BEHIND THE FRONT LINES

Inside Discussions With Culinary Mavericks

IN AMERICA’S MILITARY // BY AMELIA LEVIN

The ACF has enjoyed a decades-long partnership with the U.S. military dating back to the 1970s.

“The late Lt. General John D. McLaughlin did so much for military chefs; he paved the way with the help of the ACF to bring culinary arts to the forefront and make ours a profession of true talent rather than one of servants,” says ACF National President Chef René Marquis, CEC, CCE, CCA, AAC , a retired 21-year U.S. Army veteran, former enlisted aide for three- and fourstar generals and decorated military chef competitor who served through 15 deployments in 57 countries. “Even today the schoolhouse at Fort Gregg-Adams is called the McLaughlin Building.”

Chef Marquis adds that the military’s partnership with the ACF brings credibility to armed forces foodservice and serves as the backbone for culinary instruction and certification of members of the armed forces.

Each branch maintains its own methods for training cooks and culinarians depending on the nature of the service. But, once a year in the spring, the branches come together to compete against each other in the Joint Culinary Training Exercise, the largest military competition in the country held at Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia (see Sidebar). Leaders from that competition are often chosen to be part of the U.S. Army

Culinary Arts Team (USACAT) that competes in the IKA/Culinary Olympics every four years.

“The enthusiasm and dedication of military culinarians is inspiring,” says retired Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Phillips , chair of the ACF Military Task Force created last year and a 36-year veteran of the U.S. Army currently serving as president of the nonprofit Reserve Organization of America. “Providing quality food to our troops directly contributes to military readiness, and one of my prime interests is enhancing an understanding of that value among senior military leaders.” Phillips says his main goal as the ACF Military Task Force chair is to continue to get the word out about ACF certifications among members of the military and also facilitate ACF civilian and military member visits to bases and installations to help train and teach future culinarians.

We caught up with some of those ACF military chefs to hear their stories about life on the front lines — and in the kitchen.

The Life Of A Green Beret Chef

ACF Chef Guy Winks, CEC , also serves on the ACF Military Task Force; he is a retired military chef of 25 years. As a chef for the U.S. Special Forces (Green Berets), he has jumped out of airplanes, climbed mountains and scuba dived in sub-zero waters. As a former U.S. Army enlisted aide, he has also cooked fine dining meals for high-ranking generals in the U.S. Army. Most recently, Chef Winks, a longtime competitor whose team won the 2008 Installation of the Year at the JCTE, has served as a culinary instructor at the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence at Fort Gregg-Adams.

CEC

“Food is morale in military,” he says. “I’ve been in hostile areas where there are just 12 guys on a team and me, the cook, and a supply person and maybe a couple other support people, but that’s it. When you’ve been out crawling in the mud or trudging through the woods or dodging landmines or completing extreme cold weather missions, you see how much great food can change the whole atmosphere. When you go out of your way to cook a vegetarian meal for someone you know doesn’t eat meat or make someone’s omelet just like they like it in the morning and always have hot coffee running 24 hours a day, you know you’re doing your part as a chef in the armed forces.”

Chef Winks first got wind of the culinary world after going through initial occupational training at Fort Gregg-Adams (then Fort Lee). “I was

- Retired Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Phillips, CC a young private who got put on detail washing dishes for the Culinary Olympic team,” he says. “I was immediately hooked and wanted to be a part of that.”

Considering himself “lucky to be in the right place at the right time,” Chef Winks was stationed at Fort Carson in 1995 and observed airborne military cooks for the Green Berets. “I went to their compound and asked how to be a cook,” he says. “The dining facility manager for the special forces said if I can decorate a cake for the grand opening of their compound I could gain acceptance into the unit. I went back to the artillery unit where I was stationed and asked the head chef to teach me how to do that. I managed to pull off the assignment and ended up in special forces for the next 14 years.”

During his career, Chef Winks also had the opportunity to go to the Culinary Institute of America as a military liaison for a year and earn ProChef Level II certification. In the 2010s, Chef Winks was as a member of the esteemed USACAT team and competed internationally at the Culinary Olympics in Germany and Expogast in Luxemburg, later becoming an advisor for the team. He was a coach for the team this year, and for the last 12 years, he has served as master of ceremony for the Joint Training Culinary Exercise at Fort Gregg-Adams.

“Winning gold medals is great, but what it all boils down to is better food for service members,” says Chef Winks. “We take kids from all branches of the military and train them to do advanced level cooking and represent the U.S. They get to go back to their bases and train others.”

The Life Of An Enlisted Aide

Master Sgt. David A. Marcelli, CCE, CEC, PCC, AAC , has been cooking since he was 14 and worked as a country club chef in his early 20s before joining the U.S. Army more than two decades ago and working up the ranks as an enlisted aide like Chef Winks.

