Ever been faced with working out what to cook for 10 dinner guests? Try 100! And for good measure put your guests in a field, in the middle of nowhere.
RAF Reservist, Senior Aircraftwoman Suzanne Dunks, does just this, having gained the skills and confidence with the RAF.
By day, Suzanne puts her cooking background to use working a full-time, 40-hour-week as a hospitality manager in a nursing home, dealing with the menu planning and co-ordinating all the patient meals.
At the weekend, you won’t find her putting her feet up. Instead she might be setting up a field kitchen to serve hungry troops or preparing a decadent meal for a formal function.
“There is no such thing as a typical weekend or day, which is good”, Dunks says.
“I quickly learned there’s a massive difference between cooking in a nursing home and cooking with the military,” Dunks explains. “There’s such different equipment when in the field - in my day job, there’s an actual kitchen and you don’t have to worry about the weather.”
Whilst working with the elderly can be challenging in terms of menu planning (finding the right balance of what the nursing home clients can and will eat), it’s nothing compared to the cooking challenges that you learn to deal with in the RAF
Like how to erect a field kitchen in the wilderness, camouflage the area, work all the kitchen equipment to provide a morale winning meal for hungry troops.
It all starts with menus; you need to look at the clientele you’re going to be cooking for and consider any dietary requirements or allergens that people have.
You also need to assess what equipment you have depending on whether you’re in a regular kitchen or a field kitchen. And you may need to consider the budget.
RAF chefs use everything from multi-purpose cooking vessels (MPCVs), good for making curries for a couple of hundred people) to burners and hot plates in the field.
Then come the ingredients: you open a military ration pack and do the best with what you’ve got. Mince beef, tomato sachets, some herbs and spices? Perhaps a lasagne or spaghetti bolognese would work…
“You try and mix it up. In the RAF, you can really experiment and show off your skills,” says Dunks.
“Before leaving for the site you’d make sure everything has been checked off: Are your burners working? Do you need a kitchen tent and do you have the right size tent and all the parts for that tent?” states Dunks.
But, it’s not all about cooking in the field - last year, Dunks was honoured to be part of the first RAF Reserves team to take part in Exercise Joint Caterer 2017, a cooking competition against other military chefs from across Defence.
Suzanne and her team were given two boxes of 10-man ration packs and tasked to create a full menu for 20 comprising two main courses, two carbohydrate vegetable choices and two desserts (one hot, one cold). MasterChef has nothing on this!
“We created a cheesecake which won Gold and that brought us in second overall – against other RAF Units, the Army and the Navy. It was a lot of hard work but great fun,” she says.
Dunks’ RAF experience continues to offer new opportunities to learn and develop as a chef: earlier this year she sharpened her cooking prowess with a three-week advanced skills course at Worthy Down.
Dunks isn’t just improving her skills in the kitchen; she credits the RAF with expanding her social horizons, teaching her teamwork skills and helping her get over her shyness.
“In the RAF, you get to meet a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds and varied ages. I’ve gotten a lot of life experience from everyone else - it’s like a big family. Nobody hesitates to help each other – no job is too big or small and working as a team is a massive thing.
“With the RAF Reserves, what you put in is what you get out. People are there because they want to be, rather than just for a job,” she concludes. “The skills you learn are transferable to your civilian life.”
The RAF Reserves are always looking for new talent. You don’t need to be a qualified chef to join the RAF Reserves, they’ll give you all the training you need. All you require is a passion for cooking, to be aged between 18 and 54, fit and healthy and a British or Commonwealth citizen.
Find out more about joining the RAF Reserves today. Search RAF Recruitment or download a copy of the RAF Reserves brochure.