How Navy Submarine Cooks Feed 150 Sailors At Sea | Boot Camp | Business Insider

These Navy culinary specialists are preparing 15 pounds of turkey, 10 pounds of ham, and pulled pork sandwiches made from scratch, along with mac and cheese, corn, mashed potatoes, and cookies. Almost, almost. To serve a crew of 150 sailors. Pulled pork, macaroni, mm. And they only have about five hours to prepare each meal. You want the soup, too? But this isn't your typical Navy galley. This is where meals are made on a submarine. In classified locations deep at sea, the crew of the nuclear-powered USS South Dakota works around the clock to monitor. Emergency ship, make my depth 155 feet. Roger that. And potentially engage with foreign threats. We're tasked to go do something, and we go do it. For up to nine months, they work and live within the tight confines of their windowless ship, where every role is critical to the mission's success. Among them are the culinary specialists. These crew members have an essential responsibility, feeding up to 150 sailors and fueling them for the challenges that lie ahead. We are essentially the morale of the fleet. If our morale's low, their morale's gonna be low. And you can usually taste it in the food. Business Insider spent two days aboard the USS South Dakota while it lay in port at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, observing culinary specialists, preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the crew. The USS South Dakota is a Virginia-class submarine. Specifically, it's a Block III, meaning it has a few more capabilities and a few more modifications than the regular Virginia-class submarines. And the ship is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while we're in port for security reasons. While some off-duty crew members go home to see their families, those on board rely on the meals prepared by the culinary specialists. It might not be everyone all at once, but I'm going to feed everyone. So if I have 150 people on board, I'm going to feed 150 people pretty much almost every meal. Because the USS South Dakota is a nuclear-powered submarine, its time at sea is limited only by the amount of food it can carry. About two weeks in, you'll probably run out of fresh food. That's the unfortunate reality of it. So we have some food in the outboards. We have food in every locker imaginable. If there's space available, and we can kind of quickly put food up there and maybe ratchet strap it down, we'll take that opportunity to do that. Fully stocked, the sub carries about 90 days worth of food. The strategy for keeping fresh food aboard a submarine is you just accept when you run out of fresh food. And the second you get an opportunity to get more fresh food on, you take that opportunity. Today for dinner, we're having Thanksgiving. So we're having turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, hot rolls for our bread. So this right here is essentially my menu. The actual name for it is the Food Preparation Worksheet. But layman's terms, this is essentially my menu. This tells me everything that I'm having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Today, Petty Officer CSS Wesley Whitson is preparing 10 pounds of ham and 15 pounds of turkey. So the turkey itself, I'm gonna have to actually cut up a little bit, throw some seasoning on. With the ham, I literally just unwrap it, throw it in a pan, wrap it up, call it a day. But that, yeah, that I can do real quick. So yeah, that's good with that. And then when I'm ready, I'm just gonna throw it in the oven, and then I'm just gonna let it bake out. Really easy, nothing too crazy. And done. Yay, one less thing I gotta worry about. Okay. Manning, for us, is supposed to be roughly about seven or eight. I don't have that right now, so I'm working with what I got. But because there's only so few of us, not only are we essentially the manager, but I'm also the cook. I am the guy that has to make it. So I not only have to manage everything, but I have to make sure that I am actually getting it done myself. Days, we usually take care of lunch and dinner for the meals. The night guy will kinda help prep for lunch a little bit, but the day guys will take over, and they'll finish it. With extended deployments, confined spaces, and shifts that can last up to 12 hours, submarine assignments aren't desirable to many. Not a lot of people want to, wanting to join the military, but also not a lot of people wanting to join subs within the Navy, especially as a culinary specialist, as a cook. And I get it. This job isn't for everyone. To compensate, the Navy offers an additional $85 to $600 a month to submarine crew members based on rank and time in service. Culinary specialists who work aboard submarines earn a base salary of about $26,000. Now I just let those set and proof. So I'll give them roughly about an hour or so, and then I'll turn it over to actually bake, and then they should be good to go. So not only am I the galley watch captain, but I am also our bulk store custodian, or JOD as we call it, which stands for Jack of the Dust. That responsibility for me is to go about and do what we call breakouts, or shopping, to put it in layman's terms. They'll look at the menu, they'll write a list of like what groceries, you know, what food items they need, and it'll be like, I need this stuff, and I'll take it and be like, okay. And then I just go to where we keep all of our food, you know, all the storerooms on board, and then I will break it out for them. That way they have it available for the next day. Food is kept in storerooms, small cabinets, and other locations around the ship. But because of operational security concerns, cameras were only allowed in the galley during our visit. Space is a luxury in a submarine, so definitely keeping food anywhere where we can to maximize the amount that we have on board. So actually in all of these bench seats, we'll have food, as well as these backs, we'll have some extra dry provisions. And that'll be the same for all these bench seats. That'll have some maple syrup, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup. So any kind of random select items like that. We'll have soy sauce in those. We'll have seasoning in these outboard ones. Yeah, so we got bags of soup in there. So I am the supply officer at CHOP on board. What that means, I'm responsible for both the food service division and the logistics division. So the first storeroom I have is the forward storeroom, or the can room, which as the name implies, is just full of cans. Typically this room is actually a lot more full with cans coming all the way up to this front door and then actually going to the ceiling. So as we fill this up with more cans, kind of like deciding what we are gonna use first and making sure those are actually put in the front. When the guys need to get something out of the