Speaker A
Stand clear. We went from a box on wheels to a whole freaking kitchen, right?
Army culinary specialist SSG Nicholas Davis tours the containerized field kitchen, covering its cooking center, warming cabinet, serving line, utensils and food-service equipment.
Key Takeaways
- The containerized kitchen gives the Army a full-scale, mobile capability to cook and serve hundreds of meals per shift.
- Equipment is designed around food safety, keeping hot food held at safe temperatures and managing heat and grease.
- Shelf-stable UGR heat-and-serve rations allow feeding when refrigeration capacity is limited.
What the video covers
- Introduces the Army containerized kitchen, capable of preparing up to 800 meals three times a day.
- Presenter is Staff Sgt. Nicholas Davis, an advanced culinary NCO at the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence.
- Cooking center includes a modern burner unit generating about 52,000 BTUs, suspended-grate cooking surfaces and a large griddle with splash guard and grease trap.
- Convection oven uses an internal fan to circulate heat, reducing cooking time.
- UGR heat-and-serve tray packs are heated in a 15-gallon pot or a tray-pack heater, using shelf-stable meals in heat-resistant trays.
- A heated sink with running water and soap supports handwashing and food cleaning.
- A warming cabinet keeps cooked food outside the temperature danger zone until service.
- Two industrial refrigerators, insulated food and beverage containers, and industrial hood venting with ECU cooling manage storage and heat.
- Cutlery set includes paring, utility, chef's, boning and scimitar knives, plus heavy-duty neoprene gloves for handling hot water.
- Serving line configuration includes serving spoons, food turners and a serving-line divider for portioning.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the Containerized Kitchen
- 00:35Presenter Background and Role
- 01:22Cooking Center and Modern Burner Unit
- 03:04Griddle, Cooking Pot and Convection Oven
- 06:24Tray-Pack Heater, Sink and Food Storage
- 08:04Cutlery and Warming Cabinet
- 08:44Serving Line Setup and Utensils
- 11:30Ventilation, ECU and Closing Notes
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
The containerized kitchen provides the Army with the ability to perform large-scale feeding and everything that we need to prepare up to 800 meals three times a day.
Speaker A
The containerized kitchen provides the Army with the ability to perform large-scale feeding and everything that we need to prepare up to 800 meals three times a day.
Speaker A
Today I'll be going over all the equipment that an Army culinary specialist uses on the containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
My name is Staff Sgt. Nicholas Davis. I'm an advanced culinary NCO at Joint Culinary Center of Excellence field operations training branch.
Speaker A
Now, here is our cooking center. We've got these grates right here that allow us to suspend our cooking pots or pans above our modern burner unit.
Speaker A
Today I'll be going over all the equipment that an Army culinary specialist uses on the containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
We can fry, sauté, boil, anything we need to on this portion of a containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
An Army culinary specialist is someone who has been certified to perform culinary duties to support the United States Army and all of their feeding needs.
Speaker A
What this does is it contains the heat from the modern burner unit around that pot.
Speaker A
Now, here is our cooking center. We've got these grates right here that allow us to suspend our cooking pots or pans above our modern burner unit.
Speaker A
This right here is going to cut that time down and reduce the risk of people getting burned or heating up the area unnecessarily.
Speaker A
Our modern burner unit generates about 52,000 BTUs. All right, that's a lot of cooking power.
Speaker A
Pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, steak, hash browns, you name it, we can do it here on this griddle.
Speaker A
We can fry, sauté, boil, anything we need to on this portion of a containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
This piece right here just slides out. Anything that I scrape off will funnel into there, and I can discard it.
Speaker A
Right here is our cooking pot. The cooking pot is nestled in the cooking pot cradle assembly.
Speaker A
We're going to use our modern burner unit underneath as our heat source. Inside is a large fan on the back that's going to force that heated air around, regulate the temperature inside the oven, and decrease our cooking time,
Speaker A
What this does is it contains the heat from the modern burner unit around that pot.
Speaker A
When we don't have the capacity to hold food in a refrigerator, we're going to use the UGR heat-and-serve ration.
Speaker A
This is a 15-gallon pot, and as you can imagine, trying to boil 15 gallons of water will take quite some time.
Speaker A
We'll load this up with up to 24 tray packs, add water, let that heat warm those tray packs through.
