Subscribe
It’s The Sweet Things in Life
By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Maci Sternod
USS Tripoli Public Affairs
PACIFIC OCEAN – The bake shop and its baker bring a little sweetness into many Sailors’ days while they’re out completing the ship’s mission.
During WWII, groups of three or four Sailors, called commissarymen, would work 12-hour shifts in bake shops aboard naval vessels. The night shift kneaded as many as 800 loaves of bread, while the day shift focused on desserts, which could include up to 60 cakes for an average dinner.
“The bake shop impacts Sailors because it provides morale to the crew,” said Chief Culinary Specialist Jesus Ron, S2’s leading chief petty officer. “They love the smell of fresh pastries, cakes, dinner rolls and even cinnamon rolls. It wakes them up and gives them that energy for the day.”
While both the galley and the bake shop are important to the ship and the crew, they are different work environments. The galley’s workflow ebbs and flows with the meals that it serves to the crew, while the bake shop is more of a stream of demands to ensure tasty treats are available to all who seek them.
“My favorite thing about being underway is the bake shop,” said Yeoman 3rd Class Marcus Stanley. “It’s something to look forward to every day. Nothing beats fresh baked goods.”
Like those who served decades ago, a typical day in Tripoli’s bake shop is still about 12 hours, but there is only one Sailor, a culinary specialist, who spends those hours creating cakes, brownies, cookies, hot rolls, pies and donuts. Sometimes the bake shop even makes the pizza dough for pizza night.
“My favorite thing to bake is strawberry shortcake and cheesecake because I love the way that strawberries and fresh pastries smell together, and cheesecake because I love cheesecake,” said Culinary Specialist 3rd Class Erica Ray.
During every culinary specialist’s time at “A” school in Fort Lee, Virginia, they craft their skills to cut whole chickens and make eggs to order before they hit the galley and put their training to use. There is no additional schooling for culinary students who desire to pursue their passion for pastries during their initial training.
“As far as cooking eggs to order, everyone had to know how to do that because in the last two weeks they let you go to the galley,” said Ray. “The first two weeks was just school, the next two weeks are baking and making food, trying everything.”
Even with a small part of their training focused on baking, a big motivator for Ray to be the best baker is the response from the Sailors.
“My favorite thing about being in the bake shop is when people pop their heads in to see what I’m baking and to let me know that it smells good,” said Ray.
Tripoli’s bake shop bakes a wide variety of desserts, and arguably the most important are the cakes for events that happen around the ship. These include anything from the Navy, chief petty officer and corpsman birthdays, heritage and pride events, and many more to support and raise the morale of the crew.
“It really shows their skills when a cake is presented at a ceremony or presentation,” said Ron. “Have you ever heard the term “eat with your eyes?” People really eat with their eyes when they look at our cakes.”
Tripoli’s baker diligently bakes away to provide the crew with not only a tasty treat during meal times and celebrations, but enough motivation to get the job done and keep the crew and ship mission ready.
“We only have one baker at any given time and its only one person putting out all the baked goods for [the] entire ship,” said Chief Warrant Officer Arthur Johnson, Tripoli’s prior food service officer. So anytime that anyone has the opportunity to say “hey” to the baker or give them high fives or let them know they that appreciate the job that they’re doing, please do so because it’s one person working so hard to supply the baked goods for the entire ship.”
USS Tripoli is the Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship homeported in San Diego. The ship is assigned to Amphibious Squadron 3.
For more information visit https://www.surfpac.navy.mil/lha7/.
| Date Taken: | 01.21.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 01.21.2022 14:23 |
| Story ID: | 413228 |
| Location: | PACIFIC OCEAN |
| Web Views: | 41 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, It’s The Sweet Things in Life, by PO2 Maci Sternod, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
