TALES OF A CHEEKY CHEF

Umfahrer recounts his experience as a chef on polar icebreakers in this memoir.

The Austrian-born author trained as a chef at a hotel in Salzburg and spent a year working at a lobster restaurant in New England before working at various high-end eateries around Europe. Some serious debt and a drunken night at a bar, where an old friend regaled him with stories of working as a bartender on an arctic icebreaker ship, resulted in Umfahrer making a life-altering decision: He would work as a chef (a “Schmut”) on one of these polar vessels. This choice brought him in contact with some difficult colleagues, including a “grumpy Belgian” supervisor, and needy passengers, including cantankerous vegans. In this memoir, Umfahrer recounts some riveting tales, from perilous sea passages to an incident in which a colleague was accused of smuggling drugs on the ship. Overall, the work offers readers a glimpse of how one man learned how to deal with the necessities and peculiarities of a wide range of people. Umfahrer’s account is wry and lively, occasionally layered with dark humor; for example, one scheduled dinner, following the death of a passenger named Mr. Lamb, turned out to be lamb chops. Each chapter ends with a short poem, a recipe, and a collection of photographs showing aspects of life aboard ship, which add personality to the recollections. Occasionally, the author gets too preoccupied with distilling concrete lessons from these seafaring experiences: “Proper communication is a MUST,” Umfahrer writes at one point. Readers will savor the various episodes, but likely won’t feel the need to know what the author learned from them. Still, the memoir offers some engaging insights and a unique point of view from a seasoned, world-weary cook.

Clever nautical and culinary vignettes for readers looking for light adventure.