Photo By Maj. Elizabeth Ohloff | Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Larry Burns competes at the American Culinary Federation...... read more read more
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PHOENIX (July 16, 2024) Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Larry Burns, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2), won the silver medal in the 2024 American Culinary Federation (ACF) student chef of the year competition in Phoenix, July 16, 2024.
Burns made Navy history being the first Sailor to win second overall in the ACF competition competing against the best student chefs across the nation after only two years in the service. The competition featured four chefs who were all regional winners competing to serve five ACF accredited judges.
From his youth Burns had two career ambitions. Before joining the Navy, he was able to play college football, with professional football being his primary ambition. However, with the advent of the Covid-19 virus, he had to move back home and began to cook and sell food for the local area from his house. While at home he graduated from Georgetown College with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science and joined the U.S. Navy shortly after as a Culinary Specialist, with his second ambition being to become a chef.
Within a year of joining the military, Burns volunteered to compete with the all-Navy Culinary team in the Joint Military Culinary competition in Fort Gregg Adams, Virginia, March 1st through the 10th, 2023, where he received two silver medals individually and his team took home first place in overall performance.
“The Navy has never won this competition,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jeremy Domagalski, Essex Food Service Officer, “but they managed to perform well enough to get the best student team of the year, and represent the Military as the first ever Navy team to ever go to nationals.”
Due to the success of Burns and his team, they were invited to compete in the ACF Student Team of the Year cooking competition in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 17, 2023.
The team did not have time to prepare for the competition especially with half the team needing to fly back and forth across the country in order for them to practice.
“We came up very short with last place in the competition so we didn't get a medal,” said Burns. “Our dessert dish was the downfall of our whole performance. The salt got mixed with sugar so it just destroyed our score.”
Despite his team’s standing, Burns was recognized among his peers, for his skill and his strong desire to learn, and was scouted to represent the U.S. Navy in the U.S. Army Culinary Arts Team (USACAT) to participate in the 2024 Culinary Olympics Catering Competition in Stuttgart, Germany, Feb. 3rd through the 6th, 2024.
The Olympic team was apprehensive when Burns first joined, as there is normally an application process which he seemed to skip over when he was scouted. All of the positions for the team were also already filled so he would not be able to perform with them on the Olympic stage, and would instead help them to prepare for the competition as an apprentice.
“Every good chef has a good sous chef”, said Burns, “so that's basically what I was for all the chefs there, I was a sous chef just helping them out.”
After working with him through all of the Olympics, the USACAT team managed to win the bronze medal. The team began to really appreciate his humility and work ethic, but Burns still wanted to compete.
“I wasn't able to actually cook, so it did not feel right to me,” said Burns. “I wanted the satisfaction of actually doing it. I wanted to compete again at the JCTE.”
Burns was able to secure a spot in the military’s 48th annual Joint Culinary Training Exercise (JCTE) as an individual for Student Chef of the Year competition and took home the gold medal on March 4, 2024, despite only having two weeks to train.
“He went right from Germany to Fort Gregg Adams for the military JCTE competition as an individual with no practice, no funding, literally he had to do everything himself and he still ended up not only killing it, but he got the gold medal and was the number one cook in the entire Armed Forces”, said Domagalski.
Following his performance in the JCTE he was eligible to compete again at the ACF Convention as an individual, and so he began to train and prepare to go against the top four regional student chefs of the nation.
“Preparing for nationals was hard because I didn't have a coach,” said Burns. “I felt like they thought that I knew everything that I wanted to do, but I still needed that help, I still wanted to learn. I was still wanting to get different tips and tricks on what can be better. I am always a student.”
Burns reached out to many highly decorated chefs that he knew for advice, and tried diligently to take notes, and piece together what he would do with his dish for the ACF convention.
“Once I finally put the plate together, it was no longer my food. It was everyone else's ideas on a plate,” said Burns. “It was no longer my personal ideas of what I want to see on this plate.”
“When you’re a chef, you are putting yourself on a plate,” said Burns. “You put in your flavors, your twists, and spin on whatever it is you’re making. It still takes my skill to put it together, but when I was making this food, I was putting in all the flavors of the other chefs.”
One week before the competition day, Burns decided to combine his personalization of the dish with the ideas and advice that he had received from his mentors to make the dish his own, and on July 16, 2024, he was able to become a silver medal finalist amongst the four competitors.
With all of the success that he earned in his performance, Burns is now recognized with high regard for his accomplishments and quick rise to prominence across both the military and civilian culinary masters.
With the six competitions that he participated in, Burns was able to develop his skills to the top standards of performance, and stands as a shining example of a Sailor who was able to use the resources that the Navy provides, to hone his craft and gain the opportunity to excel in his abilities.
In 2026, Essex is planning to send Burns to compete in the Culinary World Cup, which will be another international competition, and will allow Burns to gain recognition on the international stage.
Essex is dry docked in San Diego conducting a maintenance period to upgrade and refurbish many key systems aboard.
For more news from USS Essex, follow us on Facebook, and Instagram at https://www.facebook.com/USSESSEX, https://www.instagram.com/ussessex_lhd2/
https://mobile.twitter.com/USSEssex_LHD2 or visit https://www.surfpac.navy.mil/lhd2, For more articles on Burns and his journey, you can see these previous stories on DVIDS: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/467602/essex-sailor-performs-culinary-olympics, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/451877/essex-culinary-specialist-headed-olympics
| Date Taken: | 08.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.10.2024 17:56 |
| Story ID: | 480540 |
| Location: | PHOENIX, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Essex Sailor Makes Culinary History, by PO2 Richard Anglin, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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