Culinary arts team prepare for annual competition

  • Published
  • By Airman Valerie Monroy
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  "Team Alaska," a 10-person team comprised of Soldiers and Airmen, prepared a three-course meal as training for the upcoming 41st Annual Military Culinary Arts Competitive Training Event at Fort Lee, VA., March 4 to 11.

The purpose of this event is to promote growth in the culinary profession with special attention to the tenets of modern culinary developability, practicality, nutrition, workmanship, economy, presentation, creativity, and concept.  It provides an opportunity to raise culinary excellence and professionalism and recognizes individual and team efforts, while providing incentives and recognition in the form of certificates, medals, trophies and continuing education hours' credit that may be used toward credentialing.

This event was the first of two run-throughs that Team Alaska had before leaving for the competition.

The team had three hours and 45 minutes to create three courses: starter, entrée and dessert.

Team Alaska is comprised of five professional members and five student members.

"A student member is any troop with less than two years in the culinary arts, no prior culinary education, and hasn't been medaled in a culinary competition," said Sgt. 1st Class Ian Meyer, 539th Composite Truck Company, 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, Team Alaska manager. "After the first two years they become professionals."

The professionals were the "back of the house" team, preparing and cooking the meal, and the students were the "front of the house" team, serving the meals.

The meal was made on a mobile kitchen trailer which is used in the field to feed mass amounts of personnel.

"You're cooking in a small confined space and using burners that are powered by jet fuel," said Sgt. Abraham Gonzales, F Company, 725th Brigade Support Battalion, Team Alaska co-captain. "It can be very precarious."

Fellow co-captain Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Hiebert, with E Company, 70th Brigade Engineer Battalion, explained that cooking with jet fuel just adds to the challenge.

"It's extremely hot and you only have high, medium and low," Hiebert said. "It's not like a regular flame that you can control, you have to constantly be on your game to make sure you have the right temperature."

Gonzales said the reason for all the run-throughs is to find out where difficulties and mishaps pop up and work on them before the big event.

Some members of the team are veterans to the culinary competition but are new to working with each other.

"We're a brand new team and we we're still learning how to work with each other," Hiebert said.

"That's why these practices our imperative," Gonzales said. "At the end of the day we go back and look at the high and low points, to learn how to adapt and overcome in the future."

Consisting of both Airmen and Soldiers, the joint effort proved to bring a lot new ideas to the team.

Gonzales and Heibert both agreed that working with Airmen taught them a new way of leading and teaching.

Even with small setbacks here and there, each course of the meal was prepared and served on time.
It was a surprisingly smooth run and we can only hope to keep getting better before the big event, Heibert said.