“Stressful, demanding, challenging, satisfying, rewarding.” Those are the words Chef Marcelli uses to describe what it’s like to be a military chef. He’s been on four deployments (three to Iraq and one in Afghanistan) and has had to manage high-volume kitchens both on a base and in the field.

“Most of our military kitchens are set up to feed hundreds to thousands of service members; whereas a small restaurant kitchen may have one large steam jacket kettle to cook maybe 10 gallons of soup, a lot of our kitchens are set up with 100- to 200-gallon pots, several tilt skillets and several industrial ovens all blazing away for most of the day to keep up with the demands,” he says.

As an enlisted aide stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii, “We entertain foreign dignitaries, senators and foreign senior military liaisons from all over the world,” Chef Marcelli says. “One of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do most recently was work with the Japanese consulate here to build foreign relations — their military team recently came here to help us with one of our functions.”

Outside of his regular duties Chef Marcelli has taught culinary arts classes at Fort Gregg-Adams and participated in several culinary competitions while serving in the military. “I was a support member of the 2012 United States Army Culinary Arts Team (USACAT), which competed in the 2012 Olympics in Erfurt, Germany, and I have competed personally in the Fort Gregg-Adams Joint Culinary Training Exercise, winning ACF gold in nutrition and several other individual and team medals.

A founding member of the newly created ACF Military Task Force, Chef Marcelli hopes to “dispel myths about the ACF among new military cooks that it’s not some secret club that you can only be a part of if you are a senior rank,” he says. “The ACF has done so much for the military and military chefs that I think it’s important to share best practices and continue to help each other.”

Feeding The Navy

Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Edwards, CEC , joined the U.S. Navy shortly after 9/11 at the age of 30 after owning a catering company in California for several years.

He started his naval career feeding crews on aircraft carriers, providing four meals per day, 24 hours a day, for up to 5,000 people. That’s when he transitioned to a captain’s cook, which is similar to an enlisted aide position but on board a carrier. At one point, Chef Edwards served as secretary of the Navy mess at the Pentagon. He has taught advanced culinary arts at Fort Gregg-Adams.

Chef Edwards, who says he’s currently serving the highest ranking admiral in the Navy, also acts like an “estate manager,” coordinating any work that has to be done in the house in addition to serving as a private chefin-charge. “I’ve done events up to 3,000 people and as small an evening as two people sitting at a table. I’ve cooked everything from simple casseroles to 12-course fine dining meals.”

Lately, as a member of the ACF Military Task Force,

Chef Edwards has been working to try to bring back the Adopt-a-Ship program, a partnership between the ACF and U.S. Navy that brings civilian chefs aboard ships to train and work with naval cooks.

“I think that is where the ACF really can help,” he says. “Making everyone feel like they’re professionals in their trade and helping [military chefs] like me feel like we can cook head-to-head with other chefs in the industry.”

“We’re one of the only performance-based advancement [culinary programs] in the military,” he says. “Our training is based off of ratings, so each person who comes in and wants to be a cook has to go through a 13-week culinary program and a number of practical factors to demonstrate their understanding of the culinary arts.”

This is required in order to earn the rank and rating of a culinary specialist third class (E4). The culinary program is so rigorous that just last year, the Coast Guard launched an ACF-approved apprenticeship program and earlier this year had its first graduating class. “We graduated 14 culinary specialist third classes, but also members from the Filipino Navy, who received their [Certified] Fundamentals Cook certification,” says Chef Fuchs.

Essentially, Coast Guard enlistees — after completing eight weeks of boot camp — have a choice to go directly into culinary or they can choose to pursue a different rating, Chef Fuchs says. Any degrees from an ACF-

THE COAST GUARD’S CULINARY PROGRAM

The U.S. Coast Guard’s culinary program made history in 2022 when two of its culinary specialists (Danielle Hughes and Troy Shaw) took home not only the esteemed ACF Chef of the Year Award but also the ACF Pastry Chef of the Year Award in the same year, beating out all other members of the military as well as civilian competitors.

ACF Chef Edward Fuchs, CEC, CCE , an E8 U.S. Coast Guard chief culinary specialist, wasn’t surprised.

accredited culinary program that an enlistee already has completed could count as an equivalent to a Coast Guard training program and even have that enlistee signing on as a culinary specialist second class (E5).

Located in the Two Rock Valley of Petaluma, Calif., the Coast Guard Training Center operates seven schools with courses for health service technicians, electronics technicians, information systems technicians and culinary specialists. Culinary specialists with the Coast Guard prepare meals with the highest standards of nutrition, taste and food safety and also are responsible for logistics, accounting, menu planning and inventory management. Culinary specialists may work ashore at stations, at VIP facilities, or they might be assigned to galleys on cutters.

