Cannon cooks up competition

The first cooking competition at Cannon Air Force Base pitted the Landing Zone’s civilian chefs against the Pecos Trail Dining Facility’s military chefs.

The competition took place Jan. 22 at the Landing Zone.

Landing Zone Club Manager Mara Jordan said that often food service industry professional aren’t recognized for their skills.

“We’re here because people need to eat,” she said.

Jordan thought a cooking competition was a great way to showcase those skills and create camaraderie between the two crews.

Both teams are members of the Force Support Squadron.

The teams had to design a five-course menu and e-mail it out to potential attendees. Each team received one point for each customer that chose their menu.

The two teams were color coded so that customers didn’t know which team created which menu.

Each seat included a copy of their selected menu and a comment card intended to be the customer’s grade of the meal. Meals were graded on presentation, freshness, taste, portion size, temperature, timeliness and overall menu.

Then each team leader votes on how their team worked together.

“We’re just competing for bragging rights really,” Jordan said.

The group hoped for 40 customers and netted about 60 and were pleased with the level of interest.

Capt. Jess Pothast and her husband Greg Pothast attended the event with hopes of living out their favorite TV show “Hell’s Kitchen.”

“Where else can you get a five course meal here?” Greg Pothast said.

The couple heard about the event and were signed up to attend the next day.

Greg Pothast said he cooks often and is always interested in replicating what the couple eats at a restaurant or what they see on TV.

“Something like this is fun because it’s something we wouldn’t have otherwise,” Jess Pothast said.

The couple said they were both impressed with the quality of the menu.

The Landing Zone team won the event.