Galley design keeps caterer afloat

Nation's Restaurant News, March 6, 1989 by Alan Liddle

GALLEY DESIGN KEEPS CATERER AFLOAT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Martha McMahon wanted her company's new charter yacht, the California Spirit, equipped with an "exhibition" galley capable of preparing from-scratch foods for up to 150 people.

However, the Pacific Marine Yacht Charters' president knew from her years of experience as a shipboard hostess that it would not always be appropriate to make the galley and crew part of the view.

McMahon, a diminutive but energetic woman who calls herself "Marti," solved the dilemma by using a steam table to segregate the galley from the main cabin.

The crew of the California Spirit, she explains, can change the configuration of the galley and main cabin area by manipulating cabinetlike doors on either side of the steam table:

. With both sets of doors open, the action in the galley is visible throughout the main cabin, which includes a bar.

. With the cabin-side doors closed, guests are shielded from the sights and sounds of the galley, and the galley crew has more work space. That is the configuration used for formal meals.

. With the galley-side doors closed and the cabin-side doors open, guests in the main cabin can serve themselves from the steam table, buffet style, without distraction. Before the galley crew sets up, restocks, or tears down the steam table, the galley-side doors are opened, and the cabin-side dividers are closed.

Although the 100-foot-long California Spirit is spacious according to most oceangoing standards, the crew nevertheless strives to keep as much of the boat accessible to passengers as possible.

"[With larger parties] you can't just say, `Excuse me, would you mind going upstairs while we break down the steam table?' "McMahon says of the limited space and her reason for wanting the ability to segregate the galley and buffet area from the main cabin.

The custom-built California Spirit has plied the waters in and around San Francisco Bay since July. Its sister yacht, the 83-foot Pacific Spirit, has made the rounds for a number of years.

Packed into the new yacht's 255-square-foot galley are a six-burner stove top; a flat-top griddle; a conventional oven; a convection oven a double-door, reach-in refrigerator; a dishwasher; a double sink; a butcher-block counter; and assorted table-top appliances, such as mixers.

All the galley equipment operates on electricity from generators powered by the yacht's engines.

An ice machine with special baffles to keep water from spilling out as the yacht rolls with the sea is located in a hallway adjacent to the galley.

Elsewhere on the yacht are additional food and liquor storage areas, including a second refrigerator and a freezer, and a washing machine and dryer used to care for linen and towels.

While some of the galley equipment on the California Spirit is from marine specialty lines, a member of the design team says all of the equipment is "off-the-shelf stuff."

Equipment in marine lines is often more compact than the equipment in regular commercial lines and, in some cases, is modular so it can be broken down into sections to fit through small bulkhead doorways. Marine equipment is usually more expensive than general-use items.

According to one designer, easy-to-clean and corrosion-resistant stainless steel was the covering of choice for most surfaces in the California Spirit galley.

In addition to McMahon's vision, input by several governmental agencies shaped the galley's design.

U.S. Coast Guard regulations, which design team members say are not always easy to find or understand, prohibit the use of natural-gas-fired equipment.

San Francisco health department officials made sure that the galley had all the amenities of a restaurant kitchen, including an easy-to-clean, non-skid tile floor, floor drains, and the equipment needed to hold food at safe temperatures.

The yacht falls under the health department's jurisdiction, McMahon says, because it is a fully licensed commercial eating establishment docked within city limits.

Recalls McMahon, "When this business started [in 1979], we did some of the cooking in my home and some of it on the boat."

McMahon explains that the California Spirit, unlike the company's first yacht, needed a "complete" galley because a yacht chartering out for $725 an hour should have an ambitious and well-executed menu.

Appetizer, buffet, and meal packages available aboard the sailing vessel range in price from a few dollars per person to $60 a guest and higher.

Among the California Spirit meal options is a five-course offering of sea scallop mousse in roast potato cups with Gulf shrimp sauce Nantua, cream of artichoke soup with toasted hazelnuts, salad of shoestring green and golden zucchini with tomato and chive vinaigrette, sauteed domestic pheasant breast with lipstick sage dumplings and hunter's sauce, and frozen black and white chocolate souffle with black walnut cream.

PHOTO : Michael Bianchi, left, and Marti McMahon of Pacific Marine Yacht Charters take a break in

PHOTO : the galley of the California Spirit.