The Department of the Air Force continues it's almost 70-year partnership with restaurant food and beverage industry partners to deliver healthier, fresher food options to ensure Airmen, Guardians and families are fueled for the fight.
One of those relationships is with the Culinary Institute of America.
"We rely on the CIA to help us deliver culinary excellence and innovative training, not just to our appropriated fund dining facility teams but to those in our nonappropriated fund facilities like golf courses, bowling centers and clubs," said Jim Krueger, chief of DAF Mission Feeding at the Air Force Services Center. "Our goal in training venues like the CIA in San Antonio is to excite young minds, tapping in to their emotions, and exposing them to culinary practices, thoughts and lessons they can take back to their installations to create tasty, fresh, healthier food options."
Chef Uyen Pham, who has been with the CIA for seven years, is one of the institute's San Antonio resident instructors and recently conducted a one-week APF course for Airmen.
"We all need to eat," Pham said. "Whether that's in schools, in hospitals or in the military, it's important that you're provided really high-quality food prepared in a manner you'd be excited about eating."
The course features skills from proper knife work to various cooking methods and presentation.
When students show up on day one, "they're a little nervous and aren't sure what to expect," the chef said, "but they are engaged and eager to learn what we have to teach them. It's clear they want to take what they learn back to their installations to apply it and teach others."
Recent student Senior Airman Alexandra Garcia from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, said her experience at CIA was "super amazing" and she recommends it to her peers in other dining facilities.
"I learned a lot of different techniques, recipes from other cultures and a lot of different ways to do things," Garcia said. "This course helped me better my techniques, especially when it comes to my knife skills. The environment was very different and the one-on-one with the chef made it 10 times better. To be able to have that experience, especially with my peers, was amazing."
The CIA recently hosted a NAF fund course also. Maria Rangel, a club operations assistant at Laughlin AFB, Texas, and Adam Poche, a club operations specialist at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, were among those in attendance.
Both said they were happy to learn new skills they could share with their coworkers to improve their meal service.
"Learning how to get food prepared and out of the kitchen to customers in a quick and timely manner is important," Poche said.
CIA training exposes students to new methods and helps NAF culinary teams do their jobs more efficiently, he said, adding "this has been one of the coolest courses I've ever been at, and I've learned a lot of different skills." Rangel agreed.
"Courses like this are important because it enables us to learn more about what we're delivering to our Airmen and their families, including healthier options," she said.
The CIA, created in 1946 to train returning World War II veterans in the culinary arts, has many regular students who are veterans using their education benefits, Pham said.
"It's really important we continue that legacy," she said. "For me, as a faculty member, to work with the military services is a real privilege. Our relationship is meaningful and special."
AFSVC pulses installations four times a year to send their 20 brightest and most enthusiastic staff members to the weeklong NAF or APF courses.
"Installations put forth their best candidates who have culinary enthusiasm to learn," Krueger said. "Those we bring to San Antonio on a Monday are not the same people who leave us on Friday. They come in with very little formal knowledge in culinary arts, but when they leave us at the end of the week, they're departing with a wealth of hands-on culinary skills, excitement and renewed enthusiasm to share with their installation teams."
Krueger said he's a big advocate for "more hands-on courses like this because you can't teach the skills they get at CIA virtually. There's no better way to learn and improve culinary skills than to see it, do it and learn from some of the best."
