[Sca-cooks] OOP request: Jellied salad???

[Decker, Terry D.]

I have experienced mess halls and mess sargeants and will say that they are
as capable and of as varied quality as the range of civilian cooks.  Most
mess sergeants are decent cooks who turn out edible, buffet fare day in and
day out.  Upon occasion you find a true master, such as the Army mess
sergeant who ran the galley on the USS Patch on a 10 day trip from
Bremehaven to Brooklyn.  He turned out a superb German meal for 4,000.  On
the return trip on the USS Bruckner, we had a mess sergeant (probably on his
first assignment out of Cooks and Bakers school) who prepared the
stereotypic Army slop.  Both were remarkable in their quality.

Most school cafeterias seem to have cooking school rejects running
(ruining?) the kitchen.  The real similarity between school cafeterias and
messhalls is a captive audience.

Bear



> Once upon a time, this was not the case ;-). But I agree that it has
> become sort of a 'toon version of itself, and that the reality behind
> it may no longer be taken seriously by most people.
>
> It's kind of like croquettes, which once upon a time were an
> extremely elegant dish, and now (in my experience) seem to be made
> with badly-deboned, leftover, overcooked poultry.
>
> I think maybe as food service kitchens in schools (and possibly the
> military, but this is not something I have direct experience with)
> become more geared to the kid-recognizable fast-food cuisine, we may
> be seeing less of this kind of thing. One day soon, shrimp wiggle
> (which I suspect has no direct basis in haute cuisine, but easily
> could qualify as such, if only some cook would pay attention to the
> darned thing and show it some respect, and themselves some
> self-respect, too) may be a thing of the past.
>
> Adamantius, to whom shrimp wiggle doesn't sound half bad, in theory