 |
| Stephanie L. Jordan/Caller-Times |
| Petty Officer
third class Kathryn Ross polishes up in preparation for the ships' homecoming.
Aboard ship, lobsters for everyone added up to about 8,000 pounds of the crustaceans,
purchased in Spain for about $25,000. |
ONBOARD THE USS INCHON - Although Seaman Percell Tabron admits to preferring chocolate
chip cookies, his taste test of the plain chocolate batter from the 80-gallon
drum seemed OK.
Three decks above him, Petty Officer 2nd Class John DiLorenzo makes
short work of chopping up 55 pounds of partially frozen Swiss steak for the beef
stroganoff that will be served for dinner.
The two men are part of the much-maligned group of more than 40 people
who cook, serve, transport and clean up the food for the 1,200 sailors on the
USS Inchon who sailed to the Adriatic Sea and back.
"I don't like it when people say they don't like the food altogether,
at all," said Seaman Latravisius King.
It may come as a surprise to them, but most of the sailors on the
ship think they're a hard working bunch.
Take, for instance, Monday night.
The day was a field day, when the ship is scoured from top to bottom.
For dinner: steak and lobster for every captain, chief and lower level Louie onboard.
There were 8,000 pounds of them, pink and about three pounds apiece, purchased
in Spain for $25,000, all steamed and hot for dinner.
"That was a premier meal after spending a long day on the ship,"
said Lt. Scott Stuart, the ship's medical officer. "I think they should feel appreciated
because they do lots of little things that make the sailor feel good. They did
this stir-fry thing where you could pick what you wanted and they called your
number. Everyone got their own personalized meal."
That's no easy feat when serving 1,200 simultaneously. And after
the cooking is done, they have to sort through the garbage, removing plastics,
and disposing the rest at sea.
"We go through everything including the little packet that ketchup
comes out of," said Petty Officer 1st Class John Lara. "The garbage is dirty and
smells. Trash detail isn't any fun. But what we do is important to this ship."
The preparations of the four meals daily, which average about $6.10
total per day to provide for each sailor, begin a day ahead of time, said Warrant
Officer Roy Deguzman, food service officer for the Inchon.
Greener grass, hotter food
Six sailors trek the food for the next day from freezers and dry
storage areas to the three eating areas. Food from foreign nations is not allowed
back in the United States because it is not USDA approved, Deguzman said.
Chief petty officers, enlisted sailors and officers each eat in separate
areas. Some sailors believe the officers' food tastes better, while some officers
claim the enlisted sailors' food is served hotter.
But the visible difference is in the tools. Enlisted sailors eat
on trays that are sectioned off, chiefs eat on white dishes and officers eat on
white dishes with small blue anchors on the lip.
Never-ending day
A day begins at 5 a.m. and already the kitchen is hot, DiLorenzo
said. He first starts the ovens and grills and begins breakfast, which is served
at 6 a.m.
"I like cooking in the wardroom (where the officers eat), because
there's not as much to make," he said, as Petty Officer 2nd Class David Spencer
cooked 30 pounds of ground beef behind him.
"This will eventually be sloppy joes," Spencer said, scraping the
frozen meat apart with a 3-foot long spatula. "It takes us about two hours to
prepare a meal."
Every enlisted sailor in the lower three ranks has to do at least
90 days worth of mess duty. For some, it's a sentence of sorts.
"I like it in here," said Radioman Seaman Apprentice Mikayla Peter,
"but I try not to count the days so they will go faster."
Captive food critics
At breakfast, sailors can choose their eggs - scrambled, fried or
omelets - plus a choice of meats, pancakes and different kinds of toast.
As breakfast is ending, lunch begins. While the lunch dishes are
going through the dishwasher, dinner already has been started. The innovative
can try their own recipes out on the sailors, Lara said.
"We've had people from Louisiana who have used a Creole recipe,"
Lara said. "But fried foods, lasagna, spaghetti and slider days, where we serve
double meat cheeseburgers with bacon, are still favorites."
And the cooks are not without humor.
"When I was on the USS Independence, we served rabbit on Easter,"
Lara said.
"It's just that sometimes this isn't a really rewarding job," he
said. "Every now and then we get people tell us we do a nice job, but it's difficult
when you're cooking to please everyone in the middle of the ocean."
