I never really thought about how the food showed up in the chow hall or in the field, I was just glad it was time to eat. Especially when in the field where had both MREs and hot meals. I remember the deserts were always a choice of Twinkies and packaged apple or cherry pie turnover things. I was always about the Twinkies. I think they were supposed to be morale boosters for being out in crappy weather and sleeping on crappy cots and crapping in nasty porta johns. Lol. I look at a Twinkie now and feel nauseous. 

Anyway, this was interesting. I definitely understand now how hard they worked to get hot meals out for us. 

Link

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Cool.. Hold the saltpetre please!! lolol

I know that's supposed to be only a myth, but I wouldn't put it past them. The same way the used to include cigs in the MRE's lol

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I’ll be the [BLEEP], like I normally am here and in the real life.  I agree, it’s cool.  But when I watch the video and see that 95% pass and they’re talking it up, it really comes across as “these guys aren’t worth a [BLEEP] except the few that went to school for culinary purposes and the others…we’ll… we’ll try to give them a job.” If you can’t read a recipe card….  Don’t get me wrong.  They are needed. But they talk it up as Meal Team Six.  One guy refers to his other cookmates as a “battle buddy”.  Yeah, I get it.  But when in OCS my brother was asked to tell the instructor the difference between “cover and concealment” my brothers reply was “cover is your battle buddy and concealment is looking like em”. He was joking of course.  Their duty is needed. I appreciate what they do. I’m sure the soldiers do as well.  But, aside from those that scored  well on that test “as fad” or whatever is called that want to cook, the rest are kinda stupid.  Again, I appreciate the effort.  But if you take that test and are placed in that role, you’re not the best of the best, to say the least.  Those that make it, good on them.  I feel they really need that experience and discipline to figure things out.  [BLEEP] Jags at it again, I suppose. I’m not a good person.  Love the military though.  Have family members in it.

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Eggs, bacon, meat and potatoes are one thing, but what about the basic preparation and presentation of dishes like Sole Almondine, Chateaubriand, or Pate au Gruau (only for those stationed in France)? Come on US Army, time for some culinary diversity!

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

My brother was a mess crank in the Navy. After he was kicked out for popping positive on a piss test, he became certified as a chef and worked in that field for a while. He served on a destroyer. I couldn't imagine trying to cook on a bobber like that.

I will say, in my experience, Army chow halls are the best. I've eaten in a lot of them around the country, and the world, and they always lay out some good chow. Navy shipboard messes aren't bad. The Kitty Hawk had a good mess deck. The Kennedy was hit and miss. When they missed, it was terrible. The worst part was looking past the cockroaches. I used to tell the new guys to not look at the food, just eat it. Seeing your beef Yakisoba with veins and tendons sticking out can be a little unappetizing.

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I’ll be the [BLEEP], like I normally am here and in the real life.  I agree, it’s cool.  But when I watch the video and see that 95% pass and they’re talking it up, it really comes across as “these guys aren’t worth a [BLEEP] except the few that went to school for culinary purposes and the others…we’ll… we’ll try to give them a job.” If you can’t read a recipe card….  Don’t get me wrong.  They are needed. But they talk it up as Meal Team Six.  One guy refers to his other cookmates as a “battle buddy”.  Yeah, I get it.  But when in OCS my brother was asked to tell the instructor the difference between “cover and concealment” my brothers reply was “cover is your battle buddy and concealment is looking like em”. He was joking of course.  Their duty is needed. I appreciate what they do. I’m sure the soldiers do as well.  But, aside from those that scored  well on that test “as fad” or whatever is called that want to cook, the rest are kinda stupid.  Again, I appreciate the effort.  But if you take that test and are placed in that role, you’re not the best of the best, to say the least.  Those that make it, good on them.  I feel they really need that experience and discipline to figure things out.  [BLEEP] Jags at it again, I suppose. I’m not a good person.  Love the military though.  Have family members in it.

Battle buddy is a general term in the Army for when you're partnered up with someone. In boot camp my battle buddy was the girl who slept on the rack below me and we were responsible for each other. In AIT my battle buddy was similar except it was more in a classroom setting than going to the field for training exercises. All of the hands on things we learned in medic school like assessing injuries, applying life saving measures, etc., were almost all practiced on our battle buddy.

Navy SEALs call them swim buddies. Lol.

The Army is all about standards. Pass-fail, or what we called "go" or "no-go," standards are very specific. If you get a no-go on just one standard of a list of standards you have to test on the whole thing again. Some standards you have only one chance to get it right and if you don't you fail. With food you definitely have to be super careful because you could wipe out an entire company or battalion with one bad lunch that was prepared incorrectly and was loaded with bacteria. 

Its not that people are stupid, its that the margin for error has to be infinitesimal so you don't put people in the hospital when they should be training or going to the battlefield. 

You would also be surprised by how many people have never seen a recipe much less cooked from one. Most of their meals are prepackaged or fast food.

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Eggs, bacon, meat and potatoes are one thing, but what about the basic preparation and presentation of dishes like Sole Almondine, Chateaubriand, or Pate au Gruau (only for those stationed in France)?  Come on US Army, time for some culinary diversity!

Hell, even Elvis got Hasenpfeffer and black pumpernickel for chow, may have given him the GI Blues though.

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My grandfather did it instead of being stuck in a tank. He was tall and big so he decided to cook but for the officers. There were a lot of advantages as they were basically on call and for a large man he could get some extra food and better food.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

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My grandfather did it instead of being stuck in a tank. He was tall and big so he decided to cook but for the officers. There were a lot of advantages as they were basically on call and for a large man he could get some extra food and better food.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

My FIL was small and knew he'd get drafted for Vietnam and be a "tunnel rat" so he volunteered and enlisted in the Air Force as a cook. He still ended up in Vietnam but didn't have to crawl around underground. That was a dangerous job.

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