FORT RILEY, Kan. - Teams, by nature, must stay together to be effective. Team members train together to learn their skills; they perform together to complement each member's strengths, and they share both victory and defeat.
With this in mind, the 1st Infantry Division culinary team practiced its skills for an Army-wide competition in March by participating in two contests Feb. 21.
The four-man field team, which prepares meals using the Army's mobile kitchen systems that are designed for field use, prepared a three-course meal completely inside the containerized kitchen, or CK, unit.
The cooks found themselves faced with the challenges of working inside a CK, including the lack of constant flame and space constraints, said Sgt. Corey Wood, 1st Sustainment Brigade, 1st Inf. Div.
"In the CK, it's a little bit more confined," Wood said. "You have a smaller area to work with. But with the good team we have, we made it happen."
While the field team prepared meals from the CK, the nutritional skills challenge took place inside a dining facility kitchen. The two-man team of Spc. Thao Vangsoua and Pvt. Sean Hogan produced a two-course meal with less than 1,000 calories.
After both teams completed their challenges, 1st Inf. Div. Command Sgt. Maj. Jim Champagne and certified master chef Stephen Giunta, culinary director for Cargill Foods in Wichita, Kan., presented the awards to the Soldiers who participated in the events of the day.
Hogan and Vangsoua received gold medals for their work in the hot food nutritional skills challenge, while the field team received a bronze medal for its overall performance.
The culinary team headed to the Army-wide Culinary Skills Competition Feb. 25 at Fort Lee, Va.
"It's definitely been an honor to participate in this competition," said Hogan. "And I'm glad that I have the opportunity to bring some awards back to Fort Riley."
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