Breaking the mold: using the revolution in training initiatives and instructors from a Chicago-area college culinary specialists work to change the way Navy cooks are made

All Hands, March, 2004 by Charles L. Ludwig

It's an early-December Saturday, and instead of preparing for a day loaded with the excitement of televised college sports, Seaman Recruit Marvin Sanders finds himself in a classroom in front of a grey bearded instructor clicking through yet another power point presentation. Chef Mike Artlip, an instructor at Kendall College, Evanston, Ill., may be talking up the finer points of proper sanitation, but only one thought manages to resonate through Sanders' mind.

Graduation.

"I know that the course here is good for my development as a chef," Sanders said, "but it's time for us to get out of here. No more bus trips and college days."

Wait a minute, college? Bus trips? If this doesn't sound like one of your father's mess cooks, that's because it isn't. In contrast to the traditional view many people have of mess cooks, Sanders and his 12 classmates in Culinary Specialist (CS) 'A' school are proving it takes a lot of education, to become finely-polished Navy cooks.

While many new Sailors spend their 'A' school Saturdays enjoying their first slice of freedom since boot camp, Sanders and his classmates are on a slightly different schedule. After spending two weeks in a Navy classroom learning the basic foundation of bulk cooking, the class moved on to the second phase of their studies--a two-week course at Kendall College.

That's not exactly what everyone was banking on after wrapping up basic training a few weeks before. "That was the toughest part for some people," said SR Latisha Sewell. "A lot of people dream about weekends when they are in boot camp, but here we are waking up to get ready for a 6 a.m. bus trip.

Saturday school and the rest of the Kendall College Navy course were the result of a Task Force Excel (TFE)-driven partnership between the culinary specialist community and the culinary arts college.

Result of a Task Force Excel (TFE)-driven partnership between the culinary specialist community and the culinary arts college. In this case, the Navy saves money as training is available in the Great Lakes area, instead of the usual culinary specialist school at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio.

Under TFE, Sailors are afforded the opportunity to obtain the equivalent of what their civilian counterparts receive.

The Navy has employed TFE in several ratings, with CS 'A' school being one of the program's success stories.

"It has been something that has helped us immensely," said CSC(SS) Kevin Earle.

Earle, assigned to Fleet Training Center Norfolk, was sent to Great Lakes on temporary orders to help oversee the program. "It's a chance for some of our Sailors to get a different experience than what they would normally receive, and a chance for us to see how we can improve our teaching methods at the CS school. We've already seen the improvements."

It may sound like a straightforward, undemanding proposition, but for the Kendall College Navy class, it was anything but.

During the two-week Kendall College sabbatical, the students were faced with a 45-minute morning bus ride to the college for a nine-hour day filled with classroom instruction and hands-on galley and bake shop sessions. During their hands-on classes, the students cooked meals and made desserts for the college's 600-plus member student body.

For a group that didn't have the chance to even touch food in the Navy part of instruction, that can be an intimidating experience. "That makes me very nervous. We had stuff we fixed being served in the cafeteria right in front of us," said SR Brandon Goodrich. "It would say on the menu that the Navy cooked all of the desserts or the food. If the stuff we prepared didn't taste good, we would get a reputation for not doing too well in our class. It was a coordinator for the Navy program, fed them a steady diet of classroom instruction, including lessons on bulk cooking, sanitation and critical tasting.

According to Artlip, the program's curriculum resulted from combining the Navy's existing lesson plans with the college's sometimes more progressive syllabus. "When they decided to work through us, we took a good look at what (the Navy) was doing and asked for the right to change a few things," said Artlip, a chef with 31 years of experience. "After that, the Navy gave us a few requests, like wanting the students to spend so many hours a day in the galley preparing meals. We did what we could to meet those requests, and what came out was what we have now--a four-week program split between the base and here."

The outcome of the joint project was a class that would be split daily between working in the galley and bakeshop, with the two groups swapping out after one week. While in their respective assigned locations, the students worked directly off of official Navy recipe cards, breaking a long-held misconception, according to galley instructor Chef Peggy Ryan.

"I was very surprised by the quality of the Navy recipes we were told to use in the classes," she said. "I had always thought that Navy recipes would be a little sub par by my standards, like most bulk cooking recipes are. Whoever makes the Navy's recipes knows what they are doing"