Streamline Training & Documentation: Training to be a US Army Food Service Specialist

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Training to be a US Army Food Service Specialist

Among the aspects of the military that many people are unfamiliar with is the effort put into training food service specialists.

As an example of what the US Army does to build culinary skills within its ranks, one can look at the training provided by the Quartermaster Center and School (QMC&S) at Fort Lee in Virginia.

The QMC&S US Army Culinary Arts Program has three components:

The Culinary Skills Training Division, which provides students at all skill levels with the hands-on portion of their instruction

An annual Culinary Arts Competition held at Fort Lee

The US Army Culinary Arts Team

The Army states the following as its aims for the Culinary Arts Program:

To promote growth in the culinary profession with special attention to the tenets of modern culinary development — ability, practicality, nutrition, workmanship, economy, presentation, creativity, and concept.

To continually raise the standards of culinary excellence and professionalism in Army food service training to the soldier.

To provide recognition for excellence in culinary skills.

To provide an incentive for competitive programs of MACOMs [Major Army Commands] in food service. Recognition is in the form of certificates, medallions, engraved plaques, and trophies.

The four-part video below (dealing with how to prepare and use aspic) illustrates both the degree of skill the most expert Army chefs are expected to achieve and the quality of training videos the QMC&S can produce.

If you'd like to see more of what the US military's culinary specialists are doing, you can browse an archive of news and training videos at the militarychefs.com website. A collection of training materials for US Navy Culinary Specialists is at the navystorekeeper.com website.

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Labels: Cooking and food, Military training

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