Ray Lorrison
Ray belongs to: Royal British Legion Seaman's Mess
Ray was born in Moon Street, South Shields. After leaving school Ray went to cookery school before going to sea with the merchant navy in March 1937. He left the sea in 1953.
Ray was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 30 November 2005. The interview took place at the Interviewee's living room and lasted 39 minutes and 44 seconds.
Learning to make curry
"It took me a long time to get to know how to make curry"
It took me a long time to get to know how to make curry, I tell you. I was with, an Indian crew and they used to get their stores from amidships off the steward. They came to me and he says, “can I borrow your galley for an hour at night.” I said, “what do you want my galley for?” He says, “well, I cook the meals for the crew.” I says, “well, fair enough,” and I realised he was cooking curry all the time- that’s all they had. So I went to him and said, “what about teaching me how to make this Indian curry?” He says, “yeah, just stay here and you can pick it up, see.”
And that’s how I got to know how to make real curry. [Laughs] And there’s nothing to it really. The thing was that when you made curry, you burnt the curry in before you added any liquid. And that was the secret, and I thought, well, you know, all these years!
I still make it- as a matter of fact I just made some. When was it, Friday, and we had it, we made it the day before and we had it on Saturday.
Ray has 14 memories in the memorynet:
Joining the merchant navy- The ship's cook's routine
- Food in the merchant navy
- Learning to make curry
- Cooking equipment and galley conditions in the merchant navy
- Cookery training
- The Atlantic convoys and Captain Walker
Ray Lorrison- Continuous Certificate of Discharge
- Certificate of Competency as Ship's Cook
- Higher Certification of Competency in Nautical Cookery
- Pool card
- Medals
- Certification of Innoculation Against Cholera
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