How West Point Makes Over 13,000 Meals A Day For Army Cadets | Boot Camp | Insider Business

foreign [Music] these Cooks make up to thirteen thousand two hundred meals a day for the four thousand four hundred Cadets here at the United States Military Academy in West Point New York today the team is making over 22 000 meatballs combined with four thousand pounds of noodles and 150 gallons of tomato sauce and that's just for one of the dishes on the lunch menu I would say in comparison to a standard College we do things a little differently I think than most colleges do attention all for lunch we are having chicken there are lunchtime rituals and each meal is balanced specifically for these future military leaders rigorous workload the cadets nutritional requirements are elevated because they are engaging in academic work in military training as well as their physical exercise that they're completing here day to day every meal is earned not given so the fact that we are able to march in Step keep our military bearing shows after a long day or long morning of classes we've earned this meal foreign are served here at Washington Hall the historic mess hall where Army Cooks have been feeding West Point cadets for nearly 100 years at meal times the destination is Washington Hall where the cadet gains back the pounds he lost during last Summer's hike and the food is tops and wholesomeness [Music] probably our most difficult meal to support here is our lunch meals where the cadets have about 25 minutes to to get into the building sit down eat and get out I think the one thing that a lot of people don't realize is how fast it all goes so it starts at noon at formation we all get in there by 12 10 and then after that the food is served to 4 000 people and eaten all within 15 minutes but it's not just the cadets who have to move fast a lot of the cook staff who have been in those military environments and who have understood what that means to serve and and what that looks like so I think they try to structure the menu so that they may see similar things when they're out not at West Point but how does the staff at West Point prepare over 4 000 nutritious meals that can be served in eaten in under 25 minutes Insider was granted rare access to the mess hall to see how they pull it off the food is prepared underneath the mess hall in The Labyrinth of hallways kitchens and freezers so feeding 4 000 Cadets is certainly a challenge it is also a very well-oiled machine we've got the Army has been in Food Service the entire 20 years that I've been in the Army in the cadet mess I have approximately 90 Department Army civilian employees that are Cooks they're the ones that cook all the food but we also have another approximately 130 or so contractors that work in in the mess here and their job is to actually serve the food to the cadets the challenge is preparing 4 000 meals three times a day are substantial our staff is arriving at 3 30 in the morning and we're not opening for breakfast for another three hours but the reason is because it takes that three hours to prepare food for 4 500 Cadets on the menu for today's lunch spaghetti with meatballs breadsticks fruit salad broccoli and iced cake prepping enough spaghetti for over 4 000 students starts nearly two hours before lunchtime in the large kitchen Cooks start the spaghetti by boiling 400 pounds of pasta in these giant Vats then they add 22 500 meatballs which they prepared early this morning enough for each Cadet to have five with the spaghetti underway Cooks begin steaming 720 pounds of broccoli meanwhile in the bakery 400 cakes are being iced and placed on carts back in the Main Kitchen Cooks drain the water from the Vats and add 150 gallons of tomato sauce [Music] while the spaghetti is simmering Cooks in a temperature controlled cold kitchen or preparing for a lunch that won't be served for another two days [Music] these cooks are opening two pallets of frozen ribs weighing 3 600 pounds and breaking them into pieces [Music] prepping meals days in advance is one of the methods the mess hall staff uses to serve so many Cadets so quickly for menu development I work with a dietitian that works for the United States Corp Cadets which is upstairs from the cadet mess here we we come up with options that using Army recipes that are that are in the Army system as well as other recipes that you know are available online and we review those recipes make sure that they meet the dietary guidelines that they need to meet for West Point's standards and then we try them out I am a registered dietitian and a certified specialist in sports dietetics for the core cadets at West Point so the menus are structured in a certain way to make sure that they are meeting all of their calorie requirements so on the menus there's usually carbohydrate-based foods which are going to fuel their brain health and support their academic performance as well as Prime their muscles for some of that moderate to high intensity exercise that they're going to engage in and then we usually have plant and animal based protein sources in order to support with their tissue and Muscle Recovery and then we have a lot of different fruit and vegetable options so fresh fruit we have cooked vegetables at the table as well as a pretty robust salad bar that provides lots of antioxidants to make sure that they get that color in it supports their immune system and makes sure that they combat some of that inflammation that's incurring from that intense exercise all the dishes are finished served into portioned containers and loaded into heated carts we have around 50 to 75 of the hot carts going so generally speaking each hot cart will hold food for about 10 tables 10 minutes until assembly for lunch formation before lunch formation and before morning formation the plebees call minutes and they say the meal for that day we are [Music] after receiving the minutes read aloud by freshmen known as plebes Cadets get into company formation in front of Washington Hall in an area called the apron while the students gather members of the West Point band play them into formation [Music] meanwhile