Mucking in at the Lashkar Gah cookhouse: helping the army to march on its stomach

A guest blog by Belinda Lewis, Director Rule of Law and Operations at the PRT, about her day spent helping out in the Lashkar Gah cookhouse.

The other week I spent my day off wielding knives and piping icing sugar roses in the Lashkar Gah cookhouse. I love cooking so it was a real treat to see and work inside a field kitchen. It was also an absolute pleasure to work with such a brilliant and friendly team.

The Lashkar Gah cookhouse serves 4 meals a day to the armed forces and civilian staff deployed on the main base.

Sitting and eating together reflects the “one team” approach that the Provincial Reconstruction Team embodies. Civilians and military can have different working rhythms but everyone appreciates the legendary status of the Lashkar Gah cookhouse  as serving the best food in theatre.

I’ve always been impressed by the variety and flavour of options served up but I had no idea how much thought, care, and hard work went into the simplest of things. The pizza toppings were a great example of this: vegetables diced, fried with onions and herbs for extra flavour, then cooled before being added to the pizzas. The chicken, bacon and cheese baps were popped in the oven for two minutes before serving to make sure the bread was nice and warm. I also hadn’t appreciated that all the prep for 1300 lunches and over 1100 dinners is done by hand. I peeled, chopped and minced onions and garlic for the crispy chilli beef dish with one of the chefs while his colleagues spent hours grating carrots and cheese, and washing and chopping lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers for the salad bar.

The pastry chef is nothing short of an artist. His chilly work station at the back of the cookhouse is like a design studio with elaborate and beautifully decorated cakes for birthdays, ends of tours and other celebrations. I watched the chef sculpt a colleague’s face from icing sugar, working from a grainy photocopied photograph with a cocktail stick dipped in hot water: the result was amazing. I learnt how to ice roses (which could usefully double up as cabbages) and the chef thought that with practice I “might become good”. I’m not holding out much hope.

My lasting memories from the experience are the degree of professional pride that the whole team takes in its work, from keeping counters spotlessly clean to frying chilli beef to exactly the right state of crispiness; and the supportive and creative atmosphere created in a couple of tents with just 6 gas burners and a few small ovens. It was great fun, hard work and definitely one of the best days I’ve spent in Helmand.