Wednesday, December 29, 1999
Where there's smoke, there's a firehouse cook
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Lt. Bill Donovan braises mushrooms with cooking sherry at Engine 3 firehouse downtown.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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It's a critical job in the firehouse and it usually falls to one firefighter on each shift.
That job is cooking — at least two meals a day.
If they're good, there are plenty of compliments. If they're bad, the cook will be kept under verbal fire.
And Tristate firefighters say the tradition, while often fun, also plays a serious role in bonding people who may later that day depend on each other for their lives.
While chili is a legendary favorite, many firefighters go to greater lengths to please. Local firehouses feature dishes ranging from chicken piccata to tenderloin cooked with apricot paste, goetta to garlic eggs.
And then there's “Chicken and asphalt.”
Capt. Robert Reinhart of Co. 1 in Covington explains: “One of our people attempted to cook chicken and dumplings, and the dumplings all settled to the bottom (of the pot) and burned. So it became known as chicken and asphalt.”
The meals have importance beyond eating.
“When everybody eats together, a lot of conversation takes place, a lot of camaraderie is built around the two meals that you eat in the firehouse,” Cincinnati Lt. Kurt Brinkman said. “There's a lot that everybody knows about each other that you wouldn't know if you were at a private-sector job. The guys are very open, they kid around and it makes the day go very fast.”
Added Cincinnati Lt. Bill “Gumby” Donovan: “It's like a momentary retreat for everyone. It might very well be our last meal together, not to be morbid. But when we're breaking bread together, you don't know if you're going to be calling on that firefighter to the left or right of you to pull you out of a burning fire.
“Cohesiveness in the firehouse or the binding agent is at the dinner table. It's just like a family,” he said.
The cooking chores come easier to some than others.
When Lt. Donovan took over took over the stove at Engine 3, he had 10 years as a chef. Before joining the Cincinnati Fire Division in 1985, he cooked for the Islands Restaurant, formerly on Riverboat Row in Newport.
He still serves up European cuisine and his favorite recipe is chicken piccata.
A chili cookoff champ in Cincinnati and Ohio in the 1980s, Lt. Donovan doesn't cook as much because being a lieutenant means more administrative work.
Still, he dabbles in the kitchen and enjoys making seafood and poultry. “The only time we get really elaborate is around the holidays. Then we get down and get jiggy with it.”
Lt. Donovan, who wants to write a cookbook with several firefighters, jokes that his cooking skills probably helped him get on the department. “I think the word was out: "Hey, one of the guys in the class was a chef.'”
His talents still are appreciated.
“The guy puts out a feast that's made for a king,” Lt. Brinkman said.
Each unit or shift at a firehouse usually has a main cook, and most often it is the driver of an engine or ladder truck, aided by other firefighters in the kitchen.
Jeff Leimbach, another firefighter with Engine 3 at Ninth Street and Broadway, takes his turn at the stove with mixed results.
“I did a tenderloin that went over real good. It was rolled with apricot paste. But in the same meal I did a "thunderbolt potato' — mashed potatoes with sour cream and chili powder,” he recalled.
Fellow firefighters thought the sour cream on the potatoes was curdled milk. “A lot of the guys took one taste and threw them out.”
Other times, the firefighter, a connoisseur of garlic, admits to “using more garlic than guys would normally use.” When he puts it in eggs or coleslaw, others “don't have the same appreciation of garlic that I do.”
At Covington's Co. 1, the favorite dishes are pasta, chicken, meatloaf and grilled steak.
Ten years ago, firefighters at Co. 1 took turns randomly opening a cookbook. The recipe for the day came from whatever page opened. The practice was not well-received and thus, short-lived. Firefighters didn't know what or whom to blame: unfamiliar recipes or the cook.
Larry Schmolt, a retired assistant Cincinnati chief, said he once took his turn to cook too lightly. That day in 1983 he put crackers and several cans of sardines on the table. Keys, too, to open the cans. “They weren't too happy.”
City of Mason Fire Department firefighter Chris “Cowboy” Daley said he catches heat when he doesn't cook. “I take care of my crew for breakfast every morning,” he said. He cooks bacon, scrambled eggs, goetta and toast or biscuits.
Mason Chief William “Billy” Goldfeder encourages firefighters to cook and eat together. It's good for morale and it builds unity, said firefighter and paramedic Zach Vanlieu.
“A family cooks dinner, a family eats together. It's great to make a big meal and sit down with everybody. When you cook a meal, it brings everybody together. It gives everybody time to reflect on their day.”
He's also proud of the role his cooking plays in that bonding, claiming “the best” Philly cheese steak and seafood Alfredo.
Firefighters also count on the occasional cold meal.
Chief Schmolt recalled one Thanksgiving Day when a four-alarm fire on Fourth Street interrupted dinner. “Our turkey dinner and dressing wasn't too good at 3 o'clock in the morning.”
Lt. Donovan's Chicken Piccata
Butterfly boneless breast of chicken filet, dip it in flour and milk, dip in shredded Swiss cheese, dust with flour to absorb the moisture.
Place chicken in pre-heated skillet with vegetable oil. Brown the chicken on both sides, put it on a sheet pan and into preheated oven (350 degrees) for 10-15 minutes.
Cut into thirds and serve with stewed tomatoes, asparagus spears, broccoli, greens beans, or noodles Alfredo.
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