U.S. Army cooks meet with Kuwait National Guard for mobile kitchen demonstration

Photo By Staff Sgt. Robert Adams | Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Robert Adams, 108th Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs/ Sgt. Joe Prehm, a food service specialist with the 108th Sustainment Brigade fills his plate with food cooked by Kuwait National Guard soldiers during the visit to Camp Tahreer for a demonstration of the KNG’s mobile kitchen during a visit on April 24 at Camp Tahreer, Kuwait.  

CAMP TAHREER, KUWAIT

05.03.2014

Story by Sgt. Robert Adams 

34th Division Sustainment Brigade

CAMP TAHREER, Kuwait- Eight U.S. Army food service specialists with the 108th Sustainment Brigade of Chicago visited Camp Tahreer, Kuwait, April 24 to attend a demonstration of the Kuwait National Guard’s (KNG) mobile kitchens.

KNG food service specialists conduct training on their mobile kitchens roughly twice a month. Each containerized field kitchen can serve approximately 250 to 300 meals per hour. With more than 80 mobile kitchens, KNG soldiers can provide food services for hundreds of servicemembers during meal times.

The food service specialists with the 108th Sust. Bde. were given the opportunity to walk through and sample food made in the mobile kitchens. Sgt. Hector Laporte of Chicago, a food service specialist with the 108th Sust. Bde. said he was pleased with what he saw during demonstration.

“With all my experience in the food service side I was very impressed,” said Laporte, an Illinois National Guard Soldier who in his civilian career has worked as a head chef and concept manager chef with an international food service provider for eight years.

Laporte said fresh food and a clean facility were not the only things he found appealing; a functional kitchen, critical for food service operations, did as well.

“I love the mobile kitchen because it’s a simple set up and has all the essentials you need, including a dish washer,” said Laporte. “It is something I would love to have the opportunity to cook in and see what I could do.”

Others Soldiers expressed similar comments about the different capabilities of the KNG’s mobile kitchen. The U.S. Army has two cooking units they use in the field, the mobile kitchen trailer and the containerized kitchen. The MKT is capable of feeding 250 Soldiers one hot meal per day. The CK is the first field kitchen to be introduced into the Army inventory since the MKT in 1975. The CK also has shown in testing to be capable of feeding more than 650 Soldiers three meals per day.

“The mobile kitchen was exciting to see because it was small, but spacious enough for five cooks to work and give them their designated areas,” said Spc. Laqueta Turnage of Chicago, a food service specialist with the 108th Sust. Bde. “I would love to cook in the field with a mobile kitchen like the one I saw today.”

KNG plans on holding joint exercises with U.S. Army food service specialist using the mobile kitchens.

“We plan to have more visits in the future and also do some exercises where our cooks will cook with the Soldiers in the U.S. Army,” said Maj. Azzam Solomon, food service manager, KNG.

Conducting the joint exercises provides an opportunity for exchange of expertise between the two different militaries from different countries that have different ways of cooking, training and different menus, said Azzam.

• Date Taken: 05.03.2014
• Date Posted: 05.03.2014 02:40
• Story ID: 128597
• Location: CAMP TAHREER, KW