![]() The Navy’s fleet of 73 submarines - all powered by nuclear reactors - is divided into two classes. Recently, a Times reporter boarded the Jefferson City when it was docked at the Point Loma sub base near the mouth of San Diego Bay. President Truman later extended those responsibilities to the White House. Roosevelt, a former undersecretary of the Navy who later had Navy cooks prepare his meals when he used the presidential yacht. ![]() That tradition dates to President Franklin D. The Air Force flies the president, the Marines help provide his security, but it’s the Navy chefs - often former submarine cooks - who prepare his meals. Their culinary skills also have resulted in many submarine cooks landing jobs in the White House. The crew of the Jefferson City, for instance, got Australian cooking tips last year from one of that country’s more acclaimed chefs while visiting Perth. The tradition has grown to where a sub might have several restaurants and schools it can tap for training.Įven when the subs are deployed the cooks may spend a few days getting tips from local restaurants while docked at a port in Japan or Spain. “We would have these meat-and-potato guys, most of them from the heartland, who would be exposed to things they’ve never seen before and they’d finish their Navy careers more worldly than most of us,” Williams says. Williams recalls sending his cooks to the Stork Club or the Algonquian Room in the 1950s when his subs docked in New York.įor the submarine cooks, it was a life-altering experience. After leaving the Navy, some submarine cooks have wound up teaching at the Culinary Institute or becoming chefs at fashionable restaurants such as the Park Avenue Cafe in Manhattan. ![]() So have some of the best-known restaurants in the country, including the “21” in New York, the Cloister in Georgia and Emeril’s in New Orleans. One of the nation’s top chef schools, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., regularly trains submarine cooks. “They’re going to culinary school.”Īnd not just any ordinary schools or restaurants. Steve Benke, the Jefferson City’s executive officer. Submarine cooks don’t just peel potatoes, says Lt. But food was a very, very important component.” “We had three things going for us: The quality of food and the amount that was served. Joe “Jumping Joe” Williams, who commanded the Atlantic submarine fleet before leaving the Navy in 1977 after 30 years of service. “Food was a reward for hazardous duty,” says retired Vice Adm. It was on a sub that the Navy’s first fresh milk dispenser was installed in 1960 after Congress passed legislation overruling Pentagon officials who had argued there was no room for it. The tradition dates to World War II, when sailors jealously marveled at a submarine’s food inventory, which often included steak, lobster and freshly made sausage. ![]()
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