Fit for a Queen: Reviving the Spectacle of Dining on the Queen Mary

It’s hard to fete a Queen. Especially when she weighs over 80,000 tons and is about to celebrate the 80th anniversary of her maiden voyage.

But that was the challenge handed to Chef Todd Henderson of the Queen Mary. Asked to replicate the extravagant dinner menu served on May 27, 1936 on her her maiden voyage between Southampton, England and New York City, with a quick stop in Cherbourg, France. Henderson, normally calm and confident began to panic.

‘It’s a big challenge,” he admitted. “ And the dinner certainly needs to live up to her legacy.”

Chef Henderson’s first order of business: Find the original menu and find the Commodore, the ships de facto historian. As Henderson put it, the Commodore is “the walking encyclopedia of all things Queen Mary”.

“It’s these sorts of events that give me great pleasure,” said Commodore Everette Hoard, who has worked on board the famed ship-turned-hotel, (now docked in Long Beach) for the last 35 years. Considered the fastest and most luxurious cruise liner of her time, The Queen Mary boasts a Grand Salon, (the original first-class dining room ) which is where the 80th anniversary dinner will be served.  The event will include  remarks by Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill’s great grandson and Lord Alan Watson, the Baron of Richmond and a noted scholar who will discuss Churchill’s long standing connection to the Queen Mary. 

“Having a well-researched menu for the evening is imperative,” mused the Commodore, “because after all dining onboard for the first-class passengers was the social event of the year and the dinner service was the pinnacle of luxury,” he said. “We want to be sure that we infuse the novelty of that first voyage into the present day anniversary dinner.”  

Together Henderson and the Commodore culled through dusty literature, images, and other dining memorabilia. In the archives, housed in the bowels of the ship, there are over a thousand beautifully designed original menus, a culinary history lesson in their own rite. Unfortunately, the menu from the maiden voyage could not be found.

Henderson was undeterred. He knew the first chef, Martin Riccault was French and cooked in that style, so he consulted books from culinary school and brushed up on his french. Finally, in a tattered copy of “The Queen Mary” by Neil Potter and Jack Frost, published in 1961, the menu appeared.  “I felt like we found the holy grail,” Henderson said, admitting that his excitement didn’t last long. “Unfortunately, dishes like Honeydew Melon Glace, Croutes-au-pot perles, Tranche de Turbotin poche Normande and Pommes Garfield (essentially french fries) don’t exactly translate into a anything resembling a modern menu,” he said. “People ate very differently then and once I saw what they really served, I realized we were going to have to take some creative license.”   In the end he created a five course “modern interpretation”, that will include:

Hoard expects the dinner will be well attended, especially by “Queen Maryians” as he respectfully refers to the cult regulars on board, Queen Mary aficionados and enthusiasts, nautical history buffs or anyone that “gets generally more excited about the Queen Mary than the average visitor.”

It is Chef Henderson's hope that the evening will garner a renewed appreciation for the history of the ship and a bygone era of cruising. “If through this dinner we can transport everyone back to her maiden voyage at sea and manage to capture some of the glamour and excitement, I think it will be a success,” he said optimistically. “And that’s the goal.”

The royal family had lunch on board two days before that Monday in 1936 when, just before tea time the majestic liner pulled out of Southampton as thousands cheered, roaring planes swooped overhead and horns tooted from every boat in the port. The passenger list that day read like a social register.

That first evening, the French ten-course dinner was served to the first-class diners. The meal took a battalion of behind-the-scenes kitchen workers, from the chef all the way down the line, to droves of waiters and service people insuring every guest was attended to lavishly. Beyond first-class, there was The Verandah Grill, a small restaurant that required reservations and only allowed the “Who’s who" onboard and then there was the second and third-class dining rooms --with the quality and service lessening with the class, and of course cost per ticket.

And it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Special gold-plated cutlery with an insignia was used on the maiden voyage for first class passengers. “It all disappeared, along with lots of other items on board,  because people wanted souvenirs,” Hoard said. And during war time, when the ship was used for transporting troops, a group of Australian soldiers were so upset about the food, they stormed the kitchen and stuffed the chef into an oven. He was severely injured and later died.

Michael Gallagher, Historian for the Cunard Line, based in London England, said the Queen Mary was famous for savoir faire, food and incomparable service, including an hors d’oeuvres trolley with a rotating selection, menus that changed daily featuring dozens of choices and 12 different ice creams. At the time favorites in the first class included crown rack of lamb, pressed duck, various preparations of lobster and table side service including cherries jubilee and other flambe specialties. “It was known that anyone traveling in first class could order off the menu and request anything they wanted,” he said. “This always caused a bit of tension in the kitchen as you can imagine.”

“Every detail was attended to, and then some,” said Hoard. And there was no request that wasn’t granted. Frances Day, the popular actress and singer, traveled on the maiden voyage and brought her own chickens, which traveled in the liner’s kennels, to be sure she had the freshest eggs possible for her breakfast. There was a kosher kitchen on board - the first on a liner in history. Room service was available around the clock.  Celebrities and notables throughout the ship’s history - Clarke Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, The Kennedy’s and slews of others basked in the notoriety of traveling on board, always being pampered publicly. On the other hand, others like Marlene Dietrich, only dined in the Verandah Grill, to be as incognito as possible.

