Melt the chocolate over indirect heat,” barks out the instructor.

“Hoorah,” responds the class.

“Add two cups of sugar.” 

“Hoorah.”

“Use a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients.” 

“Hoorah.”

“I don’t want to teach you how to cook. I want to teach you techniques so you can develop your own skills.”

"HOORAH."

Today’s mission: brownies. Marine instructor Gunnery Sgt. Terrell Devoe is teaching his students at the U.S. Army Culinary Arts Program at Fort Lee, Va., how to make them from scratch. The students— soldiers and Marines—have gathered in one of the many cooking laboratories in the culinary skills training building. 

Each laboratory sparkles in stainless steel, with individual stations and cooking implements set up like well-ordered seats in an orchestra. Various smells waft through the hallways, giving hint to what is being prepared that day—rolls, chicken, meatloaf, and brownies. 

The students are dressed uniformly in white cook’s attire, while their instructors stand out in tall chef caps and decorations from competitions won. Students gather around the instructors and, with the help of large, angled mirrors, watch their cooking demonstrations. They then will return to their stations to prepare the items themselves.

Devoe’s students already have passed an introductory course in cooking and have had some experience in the field. Now they’re back in the classroom to improve their culinary skills. 

“They’ve spent a lot of time opening boxes. Now they have an opportunity to do something at the next level,” Devoe says. “Here we’re teaching techniques, rather than recipes.”

Cookie, meet Julia Child

The chefs produced by the fine-tuned operation at Fort Lee belie the old, popular image of a cook in the military: a grizzled, heavy-set man with a dangling cigar dripping ash, slinging some unrecognizable hash onto steel trays. 

Today’s chefs—the Air Force’s food technicians, the Army’s soldier-chefs, the Marine Corps’ cooks, and the Navy’s mess management specialists—are proud professionals, well-trained in their craft and capable of making meals that could be served in fine commercial restaurants. In addition to their military training, whether at Fort Lee for the Army and Marine Corps or Lackland Air Force Base (AFB)) in Texas for the Air Force and Navy, they might have received education from cooking institutes such as the Culinary Institute of America or Johnson and Wales University or from industry leaders such as Sodexho Marriott. They have been instructed in food preparation, nutrition, and service, and might have specialized, for example, as a saucier or a pastry chef. 

Military chefs bring a unique set of skills and challenges to the world of fine cooking. They capitalize on the military disciplines of cleanliness and orderliness to produce a fine, smooth-running kitchen. Some must make daily meals that are interesting and different for the thousands on their base or ship, while others aspire to present elegant dinners for small parties hosted by the top brass.

They have received awards and accolades for their cooking. They’ve competed with each other to continue to hone their skills. And they’ve joined international cooking competitions to bring home top honors. 

“The young chefs are setting a pace that has not been seen before,” says Master Sgt. Newal Hunter, a retired Army chef. “The Beetle Bailey image of a fat cook—that whole myth has been dispelled. You must have a balance of education and skills, and today that’s true in all fields of the military.”

“We’ve always done as good as we knew how to do, but now the training has gotten better,” says CWO2 Travis Smith, chief, Craft Skills Training Branch, Army Center of Excellence, Subsistence, and manager, U.S. Army Culinary Arts Team (USACAT). “The Army Culinary Arts Program is designed to motivate people, inspire them, and show recognition for those who excel in food service. A lot of changes have taken place. Over the last eight or nine years, we’ve come a long way.”

Being a cook in the military may not be every enlistee’s dream. “There are still a lot of negative stereotypes about cooks in the Army,” Devoe says. “I didn’t want to be a cook. I was disappointed when I found out my assignment. But I knew I would be the best in the field. Now I tell my students, look what I’ve become.

“We’ve evolved a lot, and are very professional,” Devoe says. 

The joy of cooking

Chefs undergo rigorous training within the military before they set foot in a kitchen. Army and Marine chefs begin their culinary training at Fort Lee with an eight-week Advanced Infantry Training Course, which includes instruction in nutrition and sanitation, cooking demonstrations and practices in a lab setting, practical experience in cooking for small and large garrison dining facilities, and field cooking. 
A new course begins every week, with 104 students in each class. “These are young recruits who have just gotten out of basic training,” says Stephen Posser, chief, Culinary Skills Training Division, Army Center of Excellence, Subsistence. “Most of them are volunteers and are here because they want to be cooks. Others come here when their first choice for positions [was] already filled.”

Pvt. Francis Peterson, in his third week of training, always has enjoyed cooking and wanted to be a cook. “There are so many things to do in the Army, people were surprised I chose to cook,” he says. The only thing different, he says, is he’s now cooking in bulk.

Soldiers and Marines can return to Fort Lee to gain additional culinary skills and advance their cooking careers. The Culinary Arts Program offers a Basic NCO Course, a two-week cooking course that includes evaluation of food products, management, and cooking techniques, as well as an Advanced NCO Course that further refines participants’ skills. More senior soldiers can enroll in the Advanced Culinary Skills Training Course.

The military has been experimenting with a variety of methods to provide additional training for its chefs at learning institutes or in commercial settings. Such training not only can help improve the quality of the food on base or ship but also can help chefs receive college credits and eventually industry certification with the American Culinary Federation. Last summer, the Navy sent 50 recruits to a 12-week course at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Courses at the CIA focused on American cuisine, sanitation management, nutrition, wardroom service, and personal and professional development. 

