Former caterer makes sure Amistad crew is well fed

Linda Giuca

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “The troops move on their stomachs,” Dani Settle says.

She should know. Settle, a former caterer in her late 50s who has been cooking since seventh grade, is the chef assigned to sate the appetites of the 18-person crew aboard the Freedom Schooner Amistad.

The Amistad is on the move. The teaching ship — a replica of the vessel that was part of the slave trade — already has traveled from New Haven to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is on its way to England. The crew expects to arrive in London in early August as part of an 18-month voyage to ports that were part of slavery’s Triangle Trade.

Settle’s base of operations on the ship is the galley, a sliver of a kitchen. Nestled in one corner is the chef’s partner, a diesel stove and oven that she affectionately calls “Madame Pele.”

“I respect her,” said Settle, who named the stove after the fire goddess of volcanoes in Hawaii, where the chef lived for 27 years.

The day before the ship departed New Haven’s Long Wharf pier last month, Settle gave a tour of the Main Salon, the area below deck that was the cargo hold of the original Amistad and now is the hub for meals, conversation and sleeping.

Settle and the crew had stuffed every inch of space with provisions for the trip. Frozen meats, fruits and vegetables were packed into a large freezer, enclosed in wood to match the room’s decor.

Settle, who has worked on the Amistad for three years, is accustomed to cooking on a ship. While living in Hawaii, she met Eliza Garfield, now captain of the Amistad. Garfield asked Settle to join the crew when she retired from her job as a chef.

The job description on Amistad’s Web site begins with the line, “The chef is the heart and soul of the ship,” and Settle takes that mission seriously.

“To me, cooking is a celebration,” she said. “It all comes from the heart. [My] feelings influence the taste and the outcome, which I attribute to my Buddhist background. I try not to take any negativity [into the kitchen].”

Settle provides three meals plus snacks each day for the crew, which includes eight students. The first breakfast seating is at 6:30 a.m. for the crew taking up the watch and for off-duty officers; second seating is for the crew coming off the night watch “and those who woke up late.” By midmorning, there are snacks available, and the chef begins to organize ingredients for lunch.

“We eat really well,” said Newman Lawrence, a deck hand and educator on the crew who said he is eager to try Settle’s shrimp and grits. His favorite meal from her menus is Shrimp Pad Thai, but Lawrence quickly ribbed Settle about his least favorite meal — kielbasa.

“It’s become a running joke,” said Lawrence. “If [Settle] is running late, we have kielbasa for lunch.”

She asked all of the crew to fill out a request form listing their likes and dislikes and suggestions for meals. She also sails with a few cookbooks tucked among the provisions and a bulging loose-leaf binder filled with recipes.

Admitting that “I think I overbought,” Settle tried to lay in good quantities of every kind of ingredient she might use. She has about 300 pounds of flour alone. “Hopefully, that will be enough to get us to England,” she said.

Everything is made from scratch, with the exception of a few convenience foods such as pancake mix. She makes cakes for birthdays and fresh breads for meals.

While Settle made sure that there was plenty of ginger ale stored for bumpy seas, she also makes her own ginger beer from a recipe she found on a trip to Bermuda.

Settle is hoping that the crew might catch some fish, although their track record is bad.

“We’ve got a bunch of fishing rods, but I don’t think we’ve caught anything yet,” she said. “One year, we caught a plastic bag. Everyone was so excited because we saw something tugging on the line, but it was only the bag.”

As an African American woman, Settle is aware of the importance of this voyage — far beyond feeding the crew.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, and there’s only one Amistad,” she said, adding that the ship and its mission give her “the chance to create something positive.”

“I’m an ancestor in training who can pass on my experiences to my grandchildren, as the ancestors of the Amistad passed them on to us. We have to keep [the story] alive.”

(Associated Press)