Cooking up the very best

Soldiers Magazine, Dec, 2004 by Jason Cutshaw

THE U.S. Army Culinary Arts Competition starts March 5 at Fort Lee, Va. As in past competitions in the 30-year history of the event, the Army's top chefs will compete in such categories as the senior and junior chef of the year. A field-cooking competition, ice carving and a culinary knowledge bowl will round out the competition.

The 2004 competition, sponsored by the Army Center of Excellence, Subsistence, hosted 11 teams.

The competitors represent various levels of experience, and the competition is a learning process, said Roland Schaeffer, last year's lead judge. "In competitions like this you see those who have competed numerous times, as well as people who have never competed."

Schaeffer, who has judged the competitions at Fort Lee for 15 years, began his culinary career at 14 by working at his father's restaurant in Germany.

"Even those who have competed many times can still fine-tune their cooking through the critiques we give them," Schaeffer said. "The ones who have never competed can look at the seasoned competitors and learn from them. No matter how many times they've been here, there's always room for improvement."

SPC Jason Cutshaw works at the Fort Lee Public Affairs Office.