Fourth Military Culinary Competition
September 29, 2007
Hosted at and by Barracks Row Main Street, Washington, DC
See CNN Clip(wait for ad to run)
Hearty congratulations to the First Place Team from the Commandant's Office and Combat Development Center.
GySgt William Allison
GySgt Andrew Atkinson
GySgt Dennis O'Leary
SSgt S. A. Reed

They won:
Two weeks training program at Disneyland (2) or Disney World (2)
An $1100 course at the Culinary Institute of America
A $2500 course at Dale Carneghie
A chef jacket from New Chef Fashion

Congratulations to 2nd place winners, Navy and Army from the University of Missouri Reserve/Guard unit.
Ensign Leslie Jett
2nd Lt Colt Baxter
Midshipman Mic Smith
Sgt Wade Ramirez
They took home a check for $1000 each thanks to contributions by ($1000 each) Kelloggs, Rich Products, McCrae Marketing, ($500 each) Insinger and the Military Evaluators Alumni Association.

Congratulations to 3rd place winners, from the Army Chief of Staff, Joint Chiefs, Secretary of the Army, and Army Jet Detachment.
SFC Kathleen Willis, U. S. Army
SFC Charles Johnson, U. S. Army
SSgt Joshua Pollardy, U. S. Air Force
SFC Michelle Carville, U. S. Army
They received a check for $500 each thanks to the ($2000) generosity of Rose Packing Co.

BIG HUGE THANK YOU TO:
Rational (the world's best ovens) for $5,000 plus 5 ovens used in the competition, training and organization help from President Chris Kohler, Marketing Vinod Jotwani and Corporate Chef Steve Snitkin.

Competition Chairman CMSgt Steve Ray, who jumped in with a few months to go and worked tirelessly to get it all done.

Competition Host MSgt Jesse Camacho and his staff, especially SSgt Derrick Oliver, but I know everyone had a hand in it. We were homeless until he stepped up.

Marine Barracks 8th and I - the culinary staff, security, public relations, CO, and General and Mrs. Conway, we appreciate all of their terrific support.

Those who helped before and during the event - Cristina Amoroso with Barracks Row, CMSgt William Garner, Chef Wally Davenport, Phuc Pham, Atheena Le, Bob Struckman, Rick Diaz, CS1 Murphy Greene, Kitty Whittington.

To the organizers from day 1 - Chef Wally Davenport who had the first thought of a competition, to Marti Mongiello who put Wally and I together, and Chief Garner. Vince Paris was huge in the first 3, and Kitty Whittington hosted the first two. Oh, and me. The huge success of this event was built on the first 3 competitions.

Hubert Corporation which provided a $100 set of culinary knives for each of the 56 competitors.

Texas Best gave us $500 for the medals and other expenses.

Products and supplies came from - Beltway Restaurant Supply, Calico Industries, DC Rental, Ferrante Brothers, Hearn Kirkwood, New Chef Fashion, Six Points. Surely we had the best food in the boxes ever - HUGE lobster and HUGE pork loins.

Our culinary competition went up a bunch of notches thanks our location and hosts, with CNN and the Pentagon channel being on site all day. Reporter Barbara Star pushed the CNN buttons, according to the producer. We were also on CNN Headline News, CNN Online, Channel 8 (NBC) in Las Vegas. Notes like this have been flowing in from members and friends.

We saw you on CNN International on Sunday Morning in Brazil. You are GLOBAL now!!! Congratulations on a successful competition and in scoring such great international press coverage for the foodservice industry and the US Military. Doug Adair, former Executive VP, CHRIE.

On CNN.com there are 3-4 feature stories posted at all times, Judy reported that we were one of those and when you clicked on it I was part of the clip saying, "Military chefs are awesome," which was 20% of my aswer to their question, "What would you like the viewers to take away from watching this competition."

We also had the Pentagon Channel with us all day and their programs go worldwide on military bases, we were on a program called something like Accross the Services, which aired twice the Monday after the competition. They spoke to me longer and I expect we were on longer. Plus we had reporters from all the military newspapers (Army Times, Navy Times, etc.) and they were talking to the competitors and taking tons of photos. They have followed up for further information for their articles.

The fact that we created an IFSEA event worthy of all-day CNN presence was key, you couldn't buy that kind of publicity.

Sunday, we are on CNN Headline News regularly all day.