“We teach the same curriculum that you would get at any culinary school, but we have to do it in a more condensed timeframe because we have to get people out to the fleet, so our program takes place over the course of 13 weeks,” Chef Fuchs says. Culinary specialists can continue their education on the job as a line cook (or duty cook) while also learning “firefighting, navigation, line handling, rigging and all those other skills necessary to be successful on a cutter. If you’re an honor grad for a graduating class, you’re going to get your No. 1 pick, and then so on down the line depending on how well you perform in your school. With our advancement being performance driven, you can advance to the next pay grade through continued study and performance on the job.”

HOW AIRMEN FEED THE U.S. AIR FORCE

ACF Chef Jazmen Davis, CWPC , technical sergeant, oversees culinary instruction for the U.S. Air Force at Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia and enjoys teaching new recruits the fundamentals of cooking.

“I enjoy getting people excited about food because I think when people join the military, especially the Air Force, they think they’re going to jump out of planes and do things like that, so many of them are shocked when they get assigned the job of cooking,” says Chef Davis, explaining that this military branch is different from others in that airmen are assigned jobs — they don’t choose them — and they rotate frequently.

At Fort Gregg-Adams there are two main kitchens, including a demo lab for basic culinary instruction that lasts about a week.

“Then we take the training wheels off and have everyone take a menu and feed about 60 people at a time and then switch them to a bigger kitchen,” says Chef Davis, noting that her team teaches about 900 airmen per year and can have between 60 and 80 students in a class.

“By the time they leave their duty station, they will know how to do batch cooking and mass cooking, and they will also spend time in our field kitchens.” Within six months students might have their first deployment, so they’re trained not just on cooking but also on airplane mechanics and other duties.

The Air Force does send airmen to compete at the Joint Culinary Training Exercise at Fort Gregg-Adams, says Chef Davis, but she’s always looking for more participation. “I feel like there is a lot of hidden talent in our kitchens so

TO WORK IN THE FIELD. ”

- ACF Chef Jazmen Davis, CWPC, technical sergeant, U.S. Air Force we’re trying to identify those [airmen] and give them opportunities to compete. There are also opportunities for airmen to work in the field.”

“For my first duty station I was stationed in Las Vegas and we had a partnership with the casinos so I was able to work as an intern at the bakery at Caesar’s Palace,” she says. “By the end of the internship I was baking cakes for celebrities like Mike Tyson, Wayne Brady and Celine Dion. Those experiences and certifications are definitely a stepping stone for transitioning to civilian life after serving in the military so we’ve been working hard getting the word out about the ACF and the certifications offered.”

Left: spectators watch military chefs compete at the Joint Culinary Training Exercise held in March at Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia; Right: a chef from Germany’s team competes in the international portion of the JCTE.

ACF member Edward Manley, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and culinary/foodservice management trainer, says the partnership between ACF and the military is critical. “It’s so important to connect with our military members, especially the younger ones, and encourage them to get involved in ACF. There are wonderful jobs in foodservice as a member of the U.S. military, but not everyone knows that. From some of the research I’ve done, those who earn certifications are three times more likely to get promoted to [higher ranks like] E7, E8 and E9.”

Chef Marcelli shares the same goals as a member of the ACF Military Task Force. “I hope to dispel myths about the ACF among new military cooks that it’s not some secret club that you can only be a part of if you are a senior rank,” he says. “The ACF has done so much for the military and military chefs that I think it’s important to share best practices and continue to help each other.”

THE ACF MILITARY TASK FORCE

Jeffrey E. Phillips, CC - Chair

Guy Winks, CEC - Vice Chair

David A. Marcelli, CEC, CCE, AAC - Western Task Force Member

Jazmen Y. Davis, CWPC - USAF Member

Michael R. Edwards, CEC, PCEC, CCA - USN Member

Edward E. Fuchs, CEC, CCE - USGG Member

Eric Johnson - USN member

Dominic Difatta - Advisor

David Ivey-Soto, CEC, MBA - Civilian Advisor

René J. Marquis, CEC, CCE, CCA, AAC - Board Liaison

THE JOINT CULINARY TRAINING EXERCISE (JCTE) IS ONE OF THE BEST EVENTS OF YEAR. NOT ONLY IS A GREAT ACF COMPETITION, BUT ALSO IT IS A GREAT MILITARY EXERCISE. THERE ARE MORE ACF MEDALS EARNED AT THIS ONE EVENT THAN ANY OTHER SINGLE EVENT. THERE ARE REPRESENTATIVES FROM EACH OF THE U.S. MILITARY BRANCHES. THIS SHOWS HOW CULINARY TRAINING FOR EXCELLENCE RETAINS SERVICE MEMBERS AND ADD TO THEIR READINESS IN THE FIELD. ”

- ACF Chef David Ivey-Soto CEC, MBA ACF Military Task Force civilian advisor

The 48th Annual Joint Training Exercise

Culinarians from all branches of the U.S. military and three international teams met head to head compete for top honors at the 48th Joint Culinary Training Exercise, held March 1-8, at the McLaughlin Fitness Center, at Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia. The JCTE, sanctioned by the ACF, is the largest military culinary event in North America and has grown from its earlier days when it included only members of the U.S. army and featured only cold foods. This year, the JCTE attracted 168 competitors.