Speaker A
This right here is going to cut that time down and reduce the risk of people getting burned or heating up the area unnecessarily.
Speaker A
There's the ability to run soap through it. So now as you're cooking you can clean your hands, you can rinse off your vegetables, fruits, all right.
Speaker A
Right here we've got a large griddle. You'll see around it we've got a splash guard.
Speaker A
Now, this warming cabinet is so critical to the function of the containerized kitchen. We can cook all day long, but I need some way to hold my food safely, maintain that temperature prior to serving it to my personnel.
Speaker A
Pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage, steak, hash browns, you name it, we can do it here on this griddle.
Speaker A
Next to my warming cabinet, going in the opposite way, I've got two industrial refrigerators.
Speaker A
I've actually gone so far as to do, like, a hibachi grill. Underneath the griddle is my grease trap.
Speaker A
I'm going to remove these grates. We're going to exercise caution when removing these, because these will be hot if I've been cooking on them.
Speaker A
This piece right here just slides out. Anything that I scrape off will funnel into there, and I can discard it.
Speaker A
Place that on top right there. This is designed to fit any standard-size pan. I can put them in here, and I can serve hot food, or I could put ice in there and serve cold food if necessary.
Speaker A
Over here, we've got a convection oven. It works much the same way as a gas oven that you'll find in your house.
Speaker A
Those shields are removable. These shields act to keep all the heat from these multiple cooking surfaces on this side of the kitchen.
Speaker A
We're going to use our modern burner unit underneath as our heat source. Inside is a large fan on the back that's going to force that heated air around, regulate the temperature inside the oven, and decrease our cooking time,
Speaker A
But also, over here, I've got two large industrial fans that are also going to vent excess hot air out of the containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
increasing our potential yield. Next to it, we've got a tray-pack heater. It is exactly what it says it is.
Speaker A
That's my air conditioning. I can cool my cooking area down a little bit to make it a little more comfortable for today's Army culinary specialists.
Speaker A
When we don't have the capacity to hold food in a refrigerator, we're going to use the UGR heat-and-serve ration.
Speaker A
Over here we've got some insulated food containers for storage. We've got insulated beverage containers, or dispensers.
Speaker A
That UGR heat-and-serve ration comes in the form of food, shelf-stable, contained in heat-resistant plastic trays.
Speaker A
You'll notice right here we've got some tray slides. So as people come through and they get their food, we've got a little spot for them to rest their trays.
Speaker A
We'll load this up with up to 24 tray packs, add water, and let that heat warm those tray packs through.
Speaker A
We've got our paring knife. Standard 3-inch paring knife. We've got our 6-inch utility knife, Utility knife or the rigid boning knife.
Speaker A
Next to the tray-pack heater we've got a fully functioning sink. Running water, heated, that'll drain outside.
Speaker A
This is a 10-inch chef's knife. Now, this right here, we're going to do a lot of our major cutting.
Speaker A
There's the ability to run soap through it. So now as you're cooking you can clean your hands, you can rinse off your vegetables, fruits, all right.
Speaker A
We've got a scimitar, or a steak knife. Long, used for cutting meat. A lot of times we'll get large pieces of meat.
Speaker A
Wipe out your utensils. Here in this corner, we have a warmer, a warming cabinet.
Speaker A
Producer: What kind of large meats do you get? We have what's called a steamship round, which is basically the hind quarter of a cow.
Speaker A
Now, this warming cabinet is so critical to the function of the containerized kitchen. We can cook all day long, but I need some way to hold my food safely, maintain that temperature prior to serving it to my personnel.
Speaker A
Any of those large cuts of meat that we may get, we're going to use our scimitar knife to cut those up.
Speaker A
This warming cabinet affords me the option to cook a large amount of food, keep it at a maintained temperature outside the temperature danger zone, and continue on with my cooking process.
Speaker A
Next, I've got my heavy-duty neoprene gloves. We use these gloves when we're pulling stuff out of hot water.
Speaker A
Next to my warming cabinet, going in the opposite way, I've got two industrial refrigerators.
Speaker A
We don't want to go too much higher than that, boiling. That increases the risk of burning yourself, and it's going to increase the evaporation of the water and increase our water-consumption rate.
Speaker A
Now we'll talk about how we serve. We can configure our cooking center to be a serving line.
