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  • Douglas Tesner

    Thanksgiving dinner

  • Douglas Tesner

    Thanksgiving dinner
November 28, 2008

Making meals and memories

By SHERI MCWHIRTER

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For more Thanksgiving Day photos, see our Week In Photos gallery »

TRAVERSE CITY -- It was mostly quiet in the kitchen at Traverse City's Park Place Hotel at 7 a.m.

Call it the calm before the storm: early Thanksgiving Day as restaurant workers shuffle in for what they knew to be a long, demanding shift.

It wouldn't be long before the kitchen filled up with the smells of baked turkey, roast beef, pork loin in a peppercorn sauce and baked ham with a cherry brandy glaze -- not to mention the employees who crowd into the kitchen to toil on the holiday and create a meal for others.

"I work to work, but it's one of those times when you take extra care with people. I treat my customers as if they're family. I know I can't be with mine," said waiter Steve King as he rolled silverware into cloth napkins.

Working on the holiday means King gets an entire week off at Christmas, so it's worth it, he said.

In the kitchen, chef Marc Pritchard took the temperature of turkeys in the oven and poured sauce over a pan full of white fish. He moved from England to the United States 12 years ago, but still doesn't get fussed about working on the American holiday.

"It doesn't bother me because I don't celebrate the holiday," he said. "It works out well, so I can work and make the holiday nice for others."

Pritchard clocked in at 3 a.m. to put 24 birds in the ovens to feed nearly 600 expected customers later in the day.

Across town, kitchen workers at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in Acme bustled around with salads, sauces, mashed potatoes and sage-roasted turkey.

"It's a challenge. It's a big challenge. Most people freak out over 30 people coming to dinner. Try 500 to 600 people," said Doris Walter, chef garde-manger at the Grand Traverse Resort.

Walter tossed together different types of salad greens and gave instructions on the 20 pounds of cole slaw being prepared for the hundreds of expected guests.

Working on holidays naturally comes with a career in the food and beverage industry, she said.

"It's something to do. I enjoy it. There's a lot of people to feed here," Walter said.

On the other side of the prep table, saucier and butcher Dennis Wagner spooned garlic-roasted mashed potatoes from a giant vat into pans for the buffet line. He was at work by 5 a.m.

"I prefer 5 a.m. I get to get out and spend time with my family," he said. "I love it. People go away satisfied and happy. And, people don't have to worry about dishes or any of that."

Wagner is the master of made-from-scratch sauces and gravies at the resort: cranberry glaze for the turkey, caramel gravy for the sweet potatoes, Parmesan cheese sauce for the pasta, mustard cream sauce for the trout, and just plain turkey gravy for the traditionalists.

"My enjoyment comes when I come in tomorrow and hear that everyone loved everything," he said.

But it takes an incredible amount of preparation and planning to pull off such a dinner for so many people, said Scott Williams, sous-chef.

The work starts a month prior to organize a tasty and refined meal for hundreds, he said.

"Twenty-two turkeys at 20-22 pounds each, 20 pounds of cole slaw, 8 gallons of each salad dressing, 150 pounds of mashed potatoes, 25 gallons of gravy -- we're talking large quantities here."

Being at work on Thanksgiving is par for the course, Williams said.

"We do our thing and make our money on the holiday and then celebrate the day after."

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