Welcome to Hearst Castle everyone. My
name is Sharon, I'm gonna be your guide on this little mini tour that we're
doing today of the kitchen. Hearst Castle is closed right now so we are offering some
little mini tours to take you to some various places that you might see on
tour or maybe not. So it's my pleasure to have you come and visit us in the
kitchen. But first of all, just want to tell you we are closed. State Parks in
general are closed all over California to vehicle access.
however some beaches and trailheads remain open. It's still important for you
to get out and exercise for all of us to do that so just remember as you go out
practice social distancing. I just want you to know my camera woman right now is
at least six feet away from me. Also we are at a state park we're also a
National Monument it's very important that we take care of this place. We do
have people here, essential staff, that are taking care of the grounds, the
gardens, so this place is going to look fabulous when you get to come back and
visit us hopefully very soon. Right over here is the castle itself. It is, it has,
this is the main part this is called Casa Grande the main house. It's got 115
rooms, 38 bedrooms, 42 bathrooms. There are also some cottages, three
cottages on the hilltop. So there are 50 more rooms there. What did Mr. Hearst need all these rooms for? He entertained people! Mr. Hearst was a media mogul. He
was a publisher, he owned newspapers, magazines, a radio station, sorry 10
radio stations, a tv station, he also owned a movie
studio. He invited people to come here and visit from his businesses he also
invited a lot of people here from Hollywood. This place is known for a lot
of the guests that came from Hollywood. They stayed in these rooms they came for
a weekend, a little excursion, a little getaway, and they also came for some
large parties - Mr. Hearst enjoyed to give to some of the large parties
that Mr. Hearst enjoyed putting on. Well these people had to eat so I'm
gonna take you now to the kitchen. So I am standing in front of the entrance to
the kitchen. right up above the kitchen was the staff housing for the single
women who worked here as well as some of the married couples who worked here.
further down on the hillside was housing for the single men who worked here
unfortunately we can't see it from this location. so I want to take you in right
now to through this side entrance to the kitchen there's another entrance that
also connects closer to the dining room we'll go through the side. Aja's going to pan around and show you a little view of kitchen. so this part is the pantry area. This is where the
preparations would take place for service into the dining room. You're
looking at a surface called Monel. Monel is a nickel-copper alloy, this is
not stainless steel because of course Mr. Hearst wanted nothing but the best.
he wrote Ms. Morgan, his architect and he said he wanted this much more
expensive surface. It was going to be much more expensive than anything else that
was available at the time but it was known for its highly anti corrosive
quality. This is the surface where the staff would prepare the food and take it
into the dining room. This was a warming table. There are copper pipes that go
underneath this area so it would keep the food - with running hot water or
hot water would run underneath and it would keep the plates warm so that when
the staff were plating everything, everything would stay nice and hot.
Underneath the surface is some storage area and we're going to look a little bit more around the kitchen and see what else there is. Over here is a refrigerator. There are four refrigerators that Mr Hearst had and it looks maybe like an icebox
but it is not an icebox it's a refrigerator. There's a logo right up
here that says Frigidaire and next to it is another logo of the brand that would
that also made the cabinet housing for the Frigidaire refrigerator. Up above is
a compressor. We'll go down this way and see another one of the refrigerators Mr Hearst had. and a couple more that the staff used as
well. Next to the these two refrigerators is an area where some alcohol was housed.
this particular section just shows a sampling of what was available. Perhaps
this was just being set up ready for for service in the dining room. Mr Hearst did
have a wine cellar that's located a little bit further away. That wine cellar
holds about 10,000 bottles. so just a small sampling of what might be served
at dinner or for cocktails in the evening. Some people think that Mr. Hearst
was a teetotaler. He's kind of known for with that for that reputation he was not
a teetotaler. Prohibition was going on here in 1920s. It started in 1920 ended in 1933 but as a good host Mr. Hearst was serving alcohol. A cabinet is right here, it has the dinnerware that was used. This is a pattern called old willow. it
is said to be not top fine china, Mr. Hearst liked to keep things simple here at
the ranch. so he used this stoneware. Panning right along you can see we've
got some nice glassware again fairly simple in it's, in its look. some
flatware...cabinets full of all these things that would be used. can you see
this right here? these are some interesting spoons that people ask about.
they're used for taking bone marrow out of a bone, lots of these and we
understand that bones with the marrow were actually served here at the castle.
in the corner, a little cabinet electric electric
heater in there for dish towels to dry. they did have electricity here on the hill
top from the 1920s - from the very beginning they had electricity.
