But although the hotel was suffering from
years of neglect, the magic was still there largely thanks to the dedication and loyalty
of the staff - and by the time the North British clock stopped there were only 60
employees in a building which once gave work for more than 350.
The old place has a powerful effect on most
people who work there. "Its ugly but beautiful", says Banyard and other members
of staff talk about camaraderie, character and family spirit. Owners have come and gone
and there are gaps in the documents and records of the building but the thread of
continuity runs in the stories of staff who worked there for years.
Together butcher Bob Cunningham (1929-1954) and
sauce chef Jackie Monteith (1938-1987) can account for almost 60 years. They recall the
heydays before the Second World War when Chef Alfonse Favage ruled the hot and noisy
empire of the kitchen, with an insistence on quality and simplicity (just one vegetable or
a garnish of cress with grilled meat); a stickler for punctuality and hard work, all
argument ceased when he appeared and by his decree rewards were dispensed or withheld. Two
bottles of free beer a day for chefs (lemonade for apprentices), according to the
judgement of M. Favage.
It was a world of bizarre and wonderful
contrasts. Pale green damask table clothes decked the restaurant tables and a lunch of
roast lamb was around nine shillings - about a week's wage for a young trainee chef as
Monteith remembers without resentment. Guests sat down to choose from a menu offering
perhaps "ptage aux huitres" followed by "grouse en chaudfroid" unaware
that just beneath this oasis of quiet luxury was the mezzanine floor of the kitchen, an
oddly international underworld where apprentices wheeled out waste by the barrow, former
prisoners from Saughton scrubbed and spread sawdust on the floor, and everyone spoke
French. Scots like Cunningham and Monteith struggled to learn the foreign language of
cuisine and so did the young Italian Renato del Vecchio when he joined as commis waiter in
1969 with barely a word of English.
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