“We also had anywhere from 100 to 200 attendees from the public on any given day,” says ACF Chef/Chief Karlatta Brown, a 22-year veteran foodservice manager for the U.S. Army who currently oversees special programs at the Fort Gregg-Adams’ Joint Culinary Center of Excellence, including the annual JCTE as well as ongoing advanced culinary arts and enlisted aid courses for members of the military. Chief Brown also manages the U.S. Culinary Arts Team (USACAT), which had recently returned from the IKA Culinary Olympics in Stuttgart, Germany, bringing home a bronze medal.

Known for its rigorous judging criteria, the JCTE encourages professional development and tests competitors on presentation, taste and texture, nutrition, workmanship, concept development and creativity as well as on military-specific aspects of foodservice such as the ability to cook in the field. Chefs are tasked with cooking meals using Modern Burner Units (MBUs) that are so hot they can bend medal and so loud you might hear chefs working on them shouting to communicate.

During the hot food kitchen challenge portion of the JCTE, teams prepare and serve chef-driven meals in a simulated military kitchen trailer for 50 guests. The main competition categories include a cold food display with bread and hot food category requiring a five-course tasting for 150 people (tickets are open to the public for sampling).

The JCTE wasn’t always available for participation among all members of the military as it is now. In 2008, the Army Chef of the Year competition was changed to the Armed Forces Chef of the Year. At that time, chefs from all branches of service became eligible to compete for highly coveted awards. In 2009, The Army Center of Excellence officially became the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence, further integrating chefs and culinarians from each branch. It was in 2013 that the Center’s main event name changed to JCTE. Today, the Center offers both entry-level training opportunities — individually tailored for each of the military branches — as well as an advanced culinary training program for all branches combined.

The installations competing this year included Ft. Bliss, Ft. Carson, Ft. Drum, Ft. Liberty, Ft. Stewart from the U.S. Army as well as 8th Army Korea, U.S. Army Reserve, U.S. Air Force; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy. International teams from France, Germany and the United Kingdom competed against

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS FROM THE 48TH JCTE!

Armed Forces Master Chef of the Year (CS3 John Toman)

Armed Forces Pastry Chef of the Year (CW2 Christine Stanley)

Armed Forces Enlisted Aide of the Year (TSGT Luis Serrano-Matos) each other. In addition to earning team medals, participants compete for recognition as military Chef of the Year, Pastry Chef of the Year, Enlisted Aid Chef of the Year, Student Chef of the Year and Student Team Champions, similar to the ACF national competitions.

Armed Forces Student Chef of the Year (CS3 Larry Burns)

Armed Forces Student Pastry Chef of the Year (SPC Alicia Lindo)

Armed Forces Student Team of the Year (SPC Joanne Del Mundo, PFC Jia Lin, PFC Antwarn Smith, PFC Karl Benjamin, PFC Anaya Bhatti)

This year’s panel of ACF judges included ACF National President René Marquis, CEC, CCE, CCA, AAC , along with ACF Chefs David Turcotte, CEC, AAC , U.S. Army (lead judge and a former Armed Forces Chef of the Year award winner); Sgt. Major Mark Warren, CEC, AAC , JCTE/U.S. Army, Lawrence Matson, CEC, CCE, AAC , culinary arts chair, Tyler Junior College; Stafford DeCambra, CEC, CCE, CCA, AAC (former ACF president); Keith Keogh, CEC , Olive Isle Farm; Derek Spendlove, CEPC, CCE, AAC , Lyndon Learning; Louis Chatham, retired, CEC, AAC; Louis Perrotte, CEC, AAC, HOF, retired; Douglas Fisher, CEC, CCE, AAC , former culinary educator; and Helmut Holzer, CMC , Global Culinary Solutions.

Outside of the annual exercise, the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence runs 10 eight-week advanced culinary arts courses all year long, and the Center offers a program for enlisted aides. Students can receive ACF certification or hours toward their certification upon completion. Graduates are “able to bring what they’ve learned back to their installations to make their dining facilities better and stay on top of changes in the foodservice industry,” says Chief Brown. “This is how we continue the legacy of military chefs.”

WHETHER THEY'RE WEARING ONE STRIPE OR FOUR STARS. ”

- ACF Chef Guy Winks, CEC, PCII Joint Culinary Center of Excellence instructor