Text 14518, 96 rader
Skriven 2007-04-23 18:04:44 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: Re: HAWG TIED  70422
============================
*** Quoting Glen Jamieson from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> That it is!  Navy cooks do quite well getting jobs as chef's after a
 CS> few years and I don't mean as short order cooks either. They tend to

GJ> I would expect that by now many restaurant owners would be aware of
GJ> this sort of expertise among chefs, and would choose to employ ex-Navy
GJ> people.  In fact, if there was a way of passing on the info that the
GJ> chef was ex-Navy, it could attract any ex-Navy customers.

Definately.  Works just that way too <g>.  Much of the training that we get for
them, is true 5star school stuff.  Like what our friend is getting into but
with a more compressed schedule for a single venue area.  Candy making I might
add isnt one of them, but pastry and general baking definately is.

We've sent 3 the past month, have 4 more due out, and i am asking for money for
6 more next year.  Cost appx 19,000$ each but that includes travels and
room-n-board for the duration so it's not a year with 2 semesters of culinary
school. (Lynn right? I'm in catchup and saw notes but was rapid reading
through early March ones not yet read).  Before any get too excited, thats out
of some 60 CS rate (Culinary Specialist, used to be called MS rate).

I got a funny from one who just came back from a soup/stew school.  The school
wasnt usedto teaching how to make a batch that feeds more than 100 customers.
Apparently the math was a little bit of the problem?  (The students dint have
the concept of how to translate TB to how many cups when multiplying to feed
3,000 which obviously our cooks can do in a snap long before we actually send
them to a fine culinary school).

 CS> Last time in Korea, we had a 100man (well, some were women but you get
 CS> the picture) working party strung in one line all the way from the pier
 CS> truck tot he hanger bay.  The marines took one look and made a second
 CS> line while waiting for their busses to arrive and we onloaded really
 CS> fast.  They made a little contest to see who could empty a truck first
 CS> <grin, Navy won but not by much!>. The winning boiled down to them
 CS> having 2 Gunny Sargents in the truck unloading and us having one Chief
 CS> (Cook rate, used to that job for years).  The Chief was faster than the
 CS> 2 Gunny's (snicker). 

GJ> I love that idea of competitive cooperation.  Makes for a happy ship!

It actually does!  Our 'fun' is more simple than you might think.  We call it a
working 'party' for good reason.  I remember once a bosun lining up his 7
smallest deck seamen, naming them all the 7 dwarfs, and starting the 'ho he
ho' song.  We all cracked up, especially when one of them started sneezing.

GJ> I immediately wonder, did anyone manage to bring a durian or two on
GJ> board?   I'm sure some of the sailors would have experienced them.

Shudder!  Only in the CPO mess and they got yelled at til the CS chief hid it
deep away <g>.

 CS> I distinctly recall once loading up a pallet of kiwi fruit to a cargo
 CS> net and mystified seeing only a russain ship out there.  Now I aint
 CS> saying nothjing but gosh fresh perogies are good arent they!  So is
 CS> smoked salmon though we seemed to run out of our usual formed turky
 CS> loaf and am told mysterously one of the whole frozen hogs went
 CS> astray...  Thats ok.  I was happy to have smoked salmon!

GJ> Wonderful!  That is what "Joint Operations" is all about.

That it is!  I also recall once (other ship, back in the late 1990's, possibly
posted about here at the time) who were low on food and not due back any time
soon.  We loaded up the entire 'surf-n-turf' meal from the CPO mess and sent
it over.  You could see these sailors going, oh gee, more to stow away, then
seeing what it *was* and getting all happy-feets.  It was enough for their
size crew for 2 meals for everyone. See, we had this one leftover pilot who
needed to do a helo 'touch and go vertical drop' for his quals and we just
made a small mistake in the load that was supposed to be sand-bags and
anyways, we were low on sand-bags so... Heck, you can understand right?  The
Navy was quite understanding when the SUPPO explained that one of his Chiefs
had made a small error in 500 T-bones and 500 lobsters and since it was our
error, we were not asking for anything back but would absorb the loss <grin>. 
They covered up the 40lbs of mushrooms that somehow fell over the side on the
same day and the 40 lbs of butter that fell with it but we had to help the CS
Chief pay for the 4lbs of old bay seasoning (I chipped in 50cents).  His
accounting was not always accurate...

 CS> media onboard contingent though.  Navy rate for that is 'MC' and we
 CS> have an MCC, 2 MC1's, and a little tribe of about 6 others.  They also
 CS> operate 2 local (local to the ship) movie channels that run 24/7
 CS> underway. 

GJ> If they did a feature on the mess side of life on-board, that would
GJ> make a good recruitment video.

Grin, to us here yes, but to the normal folks out in the world, its more
exciting to see the extravagant things.  Not our normal day to day stuff.
Besides, it's hard to make a movie of a Bosun lining up all his seamen,
picking out the 7 shortest, then putting them in line and starting a 'ho heave
ho' song as you unload food. Just aint happenin'.

                                       xxcarol

--- Telegard v3.09.g2-sp4
 * Origin: SHENK'S EXPRESS, Sasebo Japan 81-6160-527330 (6:757/1)