To prepare for this level of luxury and service, there was a vast inventory. Gallagher said on a typical round trip voyage she carried the following: 3,600 lbs of cheeses, 3,600 lbs of butter, 20 tons of meat, 5 tons of ham and bacon, 2,000 quarts of ice cream, 200 boxes of apples, 280 barrels of flour, 250 crates of oranges, 3,600 quarts of milk, 6 tons of fresh fish, 50,000 lbs of potatoes, 1000 pineapples, 60,000 eggs, 12,800 lbs of sugar, 850 lbs of tea, 1,200 lbs of coffee. The refrigeration plant of the Queen Mary totaled 60,000 cubic feet, which would meet the refrigeration needs of 15,000 average homes at that time. Over 500,000 pieces of china, glassware and silverware were used on board.

“My father’s work on the Queen Mary inspired me to travel and see the world,” said Dave Walker, 81, from San Jose, California.  His father, Peter Reid Walker, was a first class waiter on the maiden voyage. “Working on the Queen Mary at that time was the end all be all he said. My father knew how fortunate he was,” he said. “He would come home and show me and my Mum how he carried six or seven plates on one arm and knew the menu in about six different languages, which he tried to teach me,” he said. His father was honored on the last voyage and given a free trip as a gift from the Queen Mary. “My parents were thrilled and really never stopped talking about it,” he said.  

Very little of the original kitchens or dining areas remains the same today. In fact Henderson maintains there is nothing left of the original galley space except for the elevator. He said over the years working on board it’s not unusual to have people who worked on the ship pop their heads into the galley - he said the best tour he ever got came from Tony Payne, a former cook on board who was able to describe in vivid detail what it was like in the galley back in the day.

According to Payne (who answered questions via email from England) it was the first ship he worked on for Cunard and always his favorite. Payne joined the Queen Mary in 1954 as a Student Cook at 17 years old, with the expectation he would be a chef one day for the Cunard Line.  “We were expected to start with the more menial things like cleaning, obtaining the required pots and pans from the scullery and then preparing and finally putting it all together to make dishes - but being observed all the time  as what you prepared was destined for the First Class restaurant,” he wrote.

And even in the fifties, the ship had maintained a level of service that was incomparable. Payne, who only worked in the first-class kitchen, wrote “It was the best of the best, 5 star plus in all departments. Anything could be asked for and it was supplied, whether to be eaten, drunk or smoked. I can assure you our stores were overflowing at the beginning of each trip.” He described the hierarchy of first-class servers: Senior waiters wore black tails, serving waiters, black suits, stiff white shirts and a black bow tie, shiny black shoes and black socks. There were four waiters for six people. He wrote that the main rush started about 6:45 and went on until about 9:30. And then the inevitable a waiter would drop his tray or the plates or silver covers which made an awful noise. At times it became quite a shouting match as you tried to to be sure your requirements were heard by your team. Should there be an unexpected run on a particular dish then the chef de party would often call you off the press to assist in preparing more, not something you wanted at all. It usually meant several of the team all knuckling down and preparing like madmen often quite fun to see when you were in the adjacent section.” 

One trip when he was on carving trolley duty he saw Victor Mature and Alan Ladd, the film stars and Don Cockerel, the UK Heavyweight Boxer who went on to fight Rocky Marciano.

Geoffrey Le Marquand, 76, from Southampton, England, joined the Queen Mary on May 28th, 1957 as a Commis Waiter (assisted the waiter) and later a 1st Class Waiter. He described much of the day to day routine via email, illuminating dinner service and what he did during his time off. “At dinner my first job was to look after the smoked salmon trolley. First I would sharpen the knife on the steel (got to impress them!), then I would carve it razor thin. You had to keep these trolleys under control when the ship was dipping and rolling in the rough weather.” He also admitted they ate very well. “We had the same food as the first class passengers, and what a choice that was.” On his day off in New York, he often bought records at a store on Broadway - the price was $1 for a single and over time he built quite a collection. “Music was important to us,” he said. “We even had a little band and played on our time off.”

Bruce Vancil, President Emeritus of the Steamship Historical Society of America in Southern California said the service on board remained impeccable until the 60‘s when there was a cultural shift. And the change only occurred because it was requested by the passengers. “The kind of passengers traveling on board changed and people were uncomfortable with waiters hovering over them. There was no longer the same level of etiquette and many people didn’t want a stringent dress code for every meal, or a dinner that took hours and numerous courses.”

He went on to say she should be treated like a museum piece. “She is the last dinosaur of its kind and she is very special,” he said. “The Queen Mary has always been considered the happiest of the fleet. She has a soul and a spirit that has never gone away.”

But not all “Queen Maryians” are optimistic about its future. The Queen Mary and the surrounding property was recently sold and a new development company plans to build a boutique hotel a ferris wheel and other attractions around the ship. There is also a plan to rehabilitate the Queen Mary, although no concrete plans have been presented.

Michael Davisson created the Facebook page RMS Queen Mary, to keep the public informed about the ship and its changes. With a focus on preservation, the posts often point out areas that are no longer open to the public or have fallen into decline, and the comment thread often gets heated. “The Queen Mary is the crown jewel of Long Beach and people are passionate about her,” he said.

“We’re trying to remain optimistic about the new ownership and our hope is that the focus will be on restoring the Queen Mary and finding a way to let the public really understand the ship and her amazing history,” he said. “So often the focus is what they are going to develop and build around the ship instead of focusing on the real draw. If they restore her properly she will give back.” One of his dreams is to see the Verandah Grill recreated. “How amazing would it be to eat in a replica of the original restaurant and have a menu like they might have had in the golden age of cruising?” he said. “I think people want to have more education and interaction on board.”

“Preservationists are hard on whoever happens to be at the helm,” said Commodore Hoard. “But even as she ages and shows her wear, she always manages to dazzle and entertain,” he said. “And most importantly she educates entire generations that are curious about a legendary ship and her history.”