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| And thus begins the long and difficult journey, salted with stress and peppered with passion that is the path of the professional chef. We must constantly learn and evolve. And that, my fellow military chefs, is the true difference between a "chef" and a "cook". - Staff Sergeant Guy Winks |
| MilitaryChefs.com hosts news stories, photos, video clips and other forms of multi media pertaining to military food service, and hence we provide military chefs with the tools to display their recipes, training courses, culinary competitions, events, talents and accomplishments effectively promoting and motivating military food service operations. |
Note from the WebMaster:
Since the site has started I’ve received quite a bit of feed back on the choice of the name MilitaryChefs.com. To my surprise,
many feel (including other military cooks) that there are few to no chefs in the military. I highly disagree with this opinion and have
decided that one of our sites goals is to prove to all military food service members that they are chefs or they are on the path to
becoming one.
Up until five years ago I have held the same opinion as many others: “Chefs in the military are few to none.” There is no way the
majority of military cooks could come into a restaurant and be anything more than a line cook or at best a sous chef.
Was I right??? Yes.
Was I wrong??? Yes.
I still believe the average military cook will have a hard time walking into a restaurant and land himself an executive chef position.
So what’s missing?
--> Everything else in the food service industry besides restaurants <-- The world needs banquet hall chefs, off site
catering chefs, personal chefs, institutional chefs, business style food service chefs, yacht chefs, cruise ships chefs,
noncommercial food service chefs and many other platforms that, believe it or not, the military cook fits right into.
5 years ago I was transferred to my first land station. My only cooking experience was as an underway duty cook. My new Chief
told me to apply at a high end catering company he worked for. I was hired and started right away.
The skills I had learned underway fit perfect with the objectives in off site catering. From the first day on, for 5 years, I’ve felt
comfortable in this environment. I have heard this same story from other cooks who left the military to try out many of the jobs
listed above. We thrive in these positions. As for the military cooks who go to the high end restaurants… they tend to find things
harder.
During the 6 years as a Chef at www.athymetocook.com I saw restaurant chefs come and go. They are a different breed. The
mentality of a military cook works in these environments. We are adaptable, resourceful, knowledgeable in mass quantity food
production, we’re clean and sanitary in the worst environments, we understand pressure, we understand “hurry up and wait”, we
know how to work with vendors, we load stores better than anyone, we are extremely organized, we understand the “7 Ps”
(proper planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance), we keep a sharp appearance, we act respectful to our
costumers, we know how to act around powerful people, we don’t do drugs, we have security clearances ----I could go on
forever--- most of all we know how to cook well and when it comes to cooking for large groups of customers, we are the best.
We know the basic of cooking and our other skills are endless. The only gap between a military cook and a many nonrestaurant
chefs is the small adjustment to a finer cooking style.
In the last five years I’ve seen it happen time and time again. I’ve seen the sparkle in the eyes of a cook after he takes all his
military food service skills, and accomplishes something only a “Chef” could achieve.. proving to himself and others that he IS a
chef. I’ve never seen this happen to so many cooks (in such a short period of time) as when I attended the Advance Culinary
Skills Training Course – ACSTC at Fort Lee Virginia.
Check out the video here.
Many of these students were the average military cook.
After watching this video and seeing what the average military cook can produce with a little fine tuning, do you still believe there
are few to no military chefs???
Since the site has started I’ve received quite a bit of feed back on the choice of the name MilitaryChefs.com. To my surprise,
many feel (including other military cooks) that there are few to no chefs in the military. I highly disagree with this opinion and have
decided that one of our sites goals is to prove to all military food service members that they are chefs or they are on the path to
becoming one.
Up until five years ago I have held the same opinion as many others: “Chefs in the military are few to none.” There is no way the
majority of military cooks could come into a restaurant and be anything more than a line cook or at best a sous chef.
Was I right??? Yes.
Was I wrong??? Yes.
I still believe the average military cook will have a hard time walking into a restaurant and land himself an executive chef position.
So what’s missing?
--> Everything else in the food service industry besides restaurants <-- The world needs banquet hall chefs, off site
catering chefs, personal chefs, institutional chefs, business style food service chefs, yacht chefs, cruise ships chefs,
noncommercial food service chefs and many other platforms that, believe it or not, the military cook fits right into.
5 years ago I was transferred to my first land station. My only cooking experience was as an underway duty cook. My new Chief
told me to apply at a high end catering company he worked for. I was hired and started right away.
The skills I had learned underway fit perfect with the objectives in off site catering. From the first day on, for 5 years, I’ve felt
comfortable in this environment. I have heard this same story from other cooks who left the military to try out many of the jobs
listed above. We thrive in these positions. As for the military cooks who go to the high end restaurants… they tend to find things
harder.
During the 6 years as a Chef at www.athymetocook.com I saw restaurant chefs come and go. They are a different breed. The
mentality of a military cook works in these environments. We are adaptable, resourceful, knowledgeable in mass quantity food
production, we’re clean and sanitary in the worst environments, we understand pressure, we understand “hurry up and wait”, we
know how to work with vendors, we load stores better than anyone, we are extremely organized, we understand the “7 Ps”
(proper planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance), we keep a sharp appearance, we act respectful to our
costumers, we know how to act around powerful people, we don’t do drugs, we have security clearances ----I could go on
forever--- most of all we know how to cook well and when it comes to cooking for large groups of customers, we are the best.
We know the basic of cooking and our other skills are endless. The only gap between a military cook and a many nonrestaurant
chefs is the small adjustment to a finer cooking style.
In the last five years I’ve seen it happen time and time again. I’ve seen the sparkle in the eyes of a cook after he takes all his
military food service skills, and accomplishes something only a “Chef” could achieve.. proving to himself and others that he IS a
chef. I’ve never seen this happen to so many cooks (in such a short period of time) as when I attended the Advance Culinary
Skills Training Course – ACSTC at Fort Lee Virginia.
Check out the video here.
Many of these students were the average military cook.
After watching this video and seeing what the average military cook can produce with a little fine tuning, do you still believe there
are few to no military chefs???
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