Rural Chinese Communities
 Many
Chinese worked as cooks at ranches in the southern Alberta foothills, but:
“cooking was a small part of the job. They did the laundry for cowboys,
looked after barn chores, raised chickens, planted gardens and looked after
them.” In at least on instance, notable creativity found expression in
the course of routine ranch work by Chinese. “On the Hull Ranch along
the Bow River, the indigenous Chinese cooks were credited with devising a unique
system for serving a large crew of ranch hands at one sitting. A big round
dining table was built, with another large, Lazy Susan style circle in the
centre. Platters of food, salt, pepper, sugar, etc. were placed on the
Lazy Susan and the diners helped themselves as the food came around.”
A one-time resident of the Nanton area, in the foothills south of Calgary,
recalled: “I remember the Chinese cooks we had each year. Nearly every
ranch had one. Hired in the spring before haying began and kept until
after the fall roundup, the cook took complete charge of the kitchen. He
always had a list of groceries ready for any cowboy who might be going to town.
If the cowboy forgot to bring flour, the shortage of pies and cakes was
immediate and acute.”
The narrator added that children tended to be deferential to these men; apart
from other things, adults respected certain non-cooking skills of Chinese ranch
hands. “Most of these men still wore hair in pigtails and some wore
oriental clothing. Some were good horsemen and added to their prestige by
their ability to ‘skin’ a four-horse team and a chuck wagon from camp to
camp at roundup time. We children soon learned the penalties that could be
levied for disrespect and the goodies that could be had for cooperating with
this kitchen autocrat.”
Reprinted from Moon Cakes In Gold Mountain: From China to the Canadian
Plains by Brian Dawson with kind permission of the author.
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