Catherine comes down off the mountain to head back to sea

You can take the girl off the boat, but you can't take the waves out of her heart.

About a dozen years ago I did a story about a unique restaurant at Quebec's Mont Tremblant.

It was unique for several reasons - one is that it served only crepes. Another is that it was housed in a small montain cabin where Pierre Trudeau slept with Barbra Streisand during their dating days back in 1970.

And other reason it was unique is that it was operated by two sisters who had learned to cook while being tossed hither and yon in the galleys of Great Lakes freighters.

Catherine and Lorraine Schmuck grew up in Brockville and marvelled at the ships of the world and the Great Lakes freighters that quietly drifted by the end of their street on the St. Lawrence River.

Both wanted to go where the iron boats go and Catherine being the oldest shipped out first. Lorraine soon followed and in separate ships they learned the chef trade by feeding hungry Great Lakes sailors sometimes through the wildest wind-whipped waters you can imagine.

For more than 15 years they cruised the lakes, the big river, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Canada's east coast.

Catherine miracously persuaded her crews to try and enjoy crepes. Merchant seamen are traditionally meat and potato fans.

After many years of cooking with one hand and steadying yourself with the other Catherine came ashore to open up Creperie Catherine on Mont Tremblant, a mountain that trembles, but you can cook with both hands. She eventually hired Lorraine to terra firma as well.

There was always a line up at their little restaurant - particularly for breakfast - with 40 seats. Dinners loved hearing the sisters' stories of feeding hungry men at sea - and some nights only able to make peanutbutter & Jam sandwiches for dinner during a treacherous storm.

After 10 years the lease ran out on Creperie Catherine and the cabin is a quaint residence again. The sisters opened a new creperie restaurant in nearby Sainte Agathe-des-Monts. Eventually the 12-hour days, 7-days a week took its toll and the sisters locked the door for good.

Catherine knew where she wanted to live her new life and headed for the water. Today she is the principal cook aboard the Great Lakes tanker Algoma Hansa.

During her off hours on board she headed for the fresh air out on the poop deck to write an on-line cook book called Ship-to-Shore Chef.

It's a non-traditional cookbook, containing unique personal photos of ships, stories and perfected family recipes from Catherine's extensive cooking experiences on land and water. It's a combination cook book/adventure book - because even on those lovely calm days out on the Great Lakes, she stilll had to persaude rugged sailors to eat crepes.

The on-line cook book is going to be published in September.

Like

Comment

Share

0 Comments