foreign [Applause] soldiers are on deployment or running field exercises they have to eat a lot you got this earn it right here and no food cooking stop that's where Army culinary Specialists come in if a unit goes out to the field if the unit deploys well they've got to eat so we're going with them after completing basic training future culinary Specialists head to Fort Lee Virginia to train for eight weeks where they'll learn how to cook for up to 800 soldiers in this it might not look like much now stand clear but when it's fully assembled it has the capability to act as a fully functioning kitchen that can keep troops fed in the most remote of environments we went from a box on Wheels to a whole freaking kitchen right but before trainees cook for hundreds of hungry soldiers out in the field that [ __ ] looks like more than five does not know they have to start with the basics there you go okay some of them don't even know how to turn a stove on insiders spent five days at Fort Lee observing several classes at various stages of training one of the main things that I like to tell my soldiers as I'm training them is we don't just provide food we provide fuel for those Personnel who are on the front line for the war fighter fold this side in three to four thousand members of the army and National Guard graduate every year from the eight-week course which is broken down into five sections first classroom training on food safety sanitation and nutrition then Hands-On training in the techniques of cookery before moving on to baking cookies pies and more next five days of cooking in the Garrison dining hall finally training culminates outdoors with a week of cooking in the Army's mobile kitchens trainees arrive at Fort Lee with varying levels of cooking experience what kind of experience do you have cooking before arriving at Fort Lee I cooked a lot with my mother I have an associate's degree in culinary arts I had no experience at all cooking prior experience is not necessary one of the awesome things about our job everything you need to know we can teach you here so the customer ate it they got sick that's all it takes training begins in the classroom with two days of instruction in sanitation and nutrition the information that trainees learn is to ensure that they're cooking good nutritious food for the Warfighter and then they also learn about safety sanitation how to prevent infectious disease how not to transfer and cross-contaminated food and then how to provide safe meals sanitation is everything if your people aren't saying if and if you aren't safe then the mission can't be completed trainees are tested at the end of each block of training in the form of a 50-question exam we have anywhere from nine to Fifteen different diseases that they learn then they have to understand what food items they're found in how do their practices impact their ability to be able to spread those diseases to different customers within those facilities you will go to these stations you will put on your hat and you'll put on your apron training moves from the classroom to the cooking Labs during techniques of cookery the techniques of cooking is basically their first introduction to the kitchen some of them don't even know how to turn the stove on so that's where I get to teach them how to use their equipment but before they start cooking trainees need to become familiar with the tools they'll be working with this first Bend in your finger this first little knuckle alright this is going to be the furthest point up so this is going to be on your knife it'll be just like this there's a couple methods that I use like a claw method making sure that they tuck their uh their fingertips underneath because in our field if you kind of need your fingers you kind of need all of them cube is what same size all around right all right so trainees get to see instructor demonstrations on how to cook certain foods during their first four days in the labs but they won't have that luxury later on weigh up your beef put it in your large pot and you just move on to the next step okay they'll come up to our front of our stations and we'll literally show them how to do it step by step according with the recipe card then they have the opportunity to go back to their stations and apply what we taught them how to do that product if you don't have rice in your small pot yet half a cup of rice all you have to do is read your recipe cards guys that is key thank you if your beef stew is at a boil you're gonna put the lid on your beef stew and then turn it down to a simmer yeah I think in this whole procedure if you don't understand how to read a recipe card then you're gonna fail you have to be able to read it step by step that way you can learn how to do these things and execute this looks like more than five doesn't it this is there you go okay the hardest thing is probably retaining information learning the techniques that we teach them and then applying it take your ladle you don't want to Overkill make it look nice and neat part of your grade is presentation guys once the trainees have completed their recipe they bring their finished product to the back of the cooking lab to be graded on presentation technique and execution we teach on the basics it's how to cut how to slice we also teach them how to simmer how to braise how to saute and then we teach them about moisty dry heat all those things Incorporated get them ready for what is known as a cook-off at the fifth day don't stress out have fun make sure you have your utensils during the cook-off trainees have one hour to prepare a chef's salad green beans lionese and spaghetti with a Ragu Sauce but won't receive a demonstration or explicit guidance from their instructor [Music] coming in today for cook-off I was actually excited because I enjoy cooking that's fun I was a little nervous about what to expect you know I've known not knowing like oh I make a mistake it was just a whole lot of anxiety a lot of nervous thoughts and excitement bunched in one cluster sometimes they are scared because there is a time that they have that they're timed with and also you know it's just stressful and then you got me watching you around your back and all that stuff [Music] at the end of the cook-off the trainees dishes are graded on a number of criteria they'll be docked points if items are not cut properly dishes are undercooked or overcooked or if their sauce is not the right consistency the thing they did wrong with us so if we slices correct those are rings oh yeah but you did good on everything else you overcooked your onions a little bit okay and a little bit too big okay a lot of the students did a lot of things right the biggest thing is when they do cut UPS some of their cuts that they do for these products are either too big some things that are wrong is they don't drain all the liquids off of certain individual items presentation is important because it's all about eye appeal so when you go to any restaurant and you serve something outstanding that's going to show the people that you put your flare into it you put your own your own artwork into it soft it's an outstanding good job salad good presentation and good Cuts all right so good job all the trainees passed all their products today so it makes me feel very happy it makes me feel like they listen to what I had to teach and they applied it to everything that they uh plated on their presentation and actually preparing ASC actually how you got it all this put into one dish it comes out so well it tastes so good it puts a lot of pride in the heart Mr Roberts fashion look at all that sugary goodness inside the bowl now armed with a foundation in the techniques of