Coast Guard Training Facility Program
Since Veterans Day is Monday, November 11th, I thought what better way to honor the military veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces than to tell everyone about our experience giving back to the United States Coast Guard.
The United States Coast Guard training facility in Petaluma has a program specializing in culinary education and is the largest West Coast training center. This training facility is the Coast Guard’s largest and trains chefs, medics, storekeepers, electronic technicians, and operations specialists and is home to the Coast Guard Leadership Development Center’s Chief Petty Officer Academy.
Culinary Specialists receive training in everything food-related including advanced culinary methods & techniques that are used for baking, seafood, protein fabrication, sauces, and more. Not only does training include extensive food education but also accounting and inventory management, and safety to ensure everything is in tip-top shape and managed wisely. Much of the training is to prepare each individual for the fieldwork they may embark on in the future.
This summer CSC Benjamin Murray reached out to the Restaurant Group I work for and asked if we would be willing to give his culinary students a tour of our restaurants. We were honored to host two of his classes at Coqueta Restaurant in Napa Valley. We demonstrated how to make and serve Paella using our 12 foot live fire hearth. The hearth that we cook on is pretty unique so it was fun to share that with them. I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day with the students - they were very enthusiastic and engaged and had a lot of great questions.
In August the Coast Guard held their graduation at the Petaluma base and invited us to help cook for 500 active Coast Guards, civil workers, and veterans. We worked side by side with the culinary students to prepare an extensive meal based around the menu items from the restaurants in our group. We even had the honor of meeting MCPOCG Jason M. Vandeerhaden, who was the 14th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard in 2018. He is the highest-ranking Chef in all 5 branches of the US Forces which made meeting him even more special.
It really was a pleasure to watch the culinary students at work. Their communication, discipline, and teamwork was really impressive and something that I strive for in my kitchen. I learned as much from them as they learned from me and I hope to spend more time with the Coast Guard culinary program in the future.
Thank you to all of the men and women who have served our country. I am eternally grateful.