A friend in Las Vegas said it was on Channel 8, the local NBC station.

What I liked the most was seeing people, sometimes 5 deep, crowding around the teams watching them work and asking questions. It was really mind-blowing. We were a key part of an Octoberfest held by Barracks Row Main Street, so there were thousands of people coming by all day - we were accross from the beer tent.

Congratulations to all the teams that competed, they just did a terrific job, and had fun doing it, or so it seemed.

Congrats, all the teams did a great job. This was my first Military Comp--it was different from other ACF comps, but it was alot of fun. The interaction with our sister and brother services was the biggest prize for me. See ya next year.

TSgt Scott, Team #2, 4th place

Congrats! Just imagine if you were competing against real chefs.

What do you think a "real" Chef is???

Someone who can go into a restruant and feed 50 tables full of people. Not someone who specializes in feeding 2000 people in the middle of a field.

I'm not knocking military cooks. I think we kick butt and we are the best at what we do. But are we chefs?? Bah.. how many military guys do you know that can make it as chefs.

Hate to be the one to tell you this but almost everyone of the people in the Culinary Competition, dont cook in the field. And if you saw all the plates, everyone of them would of blown you away. They have been schooled at CIA, and are Chefs. I know all the Marines on the team are dual Certified Chef's, from CIA and the ACF. Here is a link of that you should look at. http://www.ima.lee.army.mil/sites/pao/2007_CulinaryComp_Dailies/about.htm

Why would you be proud of not cooking in the field? That's your job. Not trying to be a Chef. I admit there are alot of people on this site who know alot about food and cooking fine food. I'm just more impresses with the guys who are woking there asses off feeding the troops. THAT is what you are trained to do.

I agree with Reed, the food was awesome. I am a Chef---I interned with a Master Chef from the age of 17 until I turned 21, I have trained at multiple schools. The only thing that really impresses me is when folks who compete at this level (if you were not there--don't comment)-are deploying and cooking in the field. I am not a food service person by military trade, I am an Enlisted Aide who got lucky enough to work with some of the BEST CHEFs in the NATION. To all my cooks, chefs, Enlisted Aides out there--------don't listen to him----I've got love for ya.........

Hey #1MilitaryCook I will be recouping from a shoulder replacement until Jan 1 2008---if you are in the DC area and wanna compete against some of us chefs--let me know--it is all FUN

NANDO

I'm planning on making a video on this competition. I have some good video footage of Reed.. who knows I might have some video of NANDO as well.

What I could use are some photos of the winning plates. It would add a lot to the clip. Please send them to me if you have some
admin@militarychefs.com

Anyways, the teams had two hours to put together a high end two course meal. They could not see the ingredients until the two hours time limit had started. They had very little equipment ---for hot food preparation I only saw one oven and one butane burner---> WTF?

The plates that were produced uder these conditions could only be created by contestants competeing at the level of chef or above.

#1MC You are wrong bro.

NANDO

If I ever go to DC I will let you know. As you already know I don't care much for the fancy stuff but if you want to have a chili, chowder, steak, or creamed beef contest (real military food) I will rock your world! If you only want to cook cocktail shrimp and caviar then I'm out. I watched some videos on this site. Some of it is impressive but it is not for me.

Jimmy Z,

That comp was crazy huh?? The Chefs------WOW, everyone's plates were awesome. We went last so we had the chance to see the flow and the crowd----the crowd was GREAT. The photo folks from Bolling AFB took a ton of pictures for MSgt McKee, i will ask them for elec copies to send you. I think CMSgt Broder tooks some pics also.....I will ask her.

#1MC,

Dude, let the rocking begin---just because I am a chef doesn't mean I am unable to cook real food----I am a father of 3 teenage kids, we live off of grilled cheese and chili or as my oldest calls it taco in a bag (fritos and chili). I have this new chili that one of my Airman (A1C Kelly) made and DAMN it is good---i will pass it on to ya cuz dorm residents know how to cook real chili. Bullshit aside and not to give a hard time----cooks, chefs, whatever the title----we all cook, we all deploy, we are all Military---if ya would like to get together sometime and throw back some Diet Dew and cook some wings and chili then please email me.

vernon.scott@pentagon.af.mil

In closing--take care and keep cooking and hit me up---it is all in fun---cooking makes us better.

Nand