CAMP ITAMI, Japan - "Are you ready to see your mystery basket?" An anxious feeling began to overtake Sgt. Victor Fincher. No one saw his fingers twitch behind his back as he waited for the cover to be pulled from the mystery basket.
"Three, two, one," and the cover was yanked back revealing an assortment of meats, vegetables, fruits and spices.
A wave of relief forced the anxiety from Fincher. This was the scene at the start of the Iron Chef competition between the U.S. Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force December 5, here during Exercise Yama Sakura 69, an annual bilateral exercise with U.S. Military and JGSDF.
"I had no idea what to expect," said Fincher, a food service specialist with 25th Brigade Support Battalion. "I was relived there were certain ingredients we didn't have to use. I was really eager to get started."
Fincher teamed with four other U.S. Army chefs as they competed against a team from the JGSDF.
"I was curious to see what the other team would cook, ingredients they would use, and their presentation style," Fincher said.
He could not spend any more time contemplating about how the other team would cook because he needed to focus on his tasks.
"My main job during the competition was desserts," said Fincher. "All I could do to prepare was study as many recipes as I could. My experience took me the rest of the way."
Fincher and his team had two hours to prepare a full-course meal from scratch to presentation.
The competition started smoothly with each team member working in tandem completing each task. However, the smoothness found troubled waters halfway through the competition.
Fincher's plan for the frozen custard dessert was to place a caramel dome on top, but provided difficult.
"The plan started with a dome but had trouble separating the caramel from the ladle," he said. "I had to switch to a pulled sugar topping. It was my first time doing that so I was extremely nervous of messing up."
To create pulled sugar, Fincher melted sugar and then poured it over a thin cylindrical object forming sugar strings.
Fincher's swift reaction provided him enough time to create the toppings. Even with the swift reaction, creating the pulled sugar effect required more time than anticipated.
"The whole team did a great job preparing all courses of the meal," said Staff Sgt. Brian Byrd, team lead chef, I Corps. "The biggest obstacle we all faced was time. Time was constantly working against us."
Even though time was winding down, the team continued to work casually as if there was no time constraint.
"I started to get stressed while pulling the sugar," said Fincher. "My Soldiers were calm, which helped me stay calm. It was just a challenge the whole way through the competition to stay cool and not panic."
As time approached the final minute, the team scrambled to finish plating their dishes before presenting them to be judged.
Then came the most stressful time for Fincher, the judging. Judging the meals were Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, I Corps Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Junji Suzuki, JGSDF Middle Army Commanding General, and other leaders from both militaries. After the judges finished the American meal, he had to endure a longer wait as the Japanese team presented their meal.
Fincher and Byrd anxiously stood by as the judges' scores were tallied. The competition was described as a "nail bitter" by the announcer before revealing the winning team.
"And the winner is Team U.S. by five points," boomed the announcer.
Surprise overcame Fincher as he heard the decision.
"I had the sinking feeling they won, but then again you never know what to expect in these competitions," Fincher said. "As a competitor, you don't want your opponent to win, but I thought they did a better job [than us]."
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