“This course really focused on giving these sailors a greater clarification of cooking techniques and a greater understanding of the history of the culinary industry,” says Chef John Reilly, an assistant professor at the CIA. “What we talked about every day was how to best utilize these techniques to improve food quality for their shipmates, while recognizing the limitation in supplies and equipment faced by the Navy chefs.” 

Iron chefs

After all the training, it’s time to compete. Participating in competitions allows military chefs a chance to pursue their food-service careers, raise their culinary standards, and gain educational opportunities. Winning competitions also can increase servicemembers’ grades and land them plum assignments of their choice. 

Fort Lee hosts the Culinary Arts Competition, a two-week event sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation. Held annually since 1976 (the 2003 competition was cancelled due to the war in Iraq), the competition is a chance for soldiers to prepare food items they usually don’t have the chance to make in the average dining facility. It helps them learn new cooking techniques they can take back to their units. 

In March 2002, more than 200 soldier-chefs from 22 installations worldwide competed for individual and team honors in categories that included live cooking, team cold buffet, and displays, as well as in a Culinary Knowledge Bowl. The highest honor, Installation of the Year, was given to Fort Bragg, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division. 

The competition also is an arena to try out for the USACAT. “The soldiers on the team come from all over the world. They may be cooking for troops at bases on a day-to-day basis, or they may be working for a general as an enlisted aide,” says Smith. “This becomes a great outlet for them to be creative.”

The USACAT was crowned world champion in military catering at the Culinary Olympics held in Erfurt, Germany, in October 2000. The competition, held every four years since 1900, is the world’s oldest and most prestigious cooking competition. The USACAT also garnered top honors in the November 2002 Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg and the annual American Culinary Federation competition, held in Las Vegas in July 2002.

“Competing on the team allows a soldier to get a lot of skills and do good things for the Army,” Smith explains. “The team members will incorporate the lessons they learned into the day-to-day operations, will be more organized, and will have a higher understanding of what really good food should be.”

Competing also offers chefs a chance to be discovered, as the top military will attend culinary competitions to find the best cooking talent. “Some of those who participate in the Fort Lee competition every March, for example, are recruited by people who run officer messes at the Pentagon,” says Smith. “Those guys know what they’re looking for, and they’ll come down here to recruit chefs.”

Once they’ve become a member of the USACAT team or landed a prime assignment, “they may be able to control their destiny, going from one enlisted aide job to another,” Smith says. “Or they may want to continue cooking at a base or become an instructor.” 

A career in the kitchen

The training and education, the competition, and the plum assignments also help military chefs gain a viable option for a second career when they leave the service. Many have completed additional education on their own to complement their culinary skills.

Newal Hunter served as the NCO-in-Charge of the Culinary Skills Training Division at Fort Lee, won numerous awards while with the USACAT team, and held several elite cooking positions, including running the Secretary of the Army mess in the Pentagon. During his military service, he also earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education. 

After retiring from the Army in 1994, Hunter went on to a second career that capitalized on his cooking and management skills and earned his doctorate. He has headed the hospitality programs at Sullivan University in Louisville, Ky., and at Norfolk State University in Virginia and now is the dean of education at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute in Chicago. 

“I did so many things in the military, from being an infantryman to going into the cooking field,” Hunter says. “All the different assignments have prepared me for anything I can do here. Also,” he jokes, “I haven’t really changed my hairstyle since I left the military.”

Army Staff Sgt. Derwin Wesley, an instructor at Fort Lee’s Culinary Arts Program, hopes to open his own food service one day. Wesley once was a professional athlete, playing basketball in Italy. “But when I blew my knee out, I came to the Army looking for a career,” he says. Wesley has completed the Advanced Culinary Course and in two years will be able to take the exam for certified executive chef offered by the Advanced Culinary Federation. “I want the Army to see that [its] food service program is working,” he says.

Devoe is not sure what he’ll do after retiring from the military, but he knows he has a lot of options. He is a certified chef and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. “I’m trying to increase my options for when I leave the military,” Devoe says. “I love to cook. It’s a chance for me to be artistic. It’s my real passion.”

The taste test

Many changes are afoot in the military’s food service. Not only are the chefs receiving more professional training, but also meals are more nutritious and varied. Meals in the field are prepared more efficiently and quickly, with an expanded number and variety of menus. New MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) offer more options and better flavor. Also, there is a move to privatize some areas in food service: The Marine Corps, for example, is privatizing its mess halls in the continental United States in an effort to save money and move people into operational units. 

“The dining facilities are run more like businesses,” Posser says. “You have to plan more nutritious meals, budget your expenses, etcetera. You have to try to satisfy your customer.” Also, the Army now gets its food staples directly from the vendor instead of producing and storing its own generic items. 

But how does the food really taste? “The quality of food is getting better,” says Posser. “You once had to serve one meat, one vegetable, one potato— it’s the way we had to do things at the time. Now we have three or four entrées, with options—fried chicken or lemon baked chicken—and a salad bar instead of a small salad bowl.” 

Would retired officers recognize military food today? “They’d recognize the food today, but they’d compare it to a restaurant or food court,” Smith says. “A lot of food today mirrors those better cafeteria-style facilities. And those meals that are prepared in competition are comparable to what you’d find in the finest restaurants in the world. Military chefs often compete against civilians and often win—that’s the caliber of food the Army team prepares.”

“I would never have a problem sitting in a military installation and eating,” says Hunter. “You can’t get better than that. And then when we compete and really show off, that’s as good as eating in the best restaurants.”