CNRJ Chefs Win in Tenth Annual Navy Ashore Culinary Competition

GREAT LAKES (NNS) – Commander, Navy Region Japan won first place at the Commander, Navy Installations Command’s (CNIC) Food Services Ashore Culinary Competition held on Naval Station Great Lakes July 25. This year marks ten years since the first competition was held in Washington, D.C. This competition was the sixth to be held at Great Lakes.
“We have been doing this for ten years now and every year I think it gets better,” said Karin George, CNIC galley program manager.
First-place winners Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Jared Breneman-Paffumi, Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Jasonmarc Donato and Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Justinne Ivanitskiy, made up one of 12 teams, each consisting of three chefs, participating in the event. All regions were invited and teams were chosen from internal regional cook-offs.
Rear Adm. Charles Rock, Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, presented the first, second and third place awards.
Chefs from Naval Station Great Lakes and Commander, Joint Region Marianas finished in second and third place respectively.
The seminars and event are recognized by the American Culinary Federation (ACF). The ACF was established in 1929 and is the largest professional chefs’ organization in North America. The competition was graded using ACF standards, and those that qualified were presented with an ACF medal at the award dinner on July 25 at Naval Station Great Lakes’ Galley 525.
“The tradition continues of holding the event at Great Lakes and will hopefully continue in the future,” said Capt. Ray Leung, Naval Station Great Lakes commanding officer.
During the competition, the teams created two-course meals comprised of an appetizer and an entree.
The teams were judged on food safety and sanitation, organizational skills, work habits, utilization of ingredients, cooking skills and craftsmanship, portion size, taste and presentation.
The competition was the culmination of a four-day workshop held at the USS Theodore Roosevelt barracks onboard Recruit Training Command (RTC) at Great Lakes.
Parts of the competition and the entire award ceremony were broadcast live on the Naval Station Great Lakes Facebook page. The archived videos are available at www.facebook.com/NavalStationGreatLakes/video.