freezer, they'll actually put a jacket on, get a headlamp on, get a beanie on. Pretty much just layer up like they're gonna go in a cold area like this area. It's below freezing most of the time right now. It's negative 3.9 degrees. All food aboard submarines is logged and tracked every day. And the budget for meals is determined by a daily allowance per sailor. If we're in port, we can spend anywhere from like $700 to $1,000 a day. And then if we're out to sea, anywhere from about $1,600 to like $2,800 per day. We operate off of a 28-day cycle menu. We'll have the same meals every 28 days. It's definitely designed where it creates that kind of consistency throughout the week. So if you're having Italian on a night, you know it's a Thursday, or if you're having pizza for dinner, then you know it's a Saturday. So it helps the crew kind of keep their own pace and honestly helps them pass the time. If you're like, oh wow, this is the second time we've had pizza this underway, then you know it's already been two weeks. Ooh, I can smell it. Ooh, almost, almost. Back in the kitchen, culinary specialist Whitson has just one hour before the crew begins to line up for dinner. How's it feel to be done cooking? It feels good. Good to know that all I have left is to serve this out. And then after that, it's just clean up, and then I'm done. Now I've got a whole lot else going on. I'm going home to my wife, and I'm getting my cuddles. Ha ha ha ha. What's up, Rach? I'm doing great. I will take everything but the ham. Extra ham? I got you. Extra ham. I got it. Just for you, because I know how much you love that pork. Oh man, you already know. No corn and no soup. Extra corn, extra soup? All right, you got it. This is Rach. This is great f***ing turkey. I honestly love cooking. I love being in the galley. I love working with food. I love putting out really good meals and making people happy with them. I like seeing everyone being fulfilled and having a good meal and enjoying themselves with it. On a sub, there is no internet, cell service, or access to the outside world other than mission-critical communications and the occasional email from family transmitted via secure satellite, leaving crew members to find their own ways of staying entertained during the little downtime they get. I'm either reading a book, watching TV, whether it be a TV show or a movie, or I'm playing on my laptop. My favorite way to pass time underway was honestly just spending time with my guys. Maybe if it's just playing chess in Cruise Master, even just listening to music in my room or listening to music in the wardroom, just kind of distracting yourself in a way, but also keeping yourself busy while keeping your mind active. I think that's the best way to do it. On every submarine, the crew's mess is designed to reflect a piece of the state it's named after. Aboard the USS South Dakota, the space draws inspiration from Deadwood's iconic saloon number 10. That's where the crew goes to relax. It's also where they eat. That's also where they, you know, kind of let their hair down and study if they need to or play cards, play dominoes, play video games, conduct training. It's kind of an all-purpose, and that's what the Deadwood Saloon was to South Dakota back in the 1800s. The next day, culinary specialist Lupon Jimenez steps into the galley, ready to prepare breakfast for the crew. On the menu this morning, steak and egg burritos, pancakes, hash browns, and bacon. It takes three hours to prepare the meal. May I do a steak burrito with eggs and bacon? And at 7, the hungry sailors make their way to the crew's mess for breakfast. As breakfast comes to an end... When are you getting that pork butt going? Uh, here in a couple minutes. Oh, you guys have lunch already? Yeah. There's barely a moment to rest. Jimenez must quickly shift gears and start preparing lunch to make sure he can feed 150 crew members. Time is, like, great. Because we're just working by hours. It's 12 hours on, 12 hours off. And then once we get off, it's either go have fun or go straight to bed. This is about to be the pulled pork. I'm putting the meat into the mixer along with the juices it was boiling to shred the pork rather than me taking a long time by hand. The quicker you get it done, the less you gotta worry about. But you still gotta time management to the meal hour. That way it doesn't just sit on the line for a very long time because that becomes a bad thing. The meal today that we're having for lunch, the pulled pork mac and cheese and the pork chowder, it's actually one of my favorite things to make. Out of all of them, the mac and cheese is probably my favorite thing to make. I'm gonna have to give it to Millie with his mac and cheese. Sometimes he will, like, make his favorite, which is spicy mac and cheese. Really spicy for some reason. I feel like he puts, like, ghost pepper hot sauce in there or something. But I don't know, it's good. I'm about to make some hot roll dough and turn them into, like, buns or scraps. I want to get at least around 100, 140. I'll say about probably 80. 120 will last me throughout the meal and then it will assure me that I'm gonna have at least a little bit left over. That's what I'm going for. That way I don't run out. Give me a bit more salt. Do you have potato in there? No, we don't have potato. Is it a beehive? Uh, I don't think so. All right. Cool. Pleasing, that's what I like. I'll leave that up to you for one ounce, though. That's definitely on the thinner side. Yeah, I can usually only get one more salt, but it should be good. As the lunch hour nears, the wardroom is prepared, a space designated for the ship's officers. There's significantly less officers on board a submarine than there are enlisted, so they get their own room. For lunch today, we have pulled pork, mac and cheese, cauliflower, and green beans. Great, thank you. Typically used for work, relaxation, and socializing, the wardroom becomes a dining room during mealtimes. For the officers, this is their place to come and eat. The family-style meal-serving that happens in the wardroom is very history-rich. While the dinner service is a privilege for the officers aboard, it's not uncommon for them to join the crew in the crew's mess. Pulled pork, macaroni. Mm. And that's when you put them together. Mm, got to. Sour pork. Mac and cheese is always bomb. I love pulled pork. Mac and cheese and the pulled pork and... Before returning to sea, the USS South Dakota will undergo thorough maintenance, followed by sea certification, a process that tests both the crew and the submarine to ensure all systems are fully operational for the next deployment. It is exhausting, it is tiresome, and it wears on you real quick if you let it. But knowing that I'm able to feed people and that they are happy with what I put out and they look forward to what I can bring to the table, that makes it worth it for me.