I don't know, the simple fact of the matter is, hammocks are not used on naval ships today, not even submarines where space is very much at a premium, so why would they be used in the 24th century?
The Intrepid class Bellerophon apparently includes the non-standard kitchen that Neelix personally installed on Voyager by taking over the Captain's Dining Room. I would assume this means they've included some sort of chef or cook or something.
It's probably a standard option for the class. I guess Neelix just searched through the ship's records until he found out how to convert the mess hall. The replicators could be easily removable so that the kitchen could be installed.
Chakotay was always a bit of a dick to Tom. I've sure there was an episode where he and B'Elanna were playing some game when they were called to the bridge and turned up in civvies, so he has some serious double standards going on there.
Here's how food aboard starships is done, according to The Making of Star Trek: The food preparation galley is also highly automated. No chefs in white hats here. . . The art of cooking today will be translated into computer programming in the future. Although there may be ten thousand "best ways" to make a certain type of sauce, a computer can record and duplicate each more efficiently than a dozen chefs. You simply program the computer and a mechanical unit makes it. The enormous sophistication of computers aboard the Enterprise makes possible the producing of the thousand best menus of the thousand best restaurants in all the alien planets of the Federation. Crew members can select an infinite variety of food -- they simply press the button. From the central food preparation area, the selection is transferred via a small turbo-lift that connects the several dining and recreation areas scattered throughout the ship. . . . In order to support this food preparation capability, the Enterprise has extensive food storage areas with preservation techniques that maintain food in "garden-fresh condition" over extended periods of time. Hydroponic food growing is not necessary and would use a disproportionate amount of manpower. There are, of course, hydroponics tanks aboard that are part of the botany laboratories. There is also a section where crew members can prepare individual dishes if they wish -- an activity that comes under the heading of "recreation." So, no chefs. Also, no replicators in the TOS era. Those wall slots are just part of what's basically a dumbwaiter system.
Small turbolift dumbwaiters make no sense from an engineering design standpoint. We should have seen those tubes all over the place and such tubes would pose a problem if the deck needed sealed off atmospherically. Plus matching such small shafts between stardrive and saucer before /after separation would be a nightmare. Better idea that said dumbwaiters were via transporter technology and beamed from the central processing area to the appropriate food slot.
Don't combat ships from the 20th and 21st centuries have bunks or are they still sleeping in hammocks? There have been a number of naval combat situations in the past 100 years. They appear to use bunks, no? https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-dimensions-of-navy-ship-bunks
Even if technology itself is doing most of the actual creating of the edibles, I have to imagine that on a ship like the Galaxy Class Enterprise, where they have a reception room, prone to large celebrations or diplomatic functions, someone is still in charge of prepping all of the banquet's selections, preparing the dining area, & overseeing the dining room staff. For all intents & purposes, that person is still a chef, or manager if you prefer I always just assumed it was Guinan. You could see her in there practicing mixology often enough, & when Data wanted to socialize his daughter, he went to her for permission to have her work there. That lady runs that room. I don't see why she wouldn't oversee all of the food that's put out for receptions as well
^^ Actually I omitted this part from my earlier post for the sake of brevity. But discrepancies to this overall thinking have crept into at least two shows: one in which disparaging remarks were made about "reconstituted" food by McCoy, and another where the Captain rather apologetically requests the galley to make fake Thanksgiving turkey out of meat loaf . . . Considering the pressure under which the series is produced, it is surprising there are not more serious inconsistencies. "There are not more serious inconsistencies"?
As others have said, there's evidence either way. So whichever you choose for your story, you can back it up.
Of course, we could go futuristic here. Say, they have portable antigravs - perhaps there's a model that lets you sleep vertical, so that 'em space sailors can be stacked at a higher density, on a ship otherwise configured like Starfleet prefers, with big horizontally expansive decks that pull you down? Might look fun, or be fun to describe. The futuro-hammock would let you sleep in any unused corner (or the ceiling) with minimum fuss, and perhaps be belt-portable. Heroic characters might find unorthodox uses, too. Timo Saloniemi
If I was writing a story & ran into this, I'd just go for having one. I mean what's the down side? Clearly, if you ran across new & exciting recipes from around the galaxy, you'd want someone to cook it & test it, before you entered it into your replicator database. There's still plenty of stuff for a chef to do aboard, even if much of the labor is done by replication
If you think about it, the "mechanical unit makes it" must happen at a absolute blurr. Which wouldn't necessarily be impossible. If the food prep mech were on deck eight, then the distance to dining areas in the middle part of the saucer (decks five through eight) would be sixty odd feet. The outer rim of the saucer would be two hundred feet. Kirk had a delivery slot in his quarters, but that might only be for senior officers quarters. Kirk's quarters's would be about one hundred feet. Dark grey 60 feet. Light grey 100 feet. Strictly from a engineering point of view they're fine. All over the place might be an exaggeration. During TOS the tubes wouldn't go to all the living quarters I'd imagine the tubes run through the overhead or the floors or the walls, and if the lift-cars had their own artificial gravity the lifts (and the items within them) wouldn't necessarily have to be "upright" for the entire journey. The tubes would be capable of being closed (small pressure doors), just like the corridors, jefferies tubes, air ducts, water lines, the big turbolifts, etc. Saucer and engineering would have completely separate facilities. Behind each food slot would be it's own full-up transporter mech? To move a tray sixty feet?
Having a guy manning the galley in the scheme described in TMOST wouldn't necessarily make him a chef by profession. He could have been a technician manning the equipment. Hence being addressed as "chief" instead of "chef".
You can have a decent "standard" curry by buying the pre-prepared "meal for two" bag at your local supermarket, or you could have Madhur Jaffrey stop by and cook you her mother's recipe. Option 1 is available every night via the replicator/food slots. Option 2 is for when you want your significant other to put out.