Blood on the Salad

By John Isaac Jones

The kitchen from hell! Humorous yarn about a group of kitchen employees in a 1950s Alabama hotel and how they prepared the salads for the state’s annual businessman’s banquet. Warning: after reading this, you may never again eat another salad!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Isaac Jones
• Release date: Jan 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781733350082

John Isaac Jones

John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist currently living at Merritt Island, Florida. For more than thirty years, "John I.," as he prefers to be called, was a reporter for media outlets throughout the world. These included local newspapers in his native Alabama, The National Enquirer, News of the World in London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and NBC television. He is the author of five novels, a short story collection and two novellas.

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Blood on the Salad

by

John Isaac Jones

The annual Alabama Businessmen’s Charity Ball in Montgomery was the state’s premier social event every year. Anybody who was anybody, whether politician, businessman, civic leader, or other such notable, was well aware that an appearance at the big blowout each year was integral to their standing in the state’s business and political hierarchy. Not only would there be power brokers on hand to advance the political futures of the deserving, but there would be opportunities to open new doors and make some new deals, big deals. Only 500 people were invited, and with a $10,000 per plate price tag, it was designed to raise more than $5 million for state charities every year. As one might suspect, the state’s biggest movers and shakers would be in attendance.

This year, in 1958, the big event was due to be held at the Reich Plaza Hotel on Montgomery’s trendy west side, and, as the menu printer in the hotel’s kitchen, I was caught up in the pressure to put the hotel’s best foot forward for the big event. I will always remember the afternoon before the big banquet when Mr. Horgan, the kitchen manager, called me aside.

Now, Jimmy, he began in his thick English accent, "you know the push is on to make a success of the big banquet tonight. I’m expecting tonight’s dinner menu to be absolutely letter-perfect. A correct date, no mix-ups of desserts