cooking trainees move on to baking well you know everybody has a sweet tooth but like I say we're just not feeding soldiers we're feeding civilians too so we just make sure we give them a nice home away from home treat and I think everybody deserves that when you're putting your sweet potato pie mixer in your shell ensure you do not get it on the edges or it's going to burn everybody tracking remember get your butter knife you will stick it in the center and then pull out it should come out clean so if not just put it back in there but sometimes a techniques of cooking they have trouble with that and then they become the best baker in this section because they know they have to pay attention to detail and they can't skip any steps baking is a science and if you don't pay attention exactly you're gonna get it wrong if we was in had a conventional oven yeah it will be done but these gas because the heat is coming from up from the bottom is taking longer for it to cook around it I've learned a lot a lot with Miss Harrison she's she's a great great cook great teacher so once your fruit pie and your sweet potato pie if when they're done I want you to put them both on the same sheet pan and then we're going to present it over there by our numbers once again the trainees finished products are graded on a number of criteria for my custard pie you guys did a real good job so the filling looks good so now my eyes is going to the crust okay so that's what's going to sell me the crust who is tight who's this number six number two and number seven again you did a good job today the baking module of training also ends in a 50-question exam and bake off but for now trainees get to enjoy the fruits of their labor The Garrison operations module of training is a culmination everything the trainees have learned so far it's the first glimpse of what they will see once they get to their actual unit after they graduate trainees spend five days cooking in an actual Garrison kitchen at Fort Lee preparing a variety of food we observed one platoon of trainees over the course of several mornings which starts at 0-500 with what's called a Cook's Mount it's accountability for everyone that's supposed to be on the ship they were checking for the hair we're checking to make sure that it's nice and neat we're checking for a nail length we're checking to make sure that there's no abrasions or make sure that they're not sick once the trainees pass their daily inspection they start preparing breakfast [Music] foreign think about when y'all made cinnamon rolls upstairs in small quantity bacon you're making it the same way operations are a lot more thorough than what I had expected it to be everybody is assigned to their own station and position and whatever doesn't get done in the end we pick up the slack and as a team and work together to ensure that food gets handled out in an orderly matter slice the entire ham up cut it off then you remove the ham right and you put into your third pan okay for the first couple of days I look for them to be sort of confused they don't know where things are they don't know how to turn on certain equipments and things of that nature you want to kind of make it in a straight line right and then remember which ones you laid down first right come Thursday and Friday then that's when the instructors typically take a step back and then we kind of let them operate on on their own so we can see if they're grasping the information even though it was stressful it was really like Hands-On and you got to like learn and experience a lot more things and you got to make more like meals prepare dishes for like other people to eat not just yourself and your platoon trainees head outside for the fifth and final module of training which is focused on field cooking operations they're gonna alternator meat between here and here you know what I mean the equipment that we teach here at field operations training Branch that's the equipment that we use in the operational Force but before they can start cooking in the mobile Kitchens on lift everybody raise it up Ready Set Go so you have to learn how to build them let me get four up there everybody else down here on the ground so the mobile kitchen trailer we can use that when we got up to 300 Personnel to feed three times a day and in basically any environment take a mental note away everything is all right because that's how we gonna pack it back up in addition to the mobile kitchen trailer trainees are taught how to build and operate the Army's containerized kitchen or ck the containerized kitchen that is our largest field feeding platform we're going to use our containerized kitchen more often in the situation where we've built up some infrastructure we have the capacity to feed 800 personnel and with our capacity more people we can bring more people in to support that area to defend that area and to accomplish those missions the process is setting up the CK is very challenging because there's a lot of big moving Parts you got to watch out for your battle buddies because there's a lot of things that's unfolding and spreading out on the CK so you got to communicate over the course of two weeks trainees have to pass a 50-question exam and demonstrate proficiency with each piece of equipment we went from a box on Wheels to a whole freaking kitchen right y'all made that with love huh y'all made that with love that looked good the final week of training is spent cooking in the mobile kitchens and not just for themselves at any given time we can have up to three or four hundred Personnel out here on the grounds they're gonna break down their meals they're going to identify how many personnel they're actually feeding and then they're going to actually prepare meals for everybody at fotb not just their group I asked typically told nobody to turn on the nbu without my eyes on it you got this burning right here and no food cooking stop put them on there again nobody will turn on any nbus without me visually looking at you learning in the mobile kitchen it's been challenging because it's it's different it's a lot of moving Parts it's a lot of things that you have to take into consideration the aspect that I do enjoy the most in the mobile kitchen is the closeness I get with my battle buddies I could just be like okay here's this put this to the side for a minute help them out cool spin around help the next person go back to what I'm doing like we work as a team one full Scoopa oatmeal one full scoop of potato and one of these in my experience their response to utilizing the equipment is by far and away positive they like learning and they like seeing the fruits of their labor when we go to the field soldiers are tired they're running through missions they're running through lane and then when they see you it's almost like they're not tired no more because they got food they got nice Hot Child in this that's just the most motivating thing according to Fort Lee about 95 percent of trainees Who start the course are able to graduate once they do they'll be assigned to their next unit either domestically or at one of the hundreds of army bases around the world training here has been an experience it's been fun I learned a lot of the new things including a lot of different elements and environments and stuff like that so it's been great this job is not lower than any other job that's in the military it's just as hard as any other job out there what I think about food is morale when they come out of the field doing you know crazy things out there you know they have a good meal a hot meal then it makes them just happy and gives them more energy and they're able to accomplish their mission yeah [Music] [Applause]
