On the menu for dinner at Balmoral on 9 October 1900, was a sideboard of hot and cold chicken, boiled tongue and cold roast beef, vegetable soup, pheasant consommé with quenelles (dumplings, possibly lobster), cod, ham with cucumber, braised cabbage, stuffed turkey, haricot beans and Brussels sprouts.

Tschumi helped to prepare meals for grand occasions. When he received his Long and Faithful Service Medal in 1930, he was Third Chef. Tschumi was successively promoted to Second Assistant Cook in 1905, Assistant Cook in 1906 Sixth Chief Cook in 1911 and Fifth Chief Cook 1918-19. Then, in diminishing order of importance, came two assistant chefs, eight kitchen maids, six scullery maids, six scourers, and finally the four apprentices.' assisted by the heads of other sections, the two pastry cooks, two roast cooks, bakers, confectioners' chefs and two larder cooks. 'These, I found out, were the master cooks, some of whom one day might rise to the position of chef, with large staffs of their own, In the meantime they worked under M. Menager (equivalent to chef de cuisine in a restaurant at the time), who had eighteen chefs working under him, eight of whom had their own tables in different parts of the kitchen. Recalling his arrival at Buckingham Palace to start as a kitchen apprentice, Tschumi described the Royal chef M. At the age of 16 in 1899, he was appointed a cook’s apprentice in the kitchens of the Royal Household through the good offices of his cousin, Louise Tschumi, who was at the time one of Queen Victoria’s dressers. Tschumi was born in about 1883, in Moudon, Switzerland, where his father was a professor of languages his father was killed in an accident three days after his birth. Gabriel Tschumi (1883–27 April 1957) was a native of Switzerland who served as Master Chef to three British monarchs: Queen Victoria and Kings Edward VII and George V.

Knoten by Gabriella Queen