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YOKOSUKA, Japan - Chef Jacques Wilson, an executive chef at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Calif., shared his culinary expertise with Navy Culinary Specialists at the Fleet Activities (FLEACT), Yokosuka Commodore Matthew C. Perry General Mess, July 15 – 19.
The eight sailors who took part in the training are culinary specialists assigned to galleys onboard FLEACT, Yokosuka and Naval Air Facility Atsugi.
Wilson collaborated with the galley staff on the menu for his training.
“We knew we were going to filet fish, we knew we were going to do chicken, but we also wanted to hit the basics of vegetable preparation,” Wilson said.
The training for the week went as follows: Tuesday - vegetable preparation; Wednesday, how to filet a fish; Thursday – de-boning chicken; Friday – preparing an entire meal, building on all of the techniques they learned.
According to General Mess Leading Chief Petty Officer Chief Culinary Specialist Van Vergara, civilian training such as this will be beneficial to Sailors taking the course.
“As a CS on a ship, (cooking) for us is mass production and we just cook,” Vergara said. “A chef comes in and shows us an elegant way, and gives us more advanced techniques in the culinary world.”
Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Chanel Carthen, assigned to the “Far East Café” at NAF Atsugi, was one of the student’s in Wilson’s class and it was her second time learning cooking techniques from a civilian chef.
“Many of the things we’re shown such as the knife cuts and how to use extra ingredients to spice up your dish, how to view the preparation of the food, and how to gauge the completeness of the food, we have to know it for our (promotion) test, but we don’t actually get to do it because we’re always cooking for a lot of people,” Carthen said. “Having the chef come here, we actually get to do it and see it first hand as opposed to just reading about it.”
Wilson said he got involved with training Navy cooks through the “Adopt-A-Ship Program”, a program that places chefs on ships and shore installations to training culinary specialists. Wilson volunteered three weeks ago to come and train the Sailors in Yokosuka. This is the first time he’s ever trained with the military.
“I enjoy teaching, in general, and it’s always good to see what the armed forces are doing,” said Wilson. “What I like about this program is that it helps the creative juices flow.”
Wilson is a certified dietary manager and a member of the Academy of Chefs. He began his cooking career as a high school culinary graduate of Ella T. Grasso Technical School in Groton, Conn. and studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He has won several American Culinary Federation (ACF) medals in competitions nationwide and is the 2011 United Fresh Excellence in Food service Award for Hotels and Healthcare winner.
| Date Taken: | 07.15.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2013 03:52 |
| Story ID: | 112459 |
| Location: | YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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