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Hickam's top chef brings home gold from national joint culinary competition

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Aaron Oelrich
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  The Military Culinary Arts Competitive Training Event in Fort Lee, Virginia., tested the culinary skills of individuals and teams from the five U.S. service branches and teams from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, March 7-12.

Staff Sgt. Sheryl Stewart, 647th Force Support Squadron, was a key member of the joint team from Hawaii. The team comprised of nine Soldiers, Sailors and Marines from military installations around the island of Oahu, brought home the title of Installation of the Year.

"The experiences, knowledge and training I gained during this competition is invaluable," said Stewart. "It opened my eyes to new ways of preparing food."

In addition to wining the Installation of the Year award, Team Hawaii boasted wins in Armed Forces Junior Chef of the Year, Student Team Skills Competition, Nutritional Hot Food Challenge, Best Exhibit in Show (Cat B, Cold Appetizers), Best Exhibit in Show (Cat. C, Patisserie/Confectionery), Judges Special Award (Cold Food Table), and Stewart, along with three other team members, won the Gold in the Field Cooking Competition.

According to Stewart, hard work before the competition was the key to success. Assembled in October, the team practiced together every week leading up to the training event. Working long hours perfecting the cuisine and fine-tuning their services timing, each dish had to be presented in order and everyone had to know each other's movements to present the dishes correctly.

The team brought more than their hard work and dedication to winning.

"Every dish we served during the competition had a Hawaiian theme to it," said Stewart. "We even brought some local Hawaiian seasonings with us."

The competition included 281 military chefs preparing 588 entries, earning 62 gold, 179 silver and 191 bronze medals. The entries were judged on presentation, food safety, kitchen cleanliness, food flavor, and color by an international group of 12 chefs from the American Culinary Federation.

"This year's event had increased participation over last year. We had accomplished civilian and military demonstration chefs that impacted the civilians that come out to see the event," said Chief Warrant Officer Charles W. Talley Jr, officer-in-charge of the competition.

According to Talley, the Military Culinary Arts Competitive Training Event can have long lasting benefits for the command and participants.

"This was a great training event that benefits every command that participated, and every command obtained a positive return on their investment from their team, the return on their investment being the improved quality and efficacy from the chefs that participated in the training event," said Talley.