Chef Nydia Ekstrom, Unilever Food Solutions, and Spc. Robert Torres, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery food service specialist, prepare fresh fruits before placing the various food items on the self-service line May 22 at Staff Sgt. Juan Garci...
Chef Nydia Ekstrom, Unilever Food Solutions, and Pfc. Florence Groene, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery food service specialist, thaw fish, an ingredient in the poached fish and tomato Florentine, a newly added food for the Italian day theme ...
Pfc. Melvin Rivera, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 31st Air Defense Artillery, looks on as Chef Nydia Ekstrom, Unilever Food Solutions, demonstrates how to check the texture of spaghetti May 22 at the Staff Sgt. Juan Garcia Dining Facility at...
Spc. Laquissa Clanton, 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery, serves a Marine a meal May 22 at Staff Sgt. Juan Garcia Dining Facility here. Soldiers, especially those with meal cards, can help boost menu choices by frequently visiting the dining facilit...
FORT SILL, Okla.-- Staff Sgt. Juan Garcia Dining Facility patrons may have recently noticed a slight difference in available food choices at the facility.
As the DFACs senior leaders sought ways to improve attendance at the facility they brainstormed a game changing idea.
They summoned food expert and culinary arts connoisseur, Chef Nydia Ekstrom, certified executive chef with Unilever Food Solutions, to help train the staff at Garcia, help revive the culinary-arts atmosphere and to attract more patrons to the facility. She was here May 20-23.
"We are very excited about the opportunity for our Soldiers to train with a certified chef," said Warrant Officer Arnetra Hughes, 75th Fires Brigade food service technician. "The Army's food service program is moving toward a culinary arts emphasis, and we want to make sure our 92Gs at Fort Sill are on track with the improvements. Unilever is one of the few food service prime vendors for Fort Sill that will sponsor a certified chef to come out and train Army food service personnel.
"Most people think it's the taste or the smell that makes people want to eat," said the certified food service executive during a daily slideshow presentation to the staff.
"Wrong!" she emphatically said. "You eat with your eyes. If you don't like what you see, you are not going to eat it."
Every day, Ekstrom taught the food service specialists various ways to prepare meals in new flavorful and visually appealing ways.
"I've noticed a lot of colors being added to the products," said Daniel Price, Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade.
Price said, one crucial technique Ekstrom taught the staff was how to add variety to the menus that are used for a particular theme.
"Whereas we are set in a mind frame of Mexican food is salsa, burritos ," he said, "you can extend your menus from enchiladas and fajitas to fish Veracruz. There are so many different types of salsas and salads that revolve around one ethnicity. It doesn't have to be the same thing every week."
To help change the routine menu themes, which are set by specific days of the week, "we are looking at changing to a 10-day menu," said Hughes.
Price said once people come into the DFAC and see the prices, variety, quantity and improved quality of the food available to them, they will likely be willing to visit again.
Social Sharing