Where is the true center of all operations of a remote sporting camp? The Kitchen. When you think of the function of a traditional sporting camp, you normally think of groups of men on a fishing trip. Men enjoying the great outdoors with their hired guide, fishing the waters for trout and salmon, and telling tall tales at the end of the day over good food and drink. Groups congregate on the dock and wait anxiously for other sports to come in from the lake so they can compare stories of the day. The air is fresh, the water is pristine and the views are overwhelmingly beautiful.
The kitchen is the gathering place, where you back up to the wood cook stove and feel the penetrating warmth to your body. It's where important decisions are made, the communication center, and most of all the meal preparation headquarters for the entire camp. The kitchen is the first to come to life in the morning and the last light to go out at night. There is an atmosphere of warmth, friendliness and invitation. The kitchen creates an environment to nurture and lay the foundation of a successful operation.
The importance of the kitchen at a remote sporting camp is in a category all its own. The quality and consistency of the meals are a constant that can always be counted on. The fishing can be horrible, and the weather a disappointment, but as long as the body and mind are full and satisfied, there is no complaint. It takes a lot of organization to achieve the level of excellence in the preparation of homemade food. There is no store to run to for missed or forgotten items. There is no room for chance. The cooks are true cooks where you make a meal with what you have to work with, not what you wish you had on hand.
Friday was (and still is) the day to "go to town", a true ritual. When you go to town on Friday, you will meet the food supply truck to transfer the weekly order, pick up the lobsters for the Friday night meal, go to the grocery store for miscellaneous incidentals, and run the weekly errands. Bringing the load back to camp is an adventure. The groceries are driven back to the lake, loaded into a boat, ferried across the lake, loaded onto a tractor bed and deposited to the kitchen to be put away. Believe me, no meal is taken for granted.
The meals are hearty with homemade bread on every table made special that day. The nightly dinner menu has not changed since 1958. Monday is roast beef night, Tuesday is roast pork night, Wednesday is steak night, Thursday is barbeque chicken night, Friday is Maine lobster night, Saturday is baked bean night, and Sunday is roast turkey night. You can set your camp reservation by the menu, and a lot of guests do.
I learned the ropes of the kitchen from my Mother in the sporting camp environment. I learned the recipes and the discipline it takes to make them. It developed into a passion for me, the pleasure and gratification of presenting a home cooked meal. We are cooks—not chefs. We measure with our hands and serve with our hearts.