Yahoo Lifestyle 
Chef spills secrets of cooking for royalty and presidents
When it comes to out-there kitchens every foodie needs to add to their culinary bucket list, Jean Pierre Guerin is executive chef for one that could top them all.
In charge of the food served on board the Rocky Mountaineer, the scenic train that cruises through the Canadian Rockies and home to one of the smallest mobile gourmet kitchens, there’s not much Jean Pierre hasn’t seen in his decades-long career.
And that includes cooking for royalty such as Princess Diana, and American presidents.
“[Cooking for Princess Di] was a while ago, when I was starting my career in 1986,” Jean Pierre tells Be.
“She had just wed [Prince Charles], they came to Vancouver and did the ceremony for Expo 86.”
While Jean Pierre can’t quite recall the exact dish he cooked for Princess Di, he admits “it was probably something very simple”.
“I’ve done a lot of people in my lifetime, a lot of celebrities, and I can tell you 99 percent of them have very simple food requirements,” he explains.
“They want nothing to do with the fancy stuff. We always try to outdo ourselves, make it very complicated with the richest type of food, but that’s exactly what they do not want.
“The majority of them want the most simple, fresh types of food. They get treated every day to the best of the best, and sometimes it’s too much.”
Jean Pierre also cooked for President Bill Clinton during his career, and is used to creating dishes under unusual circumstances.
“If you do presidents, the food has to be checked,” he says.
“When you’re cooking the food, you’re not by yourself. The Secret Service are there, they’re checking everything you do, and you have to keep records of everything you do. It’s not very sexy.”
As the Rocky Mountaineer gears up for its new season from now until October, Jean Pierre admits cooking in a tiny space measuring just metres wide, housing three chefs and with restrictions including no naked flames and dealing with the constant motion of the train is anything but easy.
Describing the dishes at the five-star restaurant as “western European ingredients with a lot of flavours from the East”, JP and his team have adapted to the cramped confines and restrictions of a tiny prep and cook space.
“You have to time your movements perfectly, otherwise you’re going to make mistakes or hurt yourself,” says JP.
“There’s a lot of things to be mindful of when you work on the train, you have to produce high-end quality food, but you have to time every movement.”
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