In the Military's Top Kitchens, Women Make Their Mark

Some may question why an Air Force general needs one personal chef, let alone a staff of three, but Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Medeiros is quick to defend why her work, cooking for the second-highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military, is important: "Food is a common ground for anyone in the world," the chef says. "You can't discuss multimillion-dollar affairs over Hot Pockets."

It's a tradition dating back centuries, that of generals of opposing armies sitting down together to break bread and broker agreements. "That meal helps build trust," says Medeiros. "It establishes a relationship, a place to share personal stories so they can do business later."

Medeiros has experienced firsthand the necessity of building trust. When she was deployed in Afghanistan, she had to navigate the local customs of a patriarchal society while scrambling to find canape ingredients in unfamiliar terrain. "When I got back to the U.S., I told my daughters, 'You have no idea how lucky you are to be living in this country,' " she says.

In an industry and military that are both male-dominated -- surveys indicate that about 14 percent of executive chefs are women, roughly the same percentage of active duty military who are women - female chefs are beginning to make their mark. As she places seared chicken on a platter of Israeli couscous dotted with sugar snap peas, blackberries and radishes for a spring luncheon, Medeiros says: "There's a guy who was up for a job once that I got instead. He still gives me hell and says, 'You got that job because you're a girl.' I got that job because I was qualified. There are opportunities; you just have to go for it."

Frida Karani, a petty officer first class in the U.S. Navy who is also Medeiros's co-worker, agrees: "Nowadays, women are giving men a run for their money. Equal opportunity and hard work always pay off."

She should know. In March, Karani won the Armed Forces Chef of the Year competition, becoming only the second woman to win in the event's 41-year history. (Army Sgt. Sarah Deckert was the first, in 2014.) Working with a basket of mystery ingredients, Karani wowed the judges with the four-course menu she developed that included seared red snapper and fried smoked oysters served with gnocchi in a clam-tomato broth. "The competition was pretty tough," acknowledges Karani, 35, a classically trained chef who first studied culinary arts in her native Kenya. "All the chefs were very well trained."

Says Medeiros: "I knew she'd kill it."

Intense training both in and out of the military has helped these women distinguish themselves. Karani began by studying cooking at Kenya Utalii College and eventually came to the United States through an exchange program that led her to Le Cordon Bleu in Orlando. Medeiros, 34, a two-time Enlisted Aide of the Year, has trained with the American Culinary Federation and the Culinary Institute of America. Recently, when Medeiros collaborated on a dish with Washington chef Robert Wiedmaier for an event in support of Blue Star Families, an organization that works to ease the transition from military to civilian life, Wiedmaier noted that kitchens, whether civilian or military, share a common ground: "It's called the brigade system," he says. "There's a ranking structure, just like in the military: chef, sous-chef; general, colonel."

Such connections were not even on the radar for the Mississippi-born Medeiros 16 years ago, when she joined the U.S. Air Force at the age of 18, but something else became instantly apparent to her: "I didn't know how to act," she says. Starting off as a dining hall cook pushing out mass quantities of cafeteria-style food, she found herself surrounded by people who seemed uninspired by their work, so she decided to become a dental technician -- which unexpectedly led her back to the kitchen.

"The dentists were officers," Medeiros explains as she sears chicken breasts on a professional range at the home of Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at Fort Myer, just outside the District. "It gave me a chance to learn how to conduct myself around officers." That experience led her to cater retirement receptions; then a friend recommended that she apply for a position as an enlisted aide, a job that entails managing the general's household, particularly planning and cooking for events. "I had never even seen, let alone spoken to, a four-star general before," she says. "It was intimidating, but I was now dealing with professionals, who were also professional with me."

For Karani, who worked in several Kenyan restaurants and as a saucier at the Hyatt Regency in Dubai before coming to the United States, it's familiar territory. But it was a revelation for Medeiros, who has worked her entire adult life in military kitchens and is preparing for a move into the civilian sector in a few years. Walking into Wiedmaier's fine-dining restaurant Marcel's was scary, she says: "I had no idea what to expect. Now I know that these kitchens all pretty much operate the same way."

Back at Fort Myer, Medeiros and Karani create meals for Selva and visiting dignitaries here and abroad on a team led by chef and Senior Chief Petty Officer Wesley Tavares. The job means working closely with the general's family members, who are often also involved in the interview process. When a dinner party is on the horizon, Ricki Selva, the general's wife, and the aides start planning the logistics, using Pinterest to gather ideas for table scapes, plating and menus. As one might imagine, rank is of the utmost important when creating seating arrangements for a military dinner party, although the Selvas prefer to sit in the center, rather than at the head and foot, of the table.

Because Ricki Selva likes to choose themes for these events, the staff is continually challenged to test new dishes and search for ingredients at local ethnic markets. "She might be inspired by Napa Valley or Hawaii," says Medeiros, "and then we build food and decor around that." For a dinner with a Moroccan theme, the aides created a low table surrounded by floor pillows in bright fabrics and a menu highlighted by chicken tagine with preserved lemons. "It's never the same theme twice, and that makes it fun," says Medeiros. It's also an opportunity for Karani to share the recipes she learned from her grandmother, such as a fish stew with coconut rice. "I often try to incorporate Kenyan cuisine with my cooking as a nod to my heritage," she says.

Although it's nice to cook in a well-equipped kitchen with a panoramic view of the Washington skyline, enlisted aides are expected to travel at a moment's notice and can be gone for weeks or months at a time, cooking on airplanes or in less-than-ideal conditions. Medeiros spent four months in Afghanistan in 2011 when working as an aide to Gen. Mike Hostage and Gen. David Goldfein during a change of command, which at one point required her to cook -- alone -- for eight events in seven days, sometimes for hundreds of guests. "There weren't a lot of supplies and equipment," Medeiros says. "I had to get very creative, and I had to get people to trust me."

In a military environment, where rank is all-important, the E-5 status that Medeiros had at the time -- which she likens to that of a "worker bee" -- was a disadvantage, which was compounded by her being both a woman and a chef. "It was difficult to find help, because no one knew what I did," she recalls.

After two months of networking, Medeiros began to get some support in terms of transporting food and supplies for events, but she still faced challenges in obtaining ingredients. She traveled off base to round up honey, fresh herbs, spices and olive oil while continuing to build trust with military staffers, who donated supplies. "I would bring in big bowls of homemade guacamole and chips, homemade granola and cake," says Medeiros. "It created something to look forward to, broke up the monotony and brought us all together."

She also discovered the significance of learning local food customs. But for female chefs, that also sometimes means not interacting with guests who come from regions of the world where having a woman serve at the table might be disruptive.

"It is my duty to create a harmonious and stress-free environment so that business can be conducted in a way that reaps trust and integrity," Medeiros says. "It's about the mission, not me."