A Trucker’s Survival Guide to Eating In

AN INTRODUCTION;

My name is Steve Sniezak I am a Chief Steward which is a chef that cooks on ships at sea…and a bit more. I have 30 years cooking experience and 10 years of that has been on high seas from the Bering Sea to the Equator. In addition to that I have been a paramedic, hard hat diver, dive medic, and a hoard of other things…you will find that professional cooks get bored easy. Just the same I am the real deal even though I have never been to one of those fancy cooking schools. I remember while cooking at a Casino in Oregon a culinary student in her last weeks of school was with us for some field training before she graduated. She was assigned to me and we were working in one of the pizza stands on the floor. At one point when things were slow she asked me where I had gone to school. I casually replied that I had never been to a cooking school at which point she put her nose up in the air and with more arrogance then I had seen in some time she says to me, “So you are one of those rouge cooks.”…I thought for a few seconds and smiled at her saying, “I like that; yes I am a rouge cook.” It has stuck with me ever since so if we ever meet just holler out, “Hay you old rouge cook!” and the first round will truly be on me.

I come from a large family and have three brothers and three sisters. We are all very diverse people truly unique in our own ways and when we all had finally grown past the battles that go with siblings in their youth we found ourselves to be a force to be reckoned with. When I have trouble with my computer I call brother Don, if it is questions on biology, horticulture, or sanitation brother Larry has it dialed in, Barb is the math guru with no shortage of worldly wisdom, Joan is the baker and has saved my bacon sort of speak more than once. Sister Pat, my mighty Zot is the family counselor which leaves us with Brother Mike…

Brother Mike is a Chief Senior Retired from the Sea Bee’s branch of the Navy and if that means anything to you then you already know that Mike or “The Chief” as we call him is the real deal. In the course of this adventure we call life the Chief has raised a brood of children as well as supported more than his share of ex-wives…we call these growing pains. Now with all his duties behind him the Chief is finally doing that which he has always loved. He is driving truck, long haul crisscrossing the country as much as possible and making the cab of his truck his home. For me I call the sea my home but we live for the same thing, to see what is beyond the next horizon.

Thanks to modern technology and a cool little thing called a Blue Parrot Head Set the Chief and I spend a good amount of time on the phone…well whenever I am on the beach. Interesting enough we find that we often talk about food and the difficulties of eating well on the road. One day the Chief called and simply said, “You need to write a cook book.” I told him I was and had been for sometime…that’s a story for another day. The Chief said, “Not that one, you need to write a cook book for truckers and people who live on the road like we do. You need to teach them how to cook.” So here we are, I am at the key board and the Chief is on the road and together we have built test kitchens both here and out there and together we will teach you if you are whiling how to shop, prep, and cook. What equipment to buy and where to buy it. Together we will teach you how to eat healthy and eat well, we will teach you that it is possible to eat three balanced meals plus snacks out of the cab of your truck or in whatever remote position you are in and we will do this for ridiculously little money, because after all other then the adventure that drives us is that not why we are all out there, for the money? If we can save some by learning to eat well is that not worth while? For the record as of this writing in fall 2012 running up and down the left coast the Chief is spending around $10.00 a day for three square meals plus snacks with no need to tip and that is not a misprint. Now keep in mind we are all different and this figure is not a constant but it is do-able and I have fed many a hungry sailor and fisherman for this kind of money and if you know of any they will tell you they do eat well.

The concept of this book is based on the philosophy of my favorite mentor the one and only Johnny Powel Sr. and in Dad’s words, “Keep it simple, stupid!” This is exactly what we are going to do. So you will not find fancy French cooking words in here and you will not find the ravings of some fancy chef who is in love with the sound of his own voice. What you will find in here is common sense survival tricks and techniques from as many sources and experiences as I can pack into this little book laid out in a manner that allows you to get your nourishment, stock you pantry, and get on down the road and back to what’s important…making those dollars flow.

So enough of this gum flapping, let’s get cooking!