American competition for servants has more than doubled these rates of pay. Cooks get $50 now.
The house-boys and maid live in the house, and sleep on the floor, with a grass mat and pillows. The mayordomo sometimes lives quite near, being, perhaps, a married man. The coachman has his room by the stables, and the gardener lives in the lodge, or in a small hut in the garden.
The maestro-cook does not usually sleep on the premises. He arrives about 11 A.M., bearing two baskets depending from a pinga, or palma-brava staff, resting on his shoulder. These baskets will contain the day’s marketing—eggs, fish, meat, chicken, salad, tomatoes, bananas, firewood, and many other things.
He promptly sets to work, and by twelve, or half-past, presents a tiffin of three or four courses.
His afternoon is devoted to preparing the more elaborate dinner due at 7.30 P.M., when he will be ready to serve soup, fish, entrées, a roast, a curry, and sweets, all conscientiously prepared, and sent in hot. Most excellent curries are made in Manila, both by Chinamen and natives. To my mind, the best are made from prawns, from crab, or from frogs’ legs. If you cannot eat anything else at dinner, you can always make out with the curry.
The dinner over, the cook asks for orders, and takes his departure, to return with perfect punctuality the following day.
The Chinese cooks all belong to a guild, which is a trades’ union and a co-operative society, and are bound to follow the rules.
They would never dream of going into a market and bidding one against the other.
Their system is to assemble early every morning at the guild house, and for each man to state his requirements. A scribe then tabulates the orders—so many turkeys, so many chickens, etc., and two experienced cooks are commissioned as buyers to go into the market and purchase the whole lot, the provisions being afterwards fairly divided amongst the members, each having his turn to get the choice pieces, such as saddle of mutton, kidneys, etc. But if a dinner-party is contemplated, the cook who has to prepare it gets the preference.
They thus obtain everything much cheaper than the native cooks, even after taking a good squeeze for themselves. I believe that they have a fixed percentage which they charge, and would consider it dishonest to take any more, whilst the guild would not approve of their taking any less.