Speaker A
Our slotted spoon. Standard serving spoon, 15-inch serving spoon. When that one won't cut it, we've got our 21-inch serving spoon.
Speaker A
I'm going to remove these grates. We're going to exercise caution when removing these, because these will be hot if I've been cooking on them.
Speaker A
This is going to be beneficial to get back into the corners. It serves the same purpose as the other one, you just get a little more reach out of it.
Speaker A
So I'll slide this off, just get it out of the way. I'll grab my serving-line divider.
Speaker A
I can actually also use this if I just want to strain something out. Here I've got an assortment of food turners.
Speaker A
Place that on top right there. This is designed to fit any standard-size pan. I can put them in here, and I can serve hot food, or I could put ice in there and serve cold food if necessary.
Speaker A
So I can get in on the side of it, use that, and I can flip it over.
Speaker A
Can't do it at the same time, though. I've got shields here on the backside of my cooking center.
Speaker A
If I'm cooking steaks or bacon or something like that, I'm going to use this to get in there.
Speaker A
Those shields are removable. These shields act to keep all the heat from these multiple cooking surfaces on this side of the kitchen.
Speaker A
All right. Heavy-duty. I can use this to scrape my griddle as well as flip my steaks, eggs, burgers.
Speaker A
Up above here, I've got my industrial hood vent system that's going to vent out excess heat, diesel exhaust.
Speaker A
Depending on what type of rations we have, I may get up on here, make bread, cookies.
Speaker A
But also, over here, I've got two large industrial fans that are also going to vent excess hot air out of the containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
This is our food scoop. We're going to use this anytime we have something that might stick to the spoon, things like ice cream or mashed potatoes, refried beans, softer vegetables like spinach.
Speaker A
Now, once we remove as much of the hot air as possible, I can turn on my ECU, or environmental control unit.
Speaker A
Next we have our tongs. Anytime we want to grab something, we're going to use our tongs.
Speaker A
That's my air conditioning. I can cool my cooking area down a little bit to make it a little more comfortable for today's Army culinary specialists.
Speaker A
For things that are a little bit closer, a little bit smaller, I'll use my 15-inch fork.
Speaker A
This side is going to be for our serving. We're going to prep. We're going to serve things like salad, desserts, beverages.
Speaker A
Next is my whisk. So, this right here is a rigid whisk. You can tell the tines on it are a little bit thicker.
Speaker A
Over here we've got some insulated food containers for storage. We've got insulated beverage containers, or dispensers.
Speaker A
Next, I've got my rolling pin. Everybody knows what a rolling pin is for, but here we use it for a few other things.
Speaker A
Right here we've got a 10-gallon and a 15-gallon pot that we're going to use for cooking.
Speaker A
We have a 4-quarter pitcher. When you're preparing food for 800 personnel, you don't have time for small measuring cups.
Speaker A
You'll notice right here we've got some tray slides. So as people come through and they get their food, we've got a little spot for them to rest their trays.
Speaker A
If you don't need to go quite so big as 4 quarts, this is a 1-quart dipper.
Speaker A
So, starting over here, we'll go over the assortment of cutlery that comes with the containerized kitchen.
Speaker A
Next, we have an 8-ounce ladle. Now, precision is everything. We have a set of measuring spoons.
Speaker A
We've got our paring knife. Standard 3-inch paring knife. We've got our 6-inch utility knife, utility knife or the rigid boning knife.
Speaker A
Everything we do is hot, so we've got our hot pads. We're going to use these hot pads when we're moving hot pans, we're removing stuff from the oven.
Speaker A
This right here I'm sure some of y'all are familiar with, all right. Michael Myers.
Speaker A
I've got a variety of serving pans. This is a half pan. Anyone who's worked in food service can identify this as a 6-inch half pan.
Speaker A
This is a 10-inch chef's knife. Now, this right here, we're going to do a lot of our major cutting.
Speaker A
Step up from the half pan is our 6-inch line pan. Some people may know it as a hotel pan.
Speaker A
We've got ribs, we've got to cut up a lot of vegetables. This is a knife that we're going to use for that.
Speaker A
[group laughing] He's working, OK? Jokes. Jokes!
Topics:Army culinarycontainerized kitchenfield kitchenmilitary cookingUGR heat-and-servemobile kitchenArmy equipmentfood serviceBusiness InsiderLoadout
