Shaun Murphy is up before sunrise at her house in Plainfield, and in the kitchen at 4:20. The coffee is all but ready for her, set up the night before by her mother. Murphy just has to hit the "on" button, and coffee starts to drip. Then she arranges her hair in two tight braids that fall to the front and dresses for work in chef's blacks. By 5:20, Murphy is "driving like a granny," as she puts it, to Montpelier, where she's a cook at Capitol Food Court in the Statehouse. "No breakfast," Murphy says. "That would slow me down." She will crack many eggs (about 120) and take many steps (roughly 13,000) as part of her daily routine at the Statehouse grill, filling meal orders for legislators and lobbyists who talk turkey over her omelettes. "This is perfect for me, because I start super-early," Murphy says one afternoon in the cafeteria at the end of her shift. "I didn't want to work late nights. I didn't want to work in a place with a bar. That's not my scene." Murphy, 53, moved back home to Plainfield a year ago after a life spent on the road — or, more precisely, the railroad. For 22 years, she worked as a private chef for travelers who toured the country in vintage restored railroad cars. Riding the rails from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore.; Vancouver, B.C. to Jasper National Park in Alberta; Montréal, Qué, to Montpelier, Murphy prepared and served three meals a day for guests. She rose before dawn to make coffee in her cramped mobile kitchen, then set to work on a breakfast frittata while her diners slept and the train rolled on. The private railroad car was hitched to an Amtrak passenger train — but not accessible from it. "It's a land cruise," Murphy says. "It's the most amazing way to travel. You sit in the lounge or on the porch out back and watch the track going away. Going away from you." During her years cooking on chartered train cars, Murphy's home base was LA. She'd go out for weeks at a time, living and working most often in a train car called the Scottish Thistle. Built in 1959 for Canadian business executives, it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room and an observation deck. Murphy folded her bed into a bench when…
Shaun Murphy is up before sunrise at her house in Plainfield, and in the kitchen at 4:20. The coffee is all but ready for her, set up the night before by her mother. Murphy just has to hit the "on" button, and coffee starts to drip. Then she arranges her hair in two tight braids that fall to the front and dresses for work in chef's blacks. By 5:20, Murphy is "driving like a granny," as she puts it, to Montpelier, where she's a cook at Capitol Food Court in the Statehouse. "No breakfast," Murphy says. "That would slow me down." She will crack many eggs (about 120) and take many steps (roughly 13,000) as part of her daily routine at the Statehouse grill, filling meal orders for legislators and lobbyists who talk turkey over her omelettes. "This is perfect for me, because I start super-early," Murphy says one afternoon in the cafeteria at the end of her shift. "I didn't want to work late nights. I didn't want to work in a place with a bar. That's not my scene." Murphy, 53, moved back home to Plainfield a year ago after a life spent on the road — or, more precisely, the railroad. For 22 years, she worked as a private chef for travelers who toured the country in vintage restored railroad cars. Riding the rails from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore.; Vancouver, B.C. to Jasper National Park in Alberta; Montréal, Qué, to Montpelier, Murphy prepared and served three meals a day for guests. She rose before dawn to make coffee in her cramped mobile kitchen, then set to work on a breakfast frittata while her diners slept and the train rolled on. The private railroad car was hitched to an Amtrak passenger train — but not accessible from it. "It's a land cruise," Murphy says. "It's the most amazing way to travel. You sit in the lounge or on the porch out back and watch the track going away. Going away from you." During her years cooking on chartered train cars, Murphy's home base was LA. She'd go out for weeks at a time, living and working most often in a train car called the Scottish Thistle. Built in 1959 for Canadian business executives, it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room and an observation deck. Murphy folded her bed into a bench when…