COSCOM chefs earn honors for DFAC work

Courtesy Photo | Sgt. 1st Class Steven Chow, "Blackjack Cafe" dining facility manager, right, supervises Spc. Lisa Diamond, a food service specialist, while on a routine day of work. Both Chow and Diamond received multiple awards during an award ceremony Oct. 5 at the 1st COSCOM dining facility.  

10.11.2005

Courtesy Story

DVIDS Hub       

By Spc. Jerome Bishop, 1st COSCOM PAO


Two Soldiers of the 1st Corps Support Command's "Blackjack Café" dining facility were honored in a ceremony Oct. 5 for excellence in food services following months of hard work and intense dedication.

Sgt. 1st Class Steven Chow, dining facility manager, and Spc. Lisa Diamond, food services specialist, were presented various awards by Col. Robin Akin, 1st COSCOM rear detachment commander, for their contributions to the excellence in their craft.

"Spc. Lisa Diamond was presented an Army Achievement Medal, a plaque, and a trophy for winning the COSCOM's Specialist Cook of the Quarter for 4th quarter of fiscal year 2005 and being selected the runner-up winner for the Installation Cook of the Quarter for the same quarter," Chow said. "I was presented with two Certificates of Achievement and a plaque after the dining facility was selected the Superior Dining Facility of the Quarter, 3rd quarter of fiscal year 2005."

Along with the awards for the dining facility, Chow was also presented with the Honorable Order of Saint Martin, a prestigious award presented to Soldiers of the quartermaster branch, in a special ceremony.

Competing with other dining facilities on post to prove who is the best can take a lot out of the staff, who serve to eliminate their opponents in various competitions.

"These competitions require a lot of dedication and passion for the job," Chow said. "The competition gets harder each day, as more and more dining facilities compete against each other in the various levels of competitions we enter every year."

While working with the bulk of the dining facility personnel to help push the team to the next level of the facility competition, some Soldiers are also competing with others in the food services for the distinction of Cook of the Year.

"The cooks are selected here to go to the COSCOM Cook of the Quarter board and out of them, two are selected to go to the Installation Cook of the Quarter board," Diamond said. "If you win that, you go on the Corps Cook of the Year board, and then the Cook of the Year on the Department of the Army level."

During the competition, the dining facility staff runs the risk of encounter complications, which might occur hindering the chance at winning.

"Several challenges come up," Chow said. "Among the most common ones are; shortage of personnel due to deployments, illnesses, and or emergencies, long hours of training and preparation prior to the competitions, which often creates low morale and lack of motivation, and setting high standards and keeping them, year after year."

However though all the hardship of competing as a team, Soldiers such as Diamond who opt to compete on an individual level are faced with many hardships experienced by Soldiers preparing for a board, but with a little extra on the study plan.

"During the board you answer both Army-related questions as well as cook-related questions," Diamond said.

"When you get to the Installation Cook of the Quarter board, you have a written test, a cook-off, and the board," she added. "The board is what makes or breaks you because can pass the test, win the cook-off and then fail the board, and you lost the competition." In the end, winning a competition doesn't just leave another plaque in a case or another certificate on the wall, but much more which can be carried on for the rest of a Soldier's career.

"Winning the awards and the recognition just keep the Soldiers motivated and lets them know that all the positive things they do on a daily basis is for sure appreciated and compensated," said Chow. "Soldiers built that sense of teamwork and esprit of corps"

"It's an honor because you know that the work you're doing is good and you feel good that someone is recognizing it," Diamond said.

In the past, the dining facility has won the national nutrition month installation competition two years in a row; placed runner-up at Department of the Army level Philip A. Connelly Competition 2005, installation Best Thanksgiving Day decorated dining facility competition winner and runner-up 2004 and 2005.

The "Blackjack Café" staff has pulled together through the hard times and emerged as one of Fort Bragg's finest dining institutions, and the awards stand to prove that not only are the food and services extraordinary, but the Soldiers who work the kitchen are of equal quality.

• Date Taken: 10.11.2005
• Date Posted: 10.11.2005 15:48
• Story ID: 3263