"The cook was complaining that all the kitchen copper needed a proper cleaning, sir."

The cooks don't complain.

The cooks complain and say that the service will not be able to continue any longer if Messieurs go on fussing about with the help, and the society agrees to a truce extending until March.

Morgaine went to the kitchen and heard the cook complain that all the bacon was gone, and the storerooms were near enough empty to make it hard to feed all these homecomers.

He had noticed the buckets of fresh river water standing over the charcoal fire in the galley and laughed when the cook had complained bitterly that his fire was being used to heat water to bathe in.

Leaning against the wall of another house, he heard a cook who was boiling pieces of beef in a cauldron complain that there was one piece of meat which kept coming to the top of the cauldron, however often it was thrust down.

The excavation was done on the same morning that the cook complained somebody had used his coal shovel to dig in hard earth and had ruined the blade.

The cook was up before dawn, complaining about hordes to feed on short notice, but he was making enough food to feed a Gather.