inside the mess hall the wait staff is setting out the water and bread for the 25-minute meal oh it's like everything you've seen in the movies before formation we heard the band start kicking off really telling us to fall in the companies once the accountability is taken of the company then Battalion and the regiment we all start marching to the beat of the drum to the mess hall and really the drums help us stay in Step keep the Cadence and keeping our military bearing laughs [Music] as Cadets file in the wait staff has only six minutes to get the food from the hot carts onto each table we make sure that all the table is set in terms of etiquette and making sure that everybody has their silverware plays napkins cups the plebes are actually in charge of making sure that this etiquette actually happens meals at West Point are full of traditions that the cadets observe like the pleaves pouring water for the upperclassmen a huge deal in the military and so this kind of just reinforces from your first year here that etiquette is super important at the plebe end of the table every seat has a specific role and responsibility typically you'll have one person at the end and that's your cold beverage corporal be in charge of making sure that everyone has a cup full ER because there's water pitchers on the table when you get there and then there will be a gunner to the left of them at the end of the table they're in charge of the desserts and then to the right of the cold beverage Corporal is the hot beverage Corporal that person is in charge of getting if there's soup in the buffet line or like coffee in the mornings Tea Seeds and then the police will call the table which means that they basically say like the fourth class has performed all their duties and now we're ready to eat and then at that point we all start eating our meal portion sizes are crucial to ensure each Cadet is receiving their daily caloric intake but some tables in the mess hall receive more than the standard portion so there's a variety of different Cadets here right with a variety of different nutrition needs and they're always doing different levels of activity tables with a heavy designation receive a portion and a half and tables with a heavy heavy sign get double portions or some of the athletes that we have that have to maintain a higher body weight for their sport such as football heavyweight wrestling or some of our track and field throwers they require more calories to be able to support that activity as well as keep their body weight in a Range to be competitive you know in their sport so they may need more calories to support that let's go for Cadets lunch is a mandatory meal they're all coming here from from all over the country and honestly all over the world because they're exchange students as well so it's a way to make sure that they can build that camaraderie and build that teammate you know build that team together by making them have that meal for upperclassmen breakfast and some dinners are optional where they can choose from several other options on campus another tradition in Washington Hall all four years of students sit next to each other for lunch I love having a table with both it definitely allows you to interact with people in your company that you normally wouldn't and we switched tables every semester as well so we get to build those new relationships with people throughout our four years here so I think probably the most favorite meal and something you'll probably hear a lot is there's a spicy chicken patty that the cadets absolutely love my favorite meal here would probably be either spicy chicken or the sweet and sour chicken with rice favorite meal is definitely crispito sir it's like a hot dog burrito if I had to explain it I really do like taco Tuesdays I also think they do a very good job with the Seafoods what's your least favorite food here my least favorite food would probably be taco night probably the pork chop I'm not really a big Philly cheesesteak guy sometimes they'll get burnt out on eating chicken you know it's there's only so many proteins that we can prepare chicken is one of them that really almost everybody eats so you know it's trying to find different ways to to season the chicken or different ways to prepare the chicken so that you know their palate doesn't get burnt out from from eating the same thing this is Washington Hall inside the cadet mess area as we call it so behind me is the famous mural the inspiration behind this was by General Douglas MacArthur class 1903 and in the 1930s he became Chief of Staff of the army he worked with the academic board here and they came up with the concept of battles leaders commanders and Technology you'll see Alexander the Great up top with the Chariot you'll see Siege of rams and so on all the states are by admission so you've got Arkansas Texas Iowa California and so on behind me is the entrance from the mess hall when it was finished in 1929. so below me about three or four feet would be steps and then the grass area out here this was the front of the mess hall so in the early 1960s the idea was to expand the enrollment of the academy because the Army and Air Force Academy which was only a few years old had a enrollment top of 2500 where the Naval Academy had 4 000 midshipmen by law so there's different aspects that occurred but in 1965 the law was signed and they started building expanding so they built out from the original 1929 mess hall this way [Music] [Applause] so at the end of the meal normally they'll call upper class rest or Brigade rise and then at that point everybody can get up and leave so at that point meal has ended it usually only takes like 12 to 15 minutes for everybody to eat and then we're on our way to our next class and when is the next class usually start our next class starts at 12 45. as the cadets begin to leave Washington Hall the wait staff cleans the tables and back in the kitchens the cooks have begun preparing dinner which is only five and a half hours away [Music]

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Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023