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FORT LEE, Va.–The largest military culinary competition in North America resumed at Fort Lee this year after COVID-19 forced the annual event to be canceled in 2021.
The Joint Culinary Training Exercise (JCTE) has been held nearly each year for 50 years since 1973. Outside of last year’s cancellation, the only other years this military tradition was briefly halted were in 1991 and 2003, during Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The competition is approved by the American Culinary Federation and showcases the talents and skills of military chefs from all branches of the United States Armed Forces.
This year’s exercise was a bit different compared to previous years, but Army leaders planned ahead and made adjustments to execute this year’s exercise despite COVID-19 limitations.
A recent round of COVID-19 cases impacted the Soldiers before the exercise even began. Chefs like Cpl. Christopher Ramirez, 371st Calvary, 1st Brigade Combat Team, Fort Drum, New York, and Sgt. Jodi Palmer, 22nd Infantry Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Polk, Louisiana, made up part of the Fort Drum team. They said they were determined to overcome any obstacles for the chance to compete at a high level.
“We’ve known each other since December, which is when the tryouts for our team began,” said Ramirez. “We had a two-week trial in December, and then it was hard to train because when we came back from the holiday block leave, a lot of people came back with Covid, and they needed to be quarantined. So it limited the amount of time we could practice together.”
Sgt. Palmer explained, “There was a point in early February where I did question if we were really going to do this, but we knew to just keep going.”
One of the biggest changes to the exercise this year was to limit the amount of interactions and COVID risks to the chefs competing. In the past, JCTE was open to the public and held at the McLaughlin Fitness Center/Gymnasium to cater to large crowds to view the events. This year, the location of the event was closed to the public.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Eveline Rosado Haliday, Advanced Culinary Training Division Officer In Charge at Fort Lee, helped plan for this year’s culinary exercise.
“For Covid-19 mitigations, we needed to minimize the competition,” said Haliday. “So instead of the McLaughlin Gym, we are having it in the ‘Joint Culinary Training Building’ where we typically hold training courses for culinary trainees.”
The competition events took place in three kitchen-style labs.
Typically there are 20 teams competing in various events, but this year there were only 11 teams participating, and a limited number of international teams.
“We also staggered the times the teams entered the labs to compete,'' said Haliday. “So this meant minimum personnel in the lab, and only the culinary competitors and the judges for the particular event were allowed in the rooms.”
To minimize any potential COVID risks, interactions with different military teams from all over the world was limited and plans were implemented similar to college and professional athletes, where athletes are isolated from their teams and refrain from interacting with other teams until the competition or event begins.
“So if you were part of Team Fort Bragg, you can’t just go and mingle or interact with Team Fort Drum or Team Hawaii,” said Haliday. “You must stay in your individual team’s lab until it’s time for the round of competition to begin.”
Social distancing was stressed on their “off-time,” after the daily events, to minimize the chances of teams getting sick and potentially disqualifying them from competition.
All chefs were required to wear masks recommended by the CDC while cooking, and sanitation was enforced in the labs during the events.
Although the event was closed off to the public, Army planners provided livestreams online, with unique angles above the chefs to view the cooking in real time.
“Of course we would have loved it if their families were here in person, and coming out to see them compete, '' said Haliday. “It’s always a pleasure to have them come out and be in awe of what these Soldiers are doing.”
A livestream, as well as photos and video updates were shared on various military social media pages where the public could comment or react online in real time as the events took place.
It’s a feature Haliday and other JCTE leaders might consider using in the future when they review all the changes and adjustments to this year’s event.
“It takes about a year to plan and prepare for an exercise like this,” Halliday explained.“ As soon as this preparation is done, we almost immediately begin preparing for the next exercise, review the rules and set up for the next event.”
Despite the obstacles of COVID-19, for Ramirez and Palmer, the hard work paid off. The Fort Drum team earned a Bronze Award for the Student Team of the Year event.
“This was an opportunity, and I firmly believe when you get an opportunity to do anything, then you do your best, because it could be the last you get.”
Halliday is also proud of all the Soldiers and chefs.
“The Soldiers have done an outstanding job,” said Haliday. “Some of them had some last-minute training to prepare ahead of this exercise, but the training they did shows they are performing very well. They’ve done an outstanding job adapting to all the mitigations we’ve had this year.”
Haliday credits the joint culinary operations team for the preparation leading up to the exercise.
“We’ve been very resilient in making sure that we’ve been able to adjust and accommodate the team as they needed supplies or rations based on their event,” said Haliday.
Halliday hopes her team gets to host the exercise in a larger capacity next year.
| Date Taken: | 03.14.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.10.2022 20:53 |
| Story ID: | 416830 |
| Location: | FORT LEE, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 34 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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