World renowned Chef Robert Irvine made his way to Fort Sill this week.
Chef Irvine was able to observe trainings on base such as basic training, an artillery live fire, and the Air Defense Artillery Stinger Dome.
Chef Irvine also held a cooking competition with cooks from The 75th Field Artillery Brigade.
“So, we’re here to today holding an Iron Chef competition with three amazing Army chefs and what people don’t understand is, the Army has some of the best Golf 92s on the planet, in other words chefs and three of them are cooking against each other today with a mystery basket ala Chopped.”
The three contestants were Sergeant Mateo Valentine from New Jersey, Sergeant Romanei Williams from Jamaica, and Sergeant Pauthamad Khempromma from Thailand.
Chef Irvine spends a lot of time giving back to the military and veterans, he says he lives and breathes to make their lives better.
“I live and breathe, I get up every day to make the men and women who wear the cloth of our nation their lives better and their families, Medal of Honor recipients, veterans, to make sure that we give the best we can give to them.”
The contestants were originally given 1 hour to prepare a meal, but Chef Irvine threw a “curveball” and only gave them 45 minutes to see how they’d perform under the pressure.
“Look, I’m not here to be nice, I’m not supposed to be nice, I’m supposed to be critical, why am I supposed to be critical? Because as you criticize somebody in a very influential way, they work harder, they get better and they start to think more.”
Chef Irvine actually got his start as a chef in the British Royal Navy and has advice for others looking to start their culinary career.
“I started in the Navy as a cook, no different than this young man right here and look the world’s your oyster. So, if you’re thinking about what you don’t know, join the military they’ll teach you really fast and they’ll teach you a lot of leadership. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up everybody!”
Sergeant Williams won the competition with his bison, risotto, and sautéed asparagus. He says he actually had some culinary experience before joining the Army.
“It’s kind of funny, while I was living in Jamaica I used to work at Usain Bolt's Tracks and Records, so that’s a restaurant owned by Usain Bolt and after I came to the states I went to this Seattle restaurant Cutters, which was a really great restaurant, it was a seafood restaurant where I learned sushi, shucking oysters, and other stuff there.”
Sergeant Williams shares what his plans are after his service time is over.
“My dream is to have a restaurant, but really I might just start off with a food truck once I move back to Washington.”
