Food Service Company competes for best in the Corps

News: Food Service Company competes for best in the Corps

2nd Marine Logistics Group

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Story by Lance Cpl. Paul Peterson Subscribe To This Journalist

Lance Cpl. Paul Peterson

Sgt. Christopher Womack, the chief cook at Food Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27’s field site, checks the consistency of rice his cooks prepared aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., Oct. 23, 2012. The unit used the site for their bid in the W.P.T. Hill award competition for best field food service in the Marine Corps.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Their breath hung in the air and mingled with the steam from the water heating in their field kitchen.

The cramped galley buzzed with activity as the Marines with Food Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group prepared their last meal at Camp Freedom here early in the morning of Oct. 23.

The day’s menu was chicken a la king and shrimp creole. The stakes – best field mess in the Marine Corps.

“We get to see the state of readiness we are in,” said Art Myers, a representative of the National Restaurant Association and one of the judges for the W.P.T. Hill award. “Food service is probably one of our most important areas, but it is not often recognized, especially when we go out to the field.”

The Marines of Food Service Co. won the competition for the East Coast earlier in the year and advanced to compete against the Marine Corps’ best field food service units from the West Coast and overseas. The judges assessed the company on operations, sanitation, taste and quality of food.

The field conditions deprived the cooks of the resources found even in a standard household kitchen. Every spice and every item of food was limited to what they had at the field facility.

“It is not like I can go to my storage room and grab whatever I want,” said Sgt. Christopher Womack, the chief cook at Camp Freedom. “You have to be flexible. Everybody has to know their jobs. If they don’t know something, someone has to be able to teach it.”

The conditions forced the team of cooks to get creative in the kitchen’s tight quarters, where temperatures can soar from the ovens. The crew even sliced fruits and vegetables into decorative garnishes.

“I was in field operations during Vietnam, and this is the difference between night and day,” said Myers. “I have just watched them prepare the meal here, and they put a lot of work into it. It is a balanced meal and will give the [Marines] the nutrition they need to be fit to fight and win.”

Myers recently observed another Marine dining facility and said he was impressed with how the Marines watched what they ate and portioned the items on their plates.

The staff laid out a spread of apple crisp, cake and corn bread to compliment their main dishes and salad bar. Approximately 170 Marines worked their way through the dinning facility at lunch, where hot coffee and ice-cold juice waited for them.

The feast took several hours of preparation under the dim florescent lighting of the camp’s tents, where safety and sanitation were a significant challenge.

“We’re going back to the drawing board,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brent Patterson, the company’s executive officer. “We are selling this to the Marine Corps and saying, ‘This is something that is going to be imperative in the future now that we are going through a significant shift in our direction.’”

Patterson said the Marine Corps’ new focus is to return to its amphibious and expeditionary roots, which requires a well-trained, flexible crew of food-service providers who are ready to handle field environments.

The unit already proved it was ahead of the curve when it won the initial leg of the competition on the East Coast. Patterson credited his senior enlisted leadership and a strong training regimen with the success.

The results of the competition will come out in approximately two weeks, but Patterson said win or lose, he has been humbled by the performance of his Marines.