Ms Morgan the architect had someone put in a hydroelectric power plant and
then later on they had to purchase electricity from PG&E. I want to point
out the thermos. mr. Hearsts' guests may have wanted to come in here and get
something to drink so we've got a little prop of iced tea and lemonade. mr. Hearst
did not provide room service here at the estate. He wanted his guests
to get together and socialize in the refectory, take their meals together.
But if you were thirsty, wanted a little snack, you could come down in here to the
kitchen and ask the chef for something to eat. People ask me, did mr. Hearst have
any art in the kitchen? Because this place is known for his collection of art
so I like to think of these little faucets with the spigots as art but they
are contemporary to the early 1900's. these were done by a company called
crane and company later bought by American Standard. And then you see some tiles, this tile work was all designed by Julia Morgan. She sent her designs to a
company in Berkeley California called California Faience. California Faience ended up
making about a hundred thousand tiles for the castle. This particular tile that
we were looking at is an armorial design little uh a little saying at the
top that says "without him nothing was made." it refers to a book a verse in the
book of John. This particular tile is a copy or a design that was inspired by a
Spanish armorial tile. We're going to head back here into the preparation area -
the actual kitchen - and you might be seeing in your frame I'm not sure if
you're seeing some of what's going on, some blankets some towels and so forth.
because as this coronavirus is going on we're actually taking advantage of the
time and taking some inventory, things are getting cleaned from inside and out
things are being taken apart. This place is going to look really spiffy when we
get back into having visitors come again. A telephone right here in the kitchen.
Mr. Hearst had about a hundred thousand sorry one hundred telephones
here in the house. He had his own 24-hour switchboard operator. This particular
telephone is a little unique, this little plastic piece that screws on to the
mouthpiece, it came out in the early 1900s. You see little red
crosses on there. The Red Cross actually came out with that as a way of
sanitizing your telephone mouthpiece. So interesting now that we're talking about
the coronavirus here in 2020. Back in 1918 you may have heard this on the news,
they're talking about the pandemic that happened at that time. So this little
screw-top, this little plastic piece would unscrew and you could put that in
boiling water to sanitize it.They were concerned about that way back then. We
have a little medicine cabinet right here, little first-aid station. these are
all little propped items that are items that would have been available back in
those days. I'm going to take you back to the kitchen area right now. I'm standing
in front of a griddle, small griddle. you imagine Mr. Hearst had about 25 to 35 guests at a
time. Those guests could come to their meals, for breakfast, around
9:00 is when they'd start serving but you didn't have to arrive at
9:00 sharp you could come between between you know anytime you
wanted to within a few hours. So you might sit down, a butler would put out
some juice and coffee for you to get started. you could socialize with your
friends and then you could order something to eat. so individual orders,
that's why we've got a small little griddle. breakfast also could include eggs Over here, can you see this Aja? is a
little egg poacher, looks pretty similar to an egg poacher today. okay sorry we lost that signal but we're
back so this little contraption here is a pan that sitting on the stove with two
little compartments with springs. These springs would would be pressed down, the
compartments would go into the hot water and then they'd come back up just when
the eggs were perfectly done. The stove itself has varying levels of heat on it.
the chef would know exactly where to put whatever he was doing, whatever he was
cooking, so he knew exactly where you'd like to put things.
the ovens, we've got several ovens right below the stove. An you see a roast
beef in this in this section of the oven. This was a working ranch. Mr. Hearst had
cattle, he had poultry, all kinds of poultry. And this this roast beef just shows us
that Mr. Hearst did like an occasional rare roast beef, it was perfectly aged
which they did right here on the premises. A grill for grilling meats,
vegetables perhaps, and then a rotisserie. Mr. Hearst did prefer poultry over beef.
His favorite meal was said to be pressed
duck and they did have all kinds of poultry that they would grow here or
that they would raise here on the premises. Right over here is a baking
station. Not only was this a working ranch with catlle and poultry, they also
had orchards full of fruit: apples, peaches, pears, plums, nectarines.
So pies were a real favorite dessert. this is a marble section of the surface,
marble is great for making pastries, roll out the pastry and it keeps it very
tender. and then more baking area right here, cakes, pies, all kinds of fruit
desserts were made. Underneath there's a section for the where they would store
flour and sugar and if you are familiar with the KitchenAid perhaps in your own
kitchen, well this is Mr. Hearst's version of the KitchenAid - it's called a Hobart
machine, commercial version, quite large. A bowl with a whisk is what we see in here.
But they would have paddles and whisks and shredders and slicers, other bowls up
here on top as well - lots of accessories. you can probably see the logo right
there, Hobart machine. This is one of my favorite things right
here. This whole shelf area reminds me of a page out of Martha Stewart Living. That
is a collection of jell-o molds or back in those days they would have aspic,
gelatin. It was said in the early 1900s, because of the Depression era, in order
to keep foods better they might coat them with gelatin. so you coat all kinds
of things: meats, bits of poultry, bits of pork. So that was very popular popular
because people who wanted to preserve the things would use the gelatin. But
later on it also became kind of a a decorative way to serve food as well. A ginat stockpot if you've ever made gravy at Thanksgiving you might be familiar with a tiny little pitcher that holds broth
and in order to get the fat off of the off of the broth you might want to you
might have a little spigot at the bottom of the pitcher. You pour the broth out
the bottom and the fat stays at the top. well that's the same idea, Vegetables and
meats were boiled in here. Stock was made and then if you wanted to just get the
broth out you go down to the spigot area and turn the little spigot to get just
the broth. Next to the stock pot is a pressure cooker. if you have an instant
pot or a pressure cooker then you're familiar with what this contraption does.
this is a double pressure cooker, we've got two wheels.
these seal in - the wheels would be tightened, it seals in the steam and
whatever is in there cooks to at a really high pressure and cooks very
quickly. The staff made a lot of jams out of those those fruits from the orchards
so this was probably used for that as well as other foods. This is a proofing
box. they made a lot of breads for breakfast as well as other meals. breads
would be would be formed into loaves, rolls or cinnamon rolls for example, put
into the proofing box which would keep those those bread goods at a particular
temperature and they rise nicely. Next to the proofing boxes is an electric
oven. You've got three different ovens right here. But it was very controlled
heat so that it would these ovens would bake the bread perfectly. Getting your picture of the logo down there. I'm going to talk about the break room. Mr. Hearst did have a small staff
on a regular basis between maybe nine or ten people on a regular basis. A head
chef, a pastry chef, there were maids, there was a butler who
would be in charge of serving the food. back here in the break room had they had
their own separate dining room so they might just come in here to have a cup of
coffee or take a break. But there are some actual uniforms that the staff
members wore. They all wore white except for the butler
who would wear a black suit. More storage space also here in the pantry. Right over
here is a Buffalo machine, it's a grinder, a meat grinder. a lot of people ask me
about this machine. Over on this side of the room is a butter cutter. Can you see the butter cutter? They take a big block of butter put it
into this machine and then you use the handle to turn it the butter would move
into the sliced area and then slice up the butter into smaller pieces. SO that's the blue room - this is
where the staff could spend their time. It was the Depression era was taking place in the
1920s it was said that the staff who worked here felt fortunate to have jobs
Mr. Hearst treated them quite well. They were said to eat the same food
the guests ate. They had their own refrigerator just so that a pie didn't
go missing something like that that was necessary for whatever meal was being
served. So they would eat the same food. One person who worked here - his name was Byron Hanchett, said that he and his buddies started working and after a
couple of years he said they had to tie each other's shoes because when they
were looking down they couldn't see their own. Well I hope you've enjoyed
this little tour of the kitchen. I really hope I get to show it to you soon in
real life that would be really great. So now while we are waiting for this
whole thing to be over, remember practice social distancing and remember that some
state parks are still closed everywhere. try to still get up and get some
exercise check our website parks.ca.gov for updated information.
So from Mr. Hearst's Castle Kitchen to your kitchen at
home where I hope you're really enjoying
