thedrifter
02-13-08, 05:38 AM
Marines take on culinary mission
Corps sends cooks to respected N.Y. school to hone skills
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - 12:06 AM
By MICHAEL HILL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HYDE PARK, N.Y. The Marines were at their stations by 0900 hours, knives in hand, ready for a tough new mission. Before the morning was out, they would slice, braise and deglaze like never before.
Their commands came from Phillip Crispo, a chef instructor who had five weeks to test the mettle of these 11 Marines in the heat of the training kitchens of the Culinary Institute of America.
It was an odd picture -- leathernecks taking orders from a chef. But the reasoning is sound.
The Marine Corps wants better cooks. So for more than a year, it has sent select Marine cooks to immersion courses at this lauded culinary school on a scenic Hudson River promontory north of New York City.
With their chef's whites and paper toques, the Marines mostly blend with the other students.
These Marines already cook for a living. The 10 men and one woman have collectively overseen thousands of meals for troops from Virginia to Iraq.
But they never have been tested quite like this.
"The 16 years that I've done it, I thought I knew how to cook, until I got to this school," Gunnery Sgt. Reynaldo Miranda said while hustling to make beef medallions and rice.
Miranda, 34, is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He inspects and instructs at Marine mess halls in the East.
Truly wretched military meals are a thing of the past -- think of long-ago sailors subsisting on salt beef or the scatological nickname soldiers gave for chipped beef on toast.
American troops in the field now eat MREs, or meals ready to eat, that include such entrees as pork ribs and spicy penne pasta. O'Connell compares modern Marine mess hall food to the stick-to-your-ribs fare at family restaurants. The Pentagon Channel television station even airs a cooking show for the troops called "The Grill Sergeants."
Master Gunnery Sgt. Byron Johnson of the Marines' food-service program in Virginia said the goal of the training is to provide better food for Marines. He has noticed graduates of the chef course are "more fine-tuned to the flavor, the eye appeal, the garnish."
Ellie
Corps sends cooks to respected N.Y. school to hone skills
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008 - 12:06 AM
By MICHAEL HILL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HYDE PARK, N.Y. The Marines were at their stations by 0900 hours, knives in hand, ready for a tough new mission. Before the morning was out, they would slice, braise and deglaze like never before.
Their commands came from Phillip Crispo, a chef instructor who had five weeks to test the mettle of these 11 Marines in the heat of the training kitchens of the Culinary Institute of America.
It was an odd picture -- leathernecks taking orders from a chef. But the reasoning is sound.
The Marine Corps wants better cooks. So for more than a year, it has sent select Marine cooks to immersion courses at this lauded culinary school on a scenic Hudson River promontory north of New York City.
With their chef's whites and paper toques, the Marines mostly blend with the other students.
These Marines already cook for a living. The 10 men and one woman have collectively overseen thousands of meals for troops from Virginia to Iraq.
But they never have been tested quite like this.
"The 16 years that I've done it, I thought I knew how to cook, until I got to this school," Gunnery Sgt. Reynaldo Miranda said while hustling to make beef medallions and rice.
Miranda, 34, is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He inspects and instructs at Marine mess halls in the East.
Truly wretched military meals are a thing of the past -- think of long-ago sailors subsisting on salt beef or the scatological nickname soldiers gave for chipped beef on toast.
American troops in the field now eat MREs, or meals ready to eat, that include such entrees as pork ribs and spicy penne pasta. O'Connell compares modern Marine mess hall food to the stick-to-your-ribs fare at family restaurants. The Pentagon Channel television station even airs a cooking show for the troops called "The Grill Sergeants."
Master Gunnery Sgt. Byron Johnson of the Marines' food-service program in Virginia said the goal of the training is to provide better food for Marines. He has noticed graduates of the chef course are "more fine-tuned to the flavor, the eye appeal, the garnish."
Ellie