Last updated: September 8, 2020
Place
The Kitchen
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Amenities
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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
In Fort Vancouver's Kitchen, cooks prepared meals for the Hudson Bay Company's (HBC) gentlemen, the families living in the Chief Factor's House, and their guests. The Kitchen sat behind the Chief Factor's House and was connected to it via a passageway, probably to prevent fires from spreading. Inside, cooks roasted, boiled, toasted, and baked in a large open fireplace with an oven attached. Preparing food in this way was a method inherited from centuries of European culinary tradition. It is possible the cooks also used an iron stove, which was becoming a more common piece of technology on the North American frontier in the 1840s. In addition to the cooking facilities, the two-story building also housed servants upstairs and had a large pantry or larder known as a dépense where food was kept. Over the years, the Kitchen building grew and shrank; the reconstructed Kitchen you see today is based on how it looked in 1845, when it was at its largest.
The quality of the food prepared by Fort Vancouver's cooks varied from year to year and cook to cook. In 1837, visitors raved about the fare. The "bountiful table" included fresh vegetables, melons, bread, butter, cheese, soup, roast duck, roast turkey, boiled salmon, boiled pork, puddings, pies, and much more. But just the next year, a guest remarked, "We have seldom anything good to eat, and when we have, it is generally so badly cooked, as to be uneatable."
Cooks came and went frequently; the job had a high turnover rate. New cooks often lacked experience. Records show that for long periods of time Fort Vancouver did not even employ a designated cook. It can only be assumed that common laborers took on the task, sometimes with less-than-satisfactory results. Cooks were paid slightly more than other positions - in 1846, one employee made £22 per year as a cook, up from £17 per year as a common laborer - but much more was demanded from them. In addition to preparing meals, cooks also worked as servants for the gentlemen they fed. They assisted in their daily routines: heating water for shaving and bathing, sweeping and tidying their rooms, and brushing the dirt off their shoes. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Fort Vancouver had such a hard time holding on to good cooks.
The quality of the food prepared by Fort Vancouver's cooks varied from year to year and cook to cook. In 1837, visitors raved about the fare. The "bountiful table" included fresh vegetables, melons, bread, butter, cheese, soup, roast duck, roast turkey, boiled salmon, boiled pork, puddings, pies, and much more. But just the next year, a guest remarked, "We have seldom anything good to eat, and when we have, it is generally so badly cooked, as to be uneatable."
Cooks came and went frequently; the job had a high turnover rate. New cooks often lacked experience. Records show that for long periods of time Fort Vancouver did not even employ a designated cook. It can only be assumed that common laborers took on the task, sometimes with less-than-satisfactory results. Cooks were paid slightly more than other positions - in 1846, one employee made £22 per year as a cook, up from £17 per year as a common laborer - but much more was demanded from them. In addition to preparing meals, cooks also worked as servants for the gentlemen they fed. They assisted in their daily routines: heating water for shaving and bathing, sweeping and tidying their rooms, and brushing the dirt off their shoes. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Fort Vancouver had such a hard time holding on to good cooks.