As some of you know, my husband Jim has been a military pilot for almost 30 years. He is currently in the Army National Guard in NH flying Medevac helicopters. When Jim heard they were having a military food service grilling Iron Chef competition, he knew we should go and I’m so glad we did! It was a beautiful cool NH afternoon filled with lots of great smelling food!
This was a little different than the typical iron chef show that we all know and love. This was made up of individuals from all of the service branches and they were split up into mixed teams, ten teams with 6 – 7 people on each team. This means they are working with team members they didn’t know, crazy right? They not only had to cook but also had to make a team sign with a team name, picture and with all of the team member names on the sign. This was the first thirty minutes of the competition.
Once that was done, the real fun began. The teams all had a large table set up in between the work stations where they had lots of ingredients for them to share. They all had their own grilling station and table for them to work. None of the members knew what they would be cooking, but they could get a sneak peak at the ingredient/spice table they had to share! Each team had one hour to cook a meat, vegetable and starch for a entree meal, along with a dessert.
Just prior to the cooking start time they revealed the ingredients to cook and there were lots of great options for these unsung hero’s that feed our troops each day! They had chicken, steak, zucchini, potatoes, watermelon and pineapple to name just a few things!
It did not take long before the smell of some delicious looking food was in the air. Jim and I were able to speak with all of the chefs as they were cooking and see what they were making. I can say that these chefs have some great creative talent! And what was amazing to watch is these groups that don’t know each other, worked so well together. That speaks volumes about our military service men and women as they are all working for the same goal and to do it well no matter what the circumstance or stress level is.
There were a number of military judges. I don’t know how they did it with so many great smells, watching, and I have no doubt, tasting food! The judges had a number of things that went to the scoring of each team. Much more than the TV Iron Chef! I can say, watching this competition, they all won with their creativity, team work and great effort each team put out into this competition!
CONGRATULATIONS TO EACH TEAM AND MEMBERS
FOR A JOB WELL DONE!
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