TRAVELLING First Great Western chef Karen Roberts is often complimented on her culinary abilities, but she admits she’s happy to hand over the spatula when she gets home.

After a busy on-board shift, she doesn’t always relish the thought of more cooking and that’s where partner Gary Thomas steps in – if his shift as a train driver with Arriva Trains Wales permits.

“He loves to cook and does a lot of the cooking at home.” says Karen. “He’s a good cook.”

It was Karen and her FGW colleagues’ skill that helped create the operator’s new Travelling Chef menu. The food is going down a treat, because it reflects the knowledge catering staff have amassed through years of serving hungry passengers.

“It was great. It’s the first time they’ve asked us to create the menu,” says Karen, who lives in Swansea and joined the railway as a customer host 22 years ago.

“We know what the passengers want because we sell the food.”

Her contribution to the new menu – a breakfast club sandwich – quickly became its ‘signature dish’. It consists of three slices of bloomer bread with mushroom omelette, sausage, bacon and tomato.

“Because the food is freshly made in front of the customer, if they don’t want one ingredient we leave it off. We’ve got healthy options, too – a fruit compote and bagels.”

Karen is one of eight FGW travelling chefs based at the Swansea end of the line.

Their shifts usually involve a return run to Paddington, with turnarounds of 45 minutes or two hours between outward and return journeys.

“We can finish by 1pm, and everyone says it must be great to finish that early,” Karen says. “But we get up at 4am and start work at 5. We have 45 minutes prep time before we get on the trains, and they like us to be open before departure.”

Nick Hebborn, FGW’s head of on-board service, said: “Our chefs know what our customers want and we have used their feedback to draw up the new menu.”