to either Incirlik or Bahrain. The Sqn Cdr obtained a very good rate for the detachment at the Sheraton Catania with everybody on Daily Messing Rates. After about a week a team from Command Accounts arrived to assess the situation. They negotiated "cheaper" rates at other hotels, which would have split the Det, with all the Comms and Transport problems that entailed. Until it was pointed out that we were paying less than that anyway!
They then organised that all 3 meals would be taken in the hotel, so no need to pay DMR, saving money. Only problem was that the Det was working irregular hours over a 24 hr period and hotel working normal hours. Day shift left the hotel several hours ahead of normal Breakfast time and hotel could make no provision. They were then reimbursed for the cost of Breakfast at the McDonalds on base. The night shift returned well before Breakfast time, so "relaxed" in their rooms until arriving at Breakfast in a very "relaxed" state to the chagrin of the normal paying guests. Breakfast took about two hours to serve and eat. They slept through lunch and then left the hotel before Dinner - more actuals.
The Dinner meal could consist of an icecream scoop of Calamari for starter, a slice of cold ham and a ring of tomato for main, followed by a 2 inch square 1/2 inch thick slice of gateaux for sweet. Wine was not included, but there was no limit on soft drinks. To give some quantity to the meal vast amounts of bread were eaten and lots of Coke was drunk
( Hip Flasks may have been used). Three Cokes were about the price of a bottle of wine, we drank about 6 Cokes each. With 30 people arriving at the same time the waiting staff could not cope and Dinner took two hours. Also there was no provision for, the Vegetarians or those with allergies. They dined elsewhere on actuals.
The result we lost money, the hotel lost money, the waiters received no tips and the RAF paid a lot more!! They probably got MBEs for their work!!
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 21:15
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Perhaps Wensleydale could throw his £0.02-worth in.. (no stranger to the galley he!)
Ah yes. From scratch (and the odd tin): Bacon, Sausage, Eggs, Tomatoes and mushrooms for the whole crew served 20 minutes after take-off! Bacon rolled into curls and placed fat upwards in a tin tray (Save the fat for roasted tinned potatoes later in the flight). Sausages baked in butter in a tin tray (Compo Sausages if available - if not, fresh). Eggs in a paper cup in the oven (or poached in the cup with water from the boiler if the oven was too full). Tinned mushrooms baked in butter in the oven and tinned tomatoes warmed through in the oven. The oven had six shelves and two tin trays fitted on each shelf (but bear in mind that the more food in the oven then the less hot air and the food took longer) Never mind how good (or bad) you were at weapons control or voicetel - cook a good meal for the crew and you are in!! (Tell that to the FC branch with all their pre-prepared warm in the oven food in the E-3)!

I must confess that I do not remember the Wardroom label either. I wonder if the Coventry Shack has one?
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Old 24th Sep 2018, 21:37
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As an adjunct to my post about cooking in the Shack.... I seem to remember that not long after the E-3 came into service, some chump decided that the galley slave could no longer cook for the whole crew unless he/she had completed a catering food handling course. This resulted in the pre-packed warm through TV dinners produced by inflight rather than raw rations. Later on, the food handling course reared its ugly head again, but the argument that each crew member was responsible for cooking their own meal defeated the notion once more. This still didn't stop some of the Sentry's airborne technicians producing some excellent steaks etc from raw rations for the crew when deployed on operations and the crew busy coordinating the war.
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Old 25th Sep 2018, 07:46
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WD, you missed a treat. My daughter ran the food handling courses. Remember, the essence ingredient is good ☺.

She did one of the food hygiene courses and came home resolved to buy a new fridge ☺, but resisted the urge.

Had Captain Mac pushed hard at the outset you might have had a couple of flight attendants add to the E3D!
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Old 25th Sep 2018, 08:47
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Originally Posted by 5aday
Natural curiosity led to familiarity with the P3 crews based in Sig and quite a few of the Americans were keen to find out what the inside of the Nimrod was really capable of.
Slight tangent, but there is the apocryphal story of the Nimrod crossing the Atlantic and was met by a USAF F16. The F16 pilot was keen to show off what his little fighter could do so set off on a series of aerobatics around the Nimrod. After a few minutes he pulled up alongside the mighty hunter and radiod across "Bet you can't do that". The Nimrod pilot agreed but then said "Bet you can't do this". The F16 kept pace with the Nimrod for a few minutes with nothing outwardly apparent happening, before the Nimrod pilot came back on the air and said "So can you do that?

"What did you do?" asked the F16 pilot

"Went down the back, had a sh!t and a steak sandwich" replied the Nimrod pilot.

F16 leaves at speed and in the huff...
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Old 25th Sep 2018, 09:01
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Ogre, similar to the Tanker "munch, munch" story.
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Old 25th Sep 2018, 09:35
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Slight tangent, but there is the apocryphal story of the Nimrod crossing the Atlantic and was met by a USAF F16
On another similar tangent....a Shackleton was sent to Cyprus to support an F4 APC training det, and one of the female ATC controllers was taken along for a flight on one of the sorties. She was sitting in the co-pilot's seat when one of the F4s asked if he could formate on the Shackleton for a photo-op after his serial (The Shack carried a nice big camera). As the F4 came up, the captain asked the passenger if she would like to take off her helmet and fluff out her long bond hair for the F4 crew. "I can do better than that" she said, unzipping her flying suit...….. I understand that there were a good few formation requests after that. (Story courtesy of the late and sadly missed Beery).
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Old 25th Sep 2018, 10:36
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Originally Posted by NutLoose
Pre RAF this one... School cruise around the Med, 1st meal at sea, Steak and kidney pie, roasties and peas, covered with lashings of thick gravy....... takes a mouthful to discover the gravy is chocolate sauce, look forlornly at my lovely sponge cake covered in chocolate sauce and our worst fears are realised.
Very early days as a Boy Entrant at Yatesbury.
I put white sauce on my cauliflower, like my mum used to do.

It was Rice Pudding!
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Old 25th Sep 2018, 12:19
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The Sqn Armourers at Bruggen were a sight to behold, the first armourer would plate up his lunch, roast beef and custard, with apple tart and curry and pass that to the man behind him, this went down the line until the last man would pass his selection to the first, they would then sit down and eat some of the worst concoctions imaginable.

Strange lot, they used to have one of those thick Starsky and Hutch woollen jumpers like this below and when off shift they would pick one of their number to wear it all day, he would then pick the next days person, you would be sitting on the beach or walking around Deci and the armourers would wander past in shorts and teeshirts etc, all except one of them who would be sweltering wearing one of those heavy knit jumpers done up, they used to get some strange stares downtown Cags

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