ABOARD HRMS JOHAN DE WITT -- For Marines aboard ship waiting to go ashore life can often become repetitive and dull. Fortunately, U.S. Marine and Dutch Navy cooks have a way to combat this. The answer is food.
“After two or three days you start to get sick of MRE’s,” said U.S. Marine Cpl. Dave Truglia, a team leader with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment. “Just the smell of fresh, hot chow is enough to make you feel like nothing else matters.”
Providing a variety of great tasting food is the cooks’ mission, a mission that often begins at 4 a.m. and doesn’t end until 7 p.m. Guiding the cooks is one simple philosophy:
“When the food is bad, people get cranky,” said Dutch Navy Cpl. Casper Blei, the chief cook for the ship. “When the food is good, people are happy, and happy people make a happy ship.”
There are a few main differences between the cooking facilities aboard the HRMS Johan De Witt and most military dining facilities that U.S. Marines are familiar with. One of the most striking is a full-fledged bakery that produces loaves of fresh bread daily for consumption during all three meals, to include deserts such as cakes, cookies and pastries.
“We usually make about 300 loaves of bread a day and about 700 rolls every other day,” said Dutch Navy Cpl. Mike Veenstra, one of two full time bakers aboard the ship.
The rest of the kitchen is just as busy. With British, American and Norwegian military forces on board for exercise Cold Response 2010; the cooks now find themselves serving more than 600 hungry troops, up from the usual amount of about 140 regular crewmembers.
“We are now serving a lot more food than we normally do,” said Blei. “In one day, for example, we can serve more than 40 kg (88 lbs) of rice, 150 kg (330 lbs) of potatoes and 20 liters (5 gallons).”
The sudden influx of hundreds of non-Dutch service members has had an unplanned side effect, namely, a cultural education for those unfamiliar with Dutch cuisine. Dutch meals revolve around the idea of light foods, particularly deli meat sandwiches for breakfast and dinner, and lunch being the main meal of the day. Furthermore, the uniquely Dutch way of preparing foods often makes such familiar items, such as hamburgers, unfamiliar to the American or British eye.
Dutch Navy Sailor 1st Class Tim Kops said that he finds himself constantly helping inquisitive Brits and Americans identify various foods.
“I’d say, about 700 times a day, in the morning and the evening, people ask me ‘what is this?’ While I serve them food,” he said. “To us it is kind of funny.”
The cultural exchange also takes place amongst the cooks on a daily basis.
“Working with the Dutch has been a good experience, they are a cool people are they have been teaching me a lot about their customs,” said Pfc. Durell Rodriguez, a cook with 2nd Bn., 25th Marines. “They are always teaching about food, and how to say the names of food in Dutch.”
Blei said that he and the other cooks find their jobs more rewarding than most, as they are able to see first hand the results of their work.
“People always come to our door and say if they liked the meal, or if they didn’t like the meal,” Blei explained. “We always try to give them something they can look forward to that breaks the predictability.”