Stella Kekalos 7B
Humanities 12/12/16
Governor’s Palace Feast
Tonight we are preparing for the Governor’s Christmas Feast. Myself and the others having been working in the kitchen since dawn preparing vegetables and the meats that need to be cooked. Bread has been coming out of the over since six o’clock in the morning. Smells of smoked meat and spices fill the kitchen. The tables are covered in food almost ready to be brought into the dining room. You can feel panic throughout the room as we complete one of the most stressful nights of our lives. There are 6 people in the kitchen myself included. The cook is directing us, his workers, giving us many tasks to complete. Usually the mistress watches over our work but tonight is different. She is in the entertainment room conversing with the highest of classes along with her husband, the Governor. The pressure tonight is unbearable. We have to make the most exceptional dinner and dessert tonight so guests are impressed.
My name Phoebe Montgomery and my family is from England. I am a young girl working in the Governor’s Palace. My mother and father sailed from England to start a new life with their son, and my brother, Jedidiah. Sadly he has past by sickness. Both of my parents were indentured servants when they came her from England. My mother started working at the Governor’s Palace cooking. Later on my sister and I would start cooking there too. My father worked for the blacksmith. We are not a very high class but we make it by for working for the Governor makes good money. Our home is small with only one separate room, the bedroom which we all share. The town we live in is small with a couple of shops and taverns. My father isn’t around that much being a tradesmen so my mother is home alone most of the time. Work at the Governor’s Palace usually starts when the sky is still dark but you can see the sun rising in the horizon. My sister and I walk there together when the town is just waking up. Shop owners step outside to get fresh air before opening up their shop. Early-risers are skipping down the cobblestone streets. Men stumble out of taverns just realizing what had happened last night. My basket rests on my forearm holding our breakfast of bread and butter. It is December and the air is starting to get crisp and raw so we hastily walk to work. We stride through the brass gates and into the kitchen. The head cook, Rufus, sits outside on a wooden bench smoking tobacco as my sister and I ready the kitchen for breakfast.
“It’s going to be a long day today girls..” Rufus mumbles and right then I realize it Christmas Eve.
Today we make the biggest meal of the year. The Governor’s wife steps into the kitchen and hands the menu to Rufus and then we all start cooking.
All the food has been bought from the best shops with the highest prices so we know the dinner will be great. We have to start cooking now or we won’t be ready in time. Meat has been smoking since the morning before and dough has been setting all night. My sister and I roll out dough, shaping it into the perfect piece of bread and sticking it in the oven. There will be a dozen loaves of bread coming in and out of the oven tonight. It is only 6:00 but so much has already started. Dinner will start at 2:00 and go into the night. The kitchen is huge compared to our kitchen at home. I am chopping vegetables next to one of my colleagues who seems much more stressed than I am. “It must be her first Christmas Eve here.” I thought to myself as I continue working. I stay silent while I work thinking about Christmas day and I see the one gift my mother really wanted. It was an amazing cast iron pot that is way too expensive for us. She’s been wanting one for years but she knows the money has to go somewhere else.
Should I take it? No, I can’t. Surely I’ll get caught and branded as a thief. I thought. It would make mother so happy if I got it for her but she can’t know how I got it. I make a plan to take after the dinner is served and I go home. Hours pass and the food is still rolling out of the oven. Finally it is 1:30 and the time has come to start plating the food. Servants came in and out of the kitchen taking the food and bringing it to the dining room. Rufus was sitting outside smoking tobacco again and the other kitchen staff were packing up their things to go home. This is my time to take it. I sneak into the kitchen at drop the pot into my basket.
“It is much heavier than I thought.” I mutter to myself as I lug it through the gate with my sister by my side.
“Why are you walking like that?” she asks while one side of me is bending to the left.
“Ohhh, my back is aching from bending over in the kitchen. Don’t mind me.” I reply. She believes me and keeps walking.
When we get home mother is cooking something in the pot, a delicious stew and father sits beside her. I try to pull the pot out of my basket and hide it behind me as we sit and eat. Finally it is time to give gifts around. This cast iron pot is a lot for a present but I know it will make my mother happy. My father gives my sister and I a bunch of sweets from out of town and gives my mother a beautiful little book. My mother and sister give me a nice apron they have sewn for me and a tote for my father. I give my sister a new comb I have bought and then finally I can give my mother her gift. I pull it out from behind my chair and she gasps.
“How did you get this?!” she exclaims as she grabs it from my hands. I don’t say anything but she doesn’t notice, she is too excited. The whole family crowds around her to look at this new piece of cookware. I am so very lucky that I have not been caught and if I do the punishment might be great. Stealing from the Governor is very against the law.
I cook food for some of the most important people in Virginia. Having an amazing cook is a gift for someone in any colony. Food shows where people come from and where they have travelled. Being white, protestant, and middling class I am treated with more respect than most people in the colony. My work also gives me an important role in society. People of different social classes, religions, and races from me are thought of either superior or inferior.