Photo By Cpl. Sean Dennison | Lance Cpl. Dara Smith, a food service specialist and a native of Sacramento, Calif.,...... read more read more
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YUMA, Ariz. - It’s commonplace for Marines to further their education within their primary military occupational specialties. What isn’t common is when training is in New York alongside accomplished chefs.
Every year, the Culinary Institute of America, a highly accredited culinary college, accepts Marines and other service members into a consolidated cooking program meant to increase the chefs’ abilities in the kitchen.
MCAS Yuma’s two most recent attendees are food service specialists Cpl. Brandyn Drew, a native of Loxahatchee, Fla., and Lance Cpl. Dara Smith, a native of Sacramento, Calif.
Drew and Smith traveled to Hyde Park, N.Y., for five weeks to expand their cooking repertoire.
“The basic food service Marine needed a bit more tweaking,” said Sgt. Garry Pounder, a food service specialist and a native of Memphis, Tenn.
Pounder explained that for a while, the Marine Corps was the only branch of service to not have a liaison with the Institute, though Marine general’s aides would attend classes. Pounder himself attended classes in 2007, part of the second class open to the Fleet Marine Force.
Marines who attend the Institute are selected based on Chef of the Quarter competitions. Typically, food service specialists adhere to a strict menu. During these competitions the individual cooks can really shine.
“We didn’t place,” said Drew, regarding the competition deciding who would go to the school. “But they said we did a good job and chose us to go to the CIA.”
From there, Drew and Smith embarked on a five-week where the Marines practiced knife skills, learned, about soup stock and sauces (“There’s a lot,” said Smith with a laugh), learned different cooking principles, figured out how to put what side dishes and compliments to which meals and plate displays, or how the food is presented.
The Marines started out cooking in groups, then teams and, finally, as individuals. The final meal involved three courses: a soup, a salad and an entrée, which had to include a starch, vegetable and main meat.
Drew and Smith developed their own nuanced techniques for how to best serve the judges, who were comprised of chefs teaching at the school.
Serve the soup first, so the salad will preserve its freshness of its ingredients and dressing, explained Drew.
During the final meal, the students had 15 minutes to prepare, two-and-a-half hours to cook and 15 minutes to present.
Satisfaction was paramount to the students’ grades, a tough obstacle to surmount, considering the chefs proved hard to please.
“Our afternoon class, the first two days the chefs had nothing positive to say about our food,” said Drew.
“One girl, she said ‘I don’t like fish.’ And the chef said, ‘The fish doesn’t like you’,” added Smith.
Despite the rigorous work schedule and constant races against the clock, the Marines agree the experience was one to savor.
“It does broaden your perspective about food service and give you knowledge that you need,” said Drew.
They even got to rub shoulders with students from around the world and from corporate U.S. companies, such as Campbell’s and Ruby Tuesday.
“One lady, she was going to London for the Olympics. She was going to cook for the athletes,” said Smith. “That’ll be me one day.”
The two chefs each have their own reasons for serving in the kitchen.
“I cooked four years prior to the Marine Corps and I wanted to do something I felt comfortable with,” said Drew.
“I actually wanted to go to culinary school before the Marine Corps,” said Smith. “Then my recruiter told me about food service specialist and it sounded nice.”
Both Marines expect to walk the path of a chef. Until then, they are passing on their culinary experience to the Marines they work with, just like the other Institute students before them.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.26.2012 13:29 |
| Story ID: | 92199 |
| Location: | YUMA, AZ, US |
| Hometown: | LOXAHATCHEE, FL, US |
| Hometown: | MEMPHIS, TN, US |
| Hometown: | SACRAMENTO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 357 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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