Ajmer Singh Celebrating 20 years with the Wine Train

By: Andrea Guzman, Promotions and Partnership Manager

In celebration of 20 years, we have six dedicated employees who have been with us since the very beginning. Over the next few weeks, we are going to be sharing their fondest Wine Train memories as they also celebrate their 20 year anniversaries working with the Wine Train.

I would like to introduce to you Ajmer Singh, his position: Cook two. Ajmer is responsible for making all of the Wine Train sorbet’s from scratch, finishing off our daily soup de jour, and saucier. Most of his time is spent in the Wine Train Commissary prepping for the chefs who are on the train. He has always stayed back in case the train needed more food product. Executive Chef Kelly Macdonald says, “Ajmer is meticulous about what he does. He takes his job very seriously and has a lot of pride in the Wine Train”.

When asked to recount those first days 20 years ago, he remembered when the main kitchen was in two box cars. There was a large ramp to get the prepped goods from the box car to the train, if the cooks went too fast and the product fell off the ramp then they had to re-do the homemade croutons or batch of soup. Ajmer also made sorbet with a very small machine that took him practically all day to make sorbet. Now, he works with a much larger machine that can crank out sorbet for all of our guests.

The power went out during the first day of operation, the team had to search for candles and prep by candlelight. Ajmer was working the night shift and recalls having to do everything that day. He stayed till 1:00am to make sure all of the power was turned off. It was so new and everyone worked to make sure everything turned out perfectly. Ajmer says, “It was very exciting and kind of like the Titanic where all of the silver